Bambi: The Reckoning

Bambi: The Reckoning
Starring Roxanne McKee, Tom Mulheron, Nicola Wright, Alex Cooke
Directed by Dan Allen

The Twisted Childhood Universe (aka the Poohniverse) is steamrolling through their plans to showcase once-beloved IP properties that've fallen into public domain and bring them all together for an Avengers-level film that'll be the highlight of 2026. Winnie the Pooh and his friends, Peter Pan, Bambi, Pinocchio and many others will come together to get revenge on those who survived and try to take over the world, and until that magical time we're gifted with unique, clever, and fun movies leading up to it. The first "Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey" was a total misfire, and seemed like it was generated to make a quick buck, but seeing this, producers/writers/directors Scott Chambers and Rhys Frake-Waterfield learned and vowed to make better movies, and the proof is in the pudding. "Blood and Honey 2" was leaps and bounds better than its predecessor, and "Peter Pan: Neverland Nightmare" was a surprisingly grounded take on the fabled boy who never aged and turned it into a cautionary tale for child abductions in real life. Now, the woods' favorite deer is getting the horror treatment with "Bambi: The Reckoning," which once again unites the magical with the all-too-close to real life events that serve for an exciting, fun, and gory good time.

Xana (Roxanne McKee) and her young son Benji (Tom Mulheron) are traveling to Benji's father's Simon's (Alex Cooke) relatives house, and along the way they're attacked by a deranged, mutated Bambi deer who is bent on revenge against those who killed his mother, wife, and took his young child captive. After coming into contact with industrial waste, Bambi grew to monumental proportions and has a thirst for human blood, and tracks down the men responsible for destroying his family. Coincidentally, they have ties to Xana and Benji and Benji's mentally disabled grandmother Mary (Nicola Wright), who seemingly knows Bambi's true intentions. 

"Bambi: The Reckoning" isn't out to garner any acclaim or awards, and it's shown in the lack of acting ability, cheesy effects, and corny dialogue - but darn if it isn't one heck of a fun time. It doesn't take itself seriously (when Bambi rampages through a home, he literally stops and uses his hoof to turn a door handle), and despite its small budget the effects are surprisingly decent, and the kills themselves are gory, glorious, and grandiose. At a scant 81 minutes, the movie enters, stays, and exits before overstaying its welcome and in a day and age where every movie has to be a cinematic 3-hour event, that's extremely refreshing. 

As I said, the performances aren't anything to write home about, but they're perfect for this B-level horror flick. Roxanne McKnee's Xana is your typical mother who'll protect her son at any cost, Tom Mulheron's Benji is a young kid who inadvertently causes one of the film's most hilarious deaths, and the standout is Nicola Wright's crazy Mary, who draws dark pictures of Bambi and stands in the woods in her nighty whispering his name. It's downright nutty, the story doesn't evolve more than the bare bones required, and the characters are enjoyable in their own right.

Much like how "Peter Pan: Neverland Nightmare" touched on real-life child sex trafficking, "Bambi: The Reckoning" focuses on how we pollute our environment and what would happen if the environment fought back. Bambi was just a carefree deer who witnessed his mothers' death, but then continued its life. He grows up, finds love, and has a family of his own, but then hunters dump waste in the woods, kill his wife and abducts his child, and after he licks the contaminated water he mutates into the unstoppable force we see now. It's a wake up call of sorts to care for the environment, and what happens when the environment is allowed to run amock. 

Yet everyone watches these films for the kills, and there's sure a lot of them packed into a short runtime, with many unique deaths that are worthy of mention. From someone getting sliced literally in half, to heads getting knocked off their blocks, and even a few deaths at the hands of the "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" level bunnies, "Bambi: The Reckoning" never skimps on the kills or the uniqueness of them. Again, the movie doesn't set out to be anything more than it is, and it delivers what it does in spades.

Offering another great outing to the Twisted Childhood Universe, "Bambi: The Reckoning" is another addition that supplies the blood and gore in ample measure, and makes me even more excited to see Winnie-the-Pooh riding a deranged Bambi in the not-too-distant future.

The Score: C