Directed By Dan Allen

Starring – Roxanne McKee, Nicola Wright, Tom Mulheron

The Plot – After a mother (McKee) and son (Mulheron) are involved in a car accident, they become the targets of a terrifying hunt. Traumatized by the loss of his own mother, Bambi undergoes a horrifying transformation, becoming a mutated and vengeful creature. Driven by grief and rage, he seeks revenge on the surviving mother and son, leading to a deadly game of survival in the woods. This dark and twisted retelling explores themes of grief, revenge, and the dangers of nature

Rated R for brutal violence involving gore and adult language

Bambi: The Reckoning | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

In just four films, this so-called Poohniverse of movies have improved with each succeeding installment, and “Bambi: The Reckoning” continues the elevation in quality with a good old fashioned isolation picture alongside a mutated creature feature, that proves the studio has continued to take some of that audience feedback and deliver more increasingly entertaining selections to this extended universe. Most notably improved are the practical effects pertaining to gore that not only artistically elicits believability and stomach-churning influence to the carnage candy that the movie delivers on so effectively, but also more faithful focus on such a beckoning appeal that will undoubtedly satisfy horror hounds everywhere, earning every square inch of the sought after R-rating, but never in ways that feel exploitatively unearned to the concepts from which they spring from. On top of this, I loved the decisions within the script to vividly paint a terribly traumatic backstory to Bambi’s outline, particularly in the overly abusive insights towards human greed that effortlessly attained empathy to the appeal of her raging vengeance on anyone who crosses into her territory. As to where this versions of Pooh and Peter Pan were unsalvageable monsters in every sense of the word, Bambi sadly feels like a product of her environment, especially in the mutated designs of the character that are realized believably in this ugly governmental cover-up, and while I still think the idea of a horror movie should be investing in our human protagonists above all else, I can say that there was at least a series of satisfying pay-offs to watching Bambi completely maul and massacre these tastelessly nonsensical characters, painting a Frankenstein’s monster side to her captivity that makes her desire to defend her homeland feel all the more meaningful to the integrity of her character. The film is also tremendously paced within a brief 75-minute construct of a finished product, with the complete manifestation of the plot surmising itself within the opening 10-15 minute mark of the movie’s runtime. This could easily be made to feel rushed if the storytelling doesn’t feel vital to the intentions of the direction, but Allen appraises urgency and overwhelming vulnerability to the characters involved within these pocketed conflicts, and it gives the audience something to continuously hang their perceptions onto, even if we already know the intended outcome, and considering boredom was an unfortunate aspect that tied the three previous films in this series together more than a shared link in universe, I am pleased to convey that this movie never lost me in the repetition of its familiar outline, with plenty of suspense and maniacal indulgence from Allen that makes it feel like a legitimate film was made here, instead of a classless attempt to maul someone’s childhood for a shameless cash grab. Speaking of familiarity, I want to offer some praise to the screenplay co-written by Felix Salten and Rhys Warrington, which on the surface might feel like another thematic tweaking of the “Cujo” narrative that became popular in the 80’s, and ultimately spoofed by the 90’s, but actually unearths some unsettling realities within the toxicity of this established world that extend far beyond that of our titular antagonist. Sometimes it pertains to a broken family narrative that showcases the good and bad of people alike, while other times it involves these other mutated rabbits of the woods that each attain their own “Jurassic Park” velociraptor moment, and the common link that each of these share is that the stakes of this established conflict is enacted by the greed of man that sacrifices the bond of one for the opportunities of the other, gifting a legitimate underlining of a story to a film that is otherwise rinse, wash, repeat in the kills department, all the while drawing an environmental awareness to the audience that makes the film feel like the most environmentally relevant film of the entire franchise, thus far, which helps it to evade the fantastical rendering of the previous films that were often a stretch to interpret with even a shred of logic.

NEGATIVES

While “Bambi” does represent the next step for this studio’s evolution in quality, it is still unfortunately plagued by many of the same issues that condemned prior efforts, particularly a still far too serious atmospheric rendering that doesn’t feel natural to a series of films involving Disney characters becoming serial killers. This feels especially prominent this time around, where the jokes and opportunities of a maniacal deer practically write themselves, but instead the producers and production approaches the movie at face value, and the result is a complete lack of campiness that doesn’t inspire any semblance of fun from a thrill-seeking audience, with kills that might visually attain elasticity in the human body, but emotionally don’t deliver with any semblance of prolonged suspense that might entice the air of inevitability, leaving this version of Bambi plagued by a palpable sense of personality that allows it to stand out from the aforementioned films that it borrows so obviously from. In addition to this, even the script is lagging with a complete lack of lore to the established character that makes this feel like a creature horror movie that was shallowly written last minute to include Bambi. With the exception of some familiar notes during the long-winded exposition dump of the film’s opening, there is nothing else along the way that even comes close to appraising a notoriety of even accidental similarity to Bambi’s animated origin, and for as good cinematically as the film plays in contrast to its predecessors, its lack of a sturdy foundation in the integrity of the character never captured something creatively innovative or risk-taking in the movie’s favor, often playing like the kind of B-movie animal thriller that you can find on any one of the oversaturated streaming outlets. The film is also acted incredibly bad, with only McKee surmising any semblance of emotionality to the portrayal of her character, and even that feeling far too melodramatically distracting to be a benefit to the movie’s appeal. Part of the problem is definitely in the one-dimensionalities of these characters, in which they’re playing types instead of people, but a majority of their deliveries feel far too wooden and unowned from a natural embodying to feel anything other than reading, and it makes it all the difficult to buy them as empathetic characters, especially considering 90% of them revel in being spoofs of the very worst people on Earth, with one kicking a living rabbit into the woods, for no other reason than to set up praise for when he dies in the next scene. While so many of these actors are limited by inexperience, it doesn’t make their flatlining any easier for the audience to immerse themselves in, and in a film that features a killer deer, a legion of lethal rabbits, and a prophetic elderly woman who can communicate with Bambi, the acting of the ensemble is the most distracting consistency of the engagement, assembling absolutely nobody who nails the adrenaline or anxiety of such an isolated disposition. Finally, while possibly intended as a means to appraise campiness where the direction and screenwriting failed, the film’s C.G designs pertaining to Bambi look are jarringly artificial, especially in lingering moments to the camera’s focus that involves Bambi moving unnaturally to enact what the script calls from her. It’s sloppily covered up within the dark confines of the movie’s nighttime consistency, but even then can’t possibly obscure the choppy motions and detail-less textures of what feels like an enacted character from a video game cut screen, with little aside from a menacing design to articulate heft and influence to such a captivating character.

OVERALL
“Bambi: The Reckoning” is another noticeably elevated improvement to the Poohiniverse of films, on both an entertainingly captivating and empathetic side of the iconic character, but still suffers from many of the kinetic ailments that made its previous universal films a laughingstock of bottom tier engagements. While the script does effectively tap into an environmental conflict that sadly still persists for many of wildlife today, the lack of lore and campy energy to its commanding consistency keeps it from ever inciting the beast within, leaving this a repetitiously doe of a deer inches from crossing over into compelling territory.

My Grade: 5.8 or D+