RATING: A-

Premiere Entertainment and ITN presents a Jagged Edge Productions film. Directed and edited by Dan Allen. Produced by Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Chambers. Written by Rhys Warrington. Cinematography by Vince Knight.

Stars Roxanna McKee, Tom Mulheron, Nicola Wright, Samira Mighty, Russell Geoffrey Banks, Adrian Ralph, Big Tobz, Joseph Greenwood, Luke Cavendish, with Alex Cooke, and Nicola Wright.

The once beloved deer goes rabid and on a hunting spree of his own in the latest installment of the Twisted Childhood Universe aka The Poohniverse.

Bambi was a deer who lost his mother to a hunter when he was a fawn. Having grown up in a solitary existence, he meets a doe and the two end up together and even start a family. However, on an excursion, while their baby runs off, Bambi’s wife is hit and killed in an accident while Bambi drinks from a river polluted with toxic waste, causing a mutation in his body to become an unstoppable killer.

Xana is a young woman who is forced to bring her son Benji to her soon-to-be ex’s in-laws’ house when he bails on him for work. However, en route to the house by cab, Bambi knocks over the cab, forcing Xana and Benji to run to the house on foot. Meanwhile, a trio of hunters are searching for Bambi for the ultimate kill. Soon, the paths of Xana, Benji, the in-laws, and the hunters will cross with only one thing in mind. Can they stop the mutated killer Bambi?

Rhys Frake-Waterfield and Scott Chambers’ Twisted Childhood Universe has been making waves since its debut in 2023. This year, we were treated to Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, which Chambers directed and showed Pan as a drug-addicted Grabber-Pennywise-like hybrid kidnapper and killer. Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey II editor Dan Allen makes his TCU directorial debut on this film which takes the Felix Salten character and makes him a mutated deer hellbent on revenge.

Roxanna McKee is great as Xana, the young woman who goes to great lengths to protect her son, Benji, played by breakout Tom Mulheron, from Bambi when he wreaks havoc. The in-laws are quite interested with Russell Geoffrey Banks’ Andrew and Luke Cavendish’s Joshua as the mild-mannered members of the family. Samira Mighty’s Harriet comes off as if she comes from wealth while Nicola Wright’s grandmother Mary may seem crazy on the surface (which proves Wright is one of those actors who need more recognition with her excellent performances in the TCU), but is of importance. Meanwhile, Joseph Greenwood’s Harrison comes off as the bratty not giving a care fellow of the family. 

The film does offer not only some great kills, but some interesting twists which involve Xana’s ex and some involving Mary, and some involving the hunters. One of the best kills reminded me of the opening scene from Kung Fu Hustle, where we see a running character attacked but we see the victim running in slow-motion, only for the bottom half to fall to the floor. There are also some great decapitations, bones breaking, and plenty more along with something extra special in its 80-minute runtime. 

Bambi: The Reckoning is a solid entry of the Twisted Childhood Universe. Some great kills and twists show what they are capable of doing with a mutated deer on a killing spree of its own. The extra special twist was quite a surprise and there is a gross-out scene in this, which leads to that “extra special” twist.