Bambi: The Reckoning

"A Toxic Avenger-type killing machine that has physically manifested all that generational grief and rage makes for a cool horror anti-hero; a kind of four-hoofed Jason Vorhees..." Read the full review here: https://bit.ly/4o5P6rP

Deceptive though it might seem, high camp can be a tricky artform to pull off successfully on screen, especially in genres like horror and sci-fi. It requires deftly managed, evenly sustained pacing – not necessarily at the breakneck speed of a screwball comedy, but certainly steady in its regular dispensing of delicious nuggets of wry and macabre wit with bridge segments in between them that move the story along without overstaying their welcome. Sadly, however, in his fourth feature outing, director Dan Allen only gets this down pat about half of the time in this twisted and sinister retelling of the classic Felix Salten 1923 novel about a motherless roe coping with life in the forest. In this ghoulish iteration of the tale, a divorced mother (Roxanne McKee) and her 13-year-old son (Tom Mulheron) are on their way to visit her in-laws’ family after her ex-husband (Adrian Relph) summarily ditches his promise to spend the weekend with the boy. However, the duo’s journey is interrupted when their ride is brazenly attacked on a remote roadway by a ferocious mutant adult stag that looks like something out of the “Jurassic Park/Jurassic World” movies only with cheesier special effects (but with a supremely stylish set of hooves that resemble those in the inner sleeve artwork from the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You LP (1981)). Not only does the woodland monster go after the stunned mother and son, but also all of their relatives, including the family matriarch (Nicola Wright), who suffers from a form of dementia but seems to have an unusual (but unexplained) psychic bond to Bambi. This scenario is further complicated by a band of apparent bounty hunters who are charged with capturing and/or killing the creature, as well as other equally gruesome wild animals that have also mysteriously mutated, including a pack of rabbits whose carnivorous proclivities put the bunny from “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” (1975) to shame. The reasons behind the hunt don’t become clear until we...

What a fun ride, had elements of 2006 Black Sheep. For a horror fan who also loves Documentaries, nature having Vengeance makes me smile like you wouldn't belive. You've gotta give this a watch, if for nothing else nature handing Man his rear-end...