Bambi: The Reckoning | Film Review

 

After a mother and son get into a car wreck, they and their family find themselves stalked by a revenge-seeking mutated deer.

Another entry into the Twisted Childhood Universe!

I was really excited for this film. Not only am I excited for all the TCU movies, but I'd heard this one was much better than the previous three. And while I am now completely used to, and actually enjoy, watching bad movies in support of this franchise, it was a welcome change for one to get some praise.

And that praise was deserved because yes, this isn't a great movie, but it's a lot better than the ones that came before it!

It begins with a really intriguing, creative animation that was a great way to connect this story to the original source material.

From the very start the acting is leaps and bounds above the previous movies. For the most part, you believe the characters and their dialogue works.

The story was actually really engaging - I was invested in finding out what was going to happen to this family.

The big change for me was having an animal as the villain this time around. It turned the film from a more generic slasher into a creature feature, which is a really fun direction to go in.

The visuals were great, and the gore and kills in particular are really entertaining.

The pacing is also done well. It's a really short film, so that allows the filmmakers to put action in every scene and keep moving the plot forward really quickly. I actually could have watched more of it, but I liked the length it was. There aren't any boring moments where nothing's happening.

Though having said that, the last third is definitely the weakest. It loses something when it focuses less on the stalking of the deer and more on the family drama. Because while we care about some of the characters, this is only in relation to Bambi. We don't care about them outside of this scenario.

But overall, this is the best TCU movie by a clear mile - it had the best acting, the best story, the best visuals and is the only one so far that I'd recommend if you're into bad-fun movies. There are two TCU movies so far coming out next year and I can't wait to continue with these stories!

5/10