FrightFest review – Bambi: The Reckoning

FrightFest review – Bambi: The Reckoning

The outofcopyrightsploitation horror film cycle is barely two years old, but has tossed out so many films – multiple mean-spirited spins on Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse and Popeye – that you have to wonder whether this acceptable little monster movie might not have been better off just calling itself Mutant Deer Massacre and not bothering to coattail-ride the 1942 Disney film, though a deep dive into the copyright situation of Felix Salten’s 1923 novel shows that folks have been rowing over the rights to it ever since publication and the Walt Disney company’s lawyers didn’t exactly play fair with the original creator in the first place.

The premise here is as close to the before-its-time Frogs as anything else – as putupon Mum (Roxanne McKee) and unhappy kid (Tom Mulheron) make their way into the woods to spend a weekend with a mostly obnoxious family and rampaging, toxic waste-mutated wildlife gorily picks them off.  Not only are most of the extended family horrid – especially absentee Dad (Alex Cooke) – but there are hunters in the woods, who are guilty enough in the situation that the monster attacks seem more like vigilante justice than shocks.  In a nod to your actual Bambi, there are some killer rabbits in the picture too … but mostly it’s acceptable monster-in-the-woods stuff.

Here’s the FrightFest listing.