The Twisted Childhood Universe, also known as the ‘Poohniverse,’ has already tried to ruin audiences’ precious childhood memories with entries like 2023’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, 2024’s Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2 and 2025’s Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare and now comes the latest installment hoping to change forever how a beloved character is viewed with Bambi: The Reckoning.
Hitting theaters in the USA on July 25, 2025, via Seismic Releasing and ITN Distribution, Bambi: The Reckoning is directed by Dan Allen (Unhinged 2017, It Came From Below 2021) from a screenplay by playwright Rhys Warrington. Far different than the original fairytale, it reimagines the titular character as a vengeful and bloodthirsty buck who stalks mother Xana (Roxanne McKee: Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines 2012, The Legend of Hercules 2014) and her son Benji (Tom Mulheron: The Lost City of Z 2016, The Last Vermeer 2019) through the woods as they try to make their way to a family gathering.
At this point, as well as the aforementioned titles in The Twisted Childhood Universe, several other Horror movies have made use of public domain characters. Truth be told, none of these movies has been particularly good thus far. However, Bambi: The Reckoning is probably one of the better movies in this new sub-genre.
Firstly, it is a nice change that this is a creature feature rather than a Slasher featuring slightly odd humanoid-type characters. Bambi himself is a CGI creation, but this has been done quite well, especially considering the budgetary limitations, and he is definitely not a deer that you would want to come across if you happened to venture into the woods!
Bambi: The Reckoning will also appeal to those who like gory kills and plenty of bloodshed. No one is off limits from Bambi’s murderous rampage, and some inventive kills will satisfy Horror lovers – some of the kills even feel like homages to other Horror films, which is fun.
However, while this is unquestionably better than the previous Poohniverse installments, the bar was not particularly high to begin with, so that does not mean Bambi: The Reckoning is actually good.
The story itself feels a bit silly and would have probably worked better if the film had leaned into the silliness rather than taking it so seriously. Away from that, though, undoubtedly the film’s biggest weakness is its visuals.
Whilst, understandably, the filmmakers would have wanted the film to look quite dark to disguise some of the more challenging effects and CGI potentially, unfortunately, Bambi: The Reckoning is so dark that it often becomes hard to make out what is happening. The film is also so washed in grey that it almost appears black and white at times, making it very dull and boring to look at.
Overall, this installment is a step in the right direction for this particular cinematic universe. Nonetheless, several issues remain, indicating that further work is needed before the Poohniverse is worthy of a recommendation. Until then, Cryptic Rock gives Bambi: The Reckoning 2.5 out of 5 stars.
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