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Bambi: The Reckoning director Dan Allen says the new rollout of fairytale slashers are onto something much deeper beyond shock and gore.
"So often, these films have been called 'childhood killers'; I think that is a bit extreme," Allen says in the new issue of SFX Magazine, which features The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, April 23. "But to actually engage with it on a narrative level and have a movie that is thematically about the loss of innocence and the death of childhood makes this really quite faithful to the heart of it."
After a mother and son get in a car wreck, they soon become hunted by Bambi, a mutated, grief-stricken deer on a deadly rampage, seeking revenge for the death of his mother - and while that may seem a little silly on the surface, we've seen Disney's Bambi...and we have a feeling this is going to be a sad one.
Allen directs from a screenplay by Rhys Warrington. The cast includes Game of Thrones's Roxanne McKee, Tom Mulheron, Nicola Wright, Samira Mighty, and Alex Cooke starring.
"I genuinely think that, in many ways, these adaptations are more faithful than the Disney films. Probably not with Winnie The Pooh, but in terms of Peter Pan and Bambi. They are actually pretty dark stories! Disney made them much more palatable and friendly to young audiences," Allen continues, likening the horror elements to an R-rated Jurassic Park. "You’re still going to get that violence; you’re still going to get the gore, but not at Peter Pan level. It’s more about the build-up to it; that's where it finds its fun and energy – with loads of destruction as well."
The Twisted Childhood Universe was created by Jagged Edge, the studio behind Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey - which made over $5 million on a $50,000 budget. The shared horror universe includes Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Pinocchio, The Mad Hatter, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and, of course, Bambi. All of this has been made possible, of course, but each individual character becoming open IP back in 2022. Needless to say, we can expect a lot more low-budget Disney horror on the way - and from different studios at that.
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The streets aren’t the only thing getting taken over. #DeadCity is your @SFXmagazine May cover. Drops April 23. 🗞️ pic.twitter.com/dGc6U6N1DYApril 17, 2025
Bambi: The Reckoning releases on July 25. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, April 23. Check out The Walking Dead: Dead City season 2 cover you need to be looking out for on newsstands below...
