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Bambi Screenshot: Walt Disney Pictures
If you somehow managed to escape the emotional gut punch of Bambi’s opening tragedy as a child, director Scott Jeffrey has something special in store for you. Jeffrey, who previously helmed somewhat self-explanatory films like The Curse Of Humpty Dumpty and The Bad Nun, is teaming up with Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director of viral slasher Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey, for a disturbed retelling of Bambi.
“The film will be an incredibly dark retelling of the 1928 story we all know and love,” Jeffrey tells Dread Central of the new project, which is based on a book by Felix Salten. “Bambi will be a vicious killing machine that lurks in the wilderness. Prepare for Bambi on rabies!”
According to Jeffrey, the bloodthirsty new Bambi was partially inspired by the 2018 Netflix film The Ritual, which follows a group of friends who befall a sinister, gory fate after encountering a strange deer-like creature while backpacking in the Swedish wilderness.
The innocence-lost trend in horror has shown promise of late, with both Winnie The Pooh: Blood And Honey and Hollywood’s latest (and greatest) creepy doll vehicle M3GAN recently debuting trailers to viral success. The clown slasher Terrifier 2 also became an unexpected win in theaters, after many audience members were reportedly disturbed to the point of vomiting. Although it’s no sure thing that Bambi: The Reckoning will get a standard theatrical rollout, 2022 certainly brought about a newfound precedent for one.
Bambi: The Reckoning is tentatively scheduled for release next year, around Valentine’s Day. A vicious Bambi isn’t the most obvious date night pick, but who knows—maybe, just maybe, a Natural Born Killers-style romance between Bambi and Faline is part of the update. After all, why not?
