A teaser trailer for a horror take on 1942 classic Bambi – Bambi: The Reckoning – has been released.
The director behind independent horror film Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, decided to follow up with a ‘Bambi on rabies’ take on the classic tale after fans went wild for the Winnie The Pooh remake.
The original Disney children’s classic and 1928 book told a tale of love, life and loss for young fawn Bambi, with the film’s most heart wrenching moment coming when Bambi’s mother is shot by hunters.
However, viewers familiar with the doe-eyed Bambi will be in for a shock as director Scott Jeffrey – who will work alongside executive producer Frake-Waterfield, said the deer will represent the antler/human body hybrid seen in Netflix’s The Ritual.
In the trailer, the terrifying version of the young deer is seen as he seeks revenge on the hunters who his mother in the Disney classic.
A teaser trailer for a horror take on 1942 classic Bambi – Bambi: The Reckoning – has been released
The director behind independent horror film Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey, Rhys Frake-Waterfield, decided to follow up with a ‘Bambi on rabies’ take on the classic tale (pictured)
Two hunters are seen in a dimly lit forest where is a bird is tied to a tree while they practice their aim, with one of them asking: ‘You ever shot a deer?’
The other hunter replies: ‘No, have you?’, to which his friend says: ‘Yeah, once.’
A furious stag is then seen charging towards a car and flipping it with its huge antlers before growling.
Viewers of the trailer took to the comments section to express their excitement over the film.
One person wrote: ‘It is about time Bambi gets revenge for what happened to his mom and i can’t wait to see it.’
While someone else shared: ‘Let’s go I’m hyped!’
Someone else posted: ‘Not gonna lie… I’m pretty excited for this one!’
Another person commented: ‘I remember seeing this when I’ve seen Blood and Honey 2, and looks fun. Antlers/Ritual vibe in this movie.’
The Disney children’s classic and 1928 book told a tale of love and loss for young fawn Bambi, with the film’s most heart wrenching moment coming when Bambi’s mother is shot by hunters
However, viewers familiar with the doe-eyed Bambi will be in for a shock as director Scott Jeffrey said the deer will represent the antler/human body hybrid seen in Netflix’s The Ritual
And someone else shared: ‘He once shot a deer. I’m gripped!’
‘Bambi is sinister and crazy, this film will be the perfect combination of horror and bloody revenge,’ wrote someone else.
Director Scott Jeffrey previously told DreadCentral: ‘The film will be an incredibly dark retelling of the 1928 story we all know and love.
‘Finding inspiration from the design used in Netflix’s The Ritual, Bambi will be a vicious killing machine that lurks in the wilderness.
‘Prepare for Bambi on rabies!’
In 2022, A.A. Milne’s original Winnie The Pooh stories came into the public domain after its copyright expired in January that year, but care was taken to avoid getting into any trouble with Disney, which still has copyright over its own version of the bear, as well as all films and images associated with them, according to Variety.
In order to achieve this for Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey, filmmakers traded the red shirt Pooh wears in the Disney films for a lumberjack outfit. They also did not include various characters still under copyright, such as Tigger.
‘Christopher Robin is pulled away from them, and he’s not [given] them food, it’s made Pooh and Piglet’s life quite difficult,’ Waterfield told Variety of the film’s plot
In the trailer, the terrifying version of the young deer is seen as he seeks revenge on the hunters who his mother in the Disney classic.
A furious stag is seen charging towards a car and flipping it with its huge antlers before growling
‘Because they’ve had to fend for themselves so much, they’ve essentially become feral,’ he said. ‘So they’ve gone back to their animal roots. They’re no longer tame: they’re like a vicious bear and pig who want to go around and try and find prey.’
The trailer for the film showed Winnie The Pooh and Piglet going on a murderous rampage after being abandoned by their college-bound friend Christopher Robin.
Twitter could hardly contain itself following the trailer’s release, with one user claiming the slasher flick was poised to ‘ruin my childhood.’
The trailer begins with Christopher Robin, now a young adult who left Pooh and Piglet behind for college, returning to Hundred Acre Wood with his new girlfriend.
As the duo set out to look for Pooh and Piglet, Christopher’s girlfriend insists on leaving after getting spooked by the creepy settings.
‘I really need to find out what’s happened to them, okay?’ he insists.
Eventually, they come across Pooh, who twists Christopher’s girlfriend’s neck. Screams are heard before the scene changes to a quaint cottage, where a group of young women are now vacationing.
It doesn’t take long before things take a violent turn.
Viewers of the trailer took to the comments section to express their excitement over the film
Shortly after arriving at the cottage, one of the girls soaks in the hot tub before Pooh and Piglet pounce and swiftly placed a towel over her mouth.
‘We need to go! There’s -‘ one of her friends screams in a panic before stopping abruptly at the sight of blood smeared on their windows with a message.
Get Out,’ the scrawling reads.
‘There’s someone else outside,’ a panicked young woman says before viewers see Pooh peering inside the window and the attack begins.
The women soon find themselves fighting for their lives as Pooh and Piglet begin their bloody assault on the girls.
Christopher is also seen pleading with his childhood friends.
The independent horror film Winnie The Pooh: Blood and Honey about the beloved storybook characters in Hundred Acre Wood going on a killing spree wowed fans
‘We used to be friends,’ he says, sobbing. ‘Why are you doing this? Please. I would have never left, I swear, I swear,’ he says.
The trailer ends with a bloody montage of all the violence, followed by a shot of Pooh and Piglet emptying bottles of blood and honey into a pot.
The film was directed by Rhys Waterfield and stars Nikolai Leon as Christopher Robin.
Waterfield previously revealed to Variety that the flick was filmed near the actual forest which inspired Hundred Acre Wood, Ashdown Forest in England. Shooting took place over the span of 10 days.
Twitter had a thing or two to say about the trailer following its release.
Piglet takes a swing at one young woman after invading her cottage alongside Pooh in the trailer released earlier this year
The trailer begins with Christopher Robin returning to Hundred Acre Wood with his new girlfriend after leaving the forest to head to college
The duo pass by an eerie sign of the location
‘Me going to ruin my childhood by seeing ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and honey”, tweeted one Twitter user.
‘Winnie the Pooh will forever haunt children’s nightmares. My god,’ tweeted another.
The film currently has no release date though Waterfield told Variety he was attempting to finish the movie as fast as possible to capitalize on the momentum.
‘Because of all the press and stuff, we’re just going to start expediting the edit and getting it through post production as fast as we can,’ he said. ‘But also, making sure it’s still good. It’s gonna be a high priority.’
Pooh emerges and twists Christopher’s girlfriend’s neck
