Silver Screams Podcast
On the Silver Screams Podcast, a filmmaker and two horror enthusiasts sit down and discuss some of the greatest horror movies of all time.
Silver Screams Podcast
Bambi: The Reckoning (2025)
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Derek and Max head out to a quaint woodland estate to watch Bambi: The Reckoning.
I'm getting ready to watch a video. Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_06What's your favorite scary movie?
SPEAKER_00Uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_06You have to have a favorite board comes to mind. Hello, and welcome to the Delta Screens podcast. My name is God. You could make it the outside. Please watch us and try not to trip over the court. You'll be doing the terrifying trio for tonight. Make yourself comfortable on the couch. Right over there. And they'll be with you toward today. Oh. And why not? It's no doubt.
SPEAKER_05How are you guys doing? Welcome to another episode of the Silver Screens Podcast, a podcast where three horror movie buffs, watch scary movies, and then talk about them. I am your host, Derek Snyder, and I am pleased, as always, to be joined by like one of our original co-hosts, Matt Spontsburg.
SPEAKER_04Hello, hello, welcome, uh, or welcome. No, uh, happy to be back. Happy to be uh happy to be on the pod. You can take the max out of the podcast, but you can't take the podcast out of Max.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think that's how that works. That's the way the saying goes. Definitely the right order. All the way from sunny California. How you doing, buddy?
SPEAKER_04Oh man. Uh good. Yeah, we we we had some rain last night, which was nice. We really needed that. Um but yeah, it's been really weird to uh be touching 90 degrees in uh in March.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, that definitely seems like it would be like especially yeah, for California for sure.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, um, but uh yeah, happy to be here. Uh glad I uh was able to jump on when uh you know your other co-host is is far away somewhere because she's a bum.
SPEAKER_05So uh yeah, uh yeah, we actually like had uh like Kristen and I both went and saw um We Will Kill You or They Will Kill You. Uh we both went and saw that, and then uh scheduling stuff came up and we weren't gonna be able to record that episode this week, uh, even though we saw it over the weekend. And so I was like, okay, well, I don't have anything lined up for the first week of April now. So uh I you know reached out to you and thankfully we got to watch a an absolute gem that we're gonna get to talk about here uh as a lot as a last minute villain.
SPEAKER_04I work in film now and then it's uh and it's been dead.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. This one uh this one must have been you know all the buzz about town. Uh the you were you were quick to quick to recommend this one.
SPEAKER_04I uh I did not see a uh a billboard for this one, uh surprisingly.
SPEAKER_05So it had a night had a like big underground like movement, like you heard about it, like you know, in the in the all all the all the after parties that you were attending at South by Southwest, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. I can't remember how I heard about it. I I I I don't know why it was on my radar, but I wasn't even sure if it was out yet, but uh of course it was available to stream on uh the the touted streaming service Peacock. Yep.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like you were you were quick on the draw with this one. I almost thought it was like an early April Fool's joke, like when you recommended it. And then I looked it up and I was like, oh, okay, like yeah, I'm game.
SPEAKER_04I I think it I think it's a good movie for April Fools. Babe, we're gonna watch Bambi. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05It was so funny when I threw it on uh last night. Can like Candace was like, What are you watching? And I was like, movie for the podcast. Because I was like had it on in the living room, like we're we had just like sat down to eat dinner, and she's like, uh, like I get that, but like what movie is it? I was trying to like save it like so she would see the title and like groan, but I was like, it's the it's the new Bambi movie.
SPEAKER_04Yes, the Bambi legacy sequel.
SPEAKER_05The Pooniverse entry, I think, is uh the or like the dark childhood universe. Uh there's been a couple like different names that have been thrown around uh for these movies uh that are you know coming out, the horror movies based on these now uh public domain characters. So uh, you know, Winnie the Pooh, obviously, like with Blood and Honey, like the two movies that came out with that. There was a Piglet movie, uh Steamboat Willie has one, I think pop there's a Popeye one, a Peter Pan one, and Bambi has one now. Uh from what I was reading, like Bambi entered the public domain like back in 2022.
SPEAKER_04So uh would you would you lump in um I know there was a movie made up in Washington called The Death of Snow White? Would you would you try and lump that into this this kind of dark Disney character universe?
SPEAKER_05Maybe. I hadn't heard about that one. Uh but I mean like it's I don't know if Snow White is actually like a public domain character, but I'm yeah, it's the Disney Disney IP, so I I think it's gotta be. Uh otherwise uh those filmmakers are are I don't I don't think Disney would let that fly. Yeah. I don't think you fly that under the radar with that name. No, so uh if you haven't read the title, like if this podcast just randomly came up on your on your feed and you haven't looked at your phone to see what you're listening to, uh we watched Bambi the Reckoning, uh the horror movie adaptation or like alternate like new telling of the Bambi story. Yeah. So yeah, Bambi the Reckoning is the movie that we watched. And uh when I was watching it, I was like, you know, this seems like one of those ones. I'm kind of glad that Kristen wasn't here for this because she would have she would have like hunted me down uh like a like a deer, like for having made her watch this movie. Uh yeah, so we watched this and I was like, I you know, I can't see us having a super in-depth intellectual conversation breaking down all the filmmaking tactics of this movie. So I wanted to fill a little bit of time here in the front and just to like catch up with you, because I know we we've been texting back and forth occasionally, and uh last time I had texted you, you mentioned that you were at South by Southwest, uh down there in Austin, checking out films, rubbing elbows with uh big name filmmakers and yeah, uh yeah, something like that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I I went down there with a couple buddies from from school uh up in Seattle, and um, yeah, we just kind of ran amok uh around downtown Austin and got to see a lot of movies, got to listen to a lot of Q ⁇ As, um did get to shake a a couple filmmakers' hands and and hang out with with some people. Uh but yeah, it was it was a great experience. I I had never been I've I've been to Austin. Austin's a really great city, but uh I've never been to South by and probably not a it's probably the biggest film festival I've ever I've I've been I've attended um so far. Um you know it yeah it's it it's a fun time, it's a lot of standing in line.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh but I will say that Austin or South by is so like genre and horror forward. I didn't really realize that.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, when you texted me that the other night, I was like, okay, like it's I mean South by I have already heard stories from other people about you know how cool that film festival is. And I've always like Austin's been a place that's been on my you know bucket list to check out, and so I was like, I need to get down there for this film festival. So it was already on my radar just like from being a filmmaker and wanting to go check this out. But once you said like it's very like genre forward and like right up my alley, basically, uh I was like, okay, now I need to make this happen.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, yeah, I mean I I think some of the some of the favorites that we were able to see were uh kind of like action comedy thriller horror-ish. Right? Um Over Your Dead Body stars Jason Siegel and Samara Weaving. Uh and it's directed by uh God, I'll never get his name right, but I think it's Yorma. Uh he's what he's one of the Lonely Island uh guys. True. Um but yeah, that was that that was a lot of fun, uh very funny, uh, very gory. Uh and I maybe not so much a true blue horror, but you know, in that thriller kind of home invasion uh style. And then there was another film uh by uh I can't remember the director, it was a tandem director team called Drag. Uh and that starred uh Lucy DeVito, which is the daughter of Danny DeVito, and um gosh, who was the other woman? Oh uh not not Kat Dennings, uh uh Lizzie Lizzie Kaplan from uh Cloverfield. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. And and again, very much a uh kind of uh home invasion with a horror twist to it. Okay, uh uh and and also very funny. Um uh but lots of blood in that one too. And then what else? Ready or not too premiered there, which was really fun to see. Uh another Samara Weaving and the sequel to Ready or Not. Yeah. Which which again is kind of like that action comedy thriller. Um, but has a little bit of I mean they touched on it a little bit in the first one, but they they go a little further into like the satanic um vibes uh of of the first one. That was it. And then there was oh go ahead.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I was gonna say that was that movie was like a big comp that I saw on Letterboxed when I was looking at reviews for They Will Kill You. Uh after going to see it. I a lot of people were like, Oh, I get two Ready or Not movies in the theaters this month.
SPEAKER_04Well, ironically, They Will Kill You was was playing at Southby, but we we weren't able to catch that one. I think it was it was playing during another film that we were at. But and and you know, that was one thing that was really interesting. This was the first year that Southby has done the festival in in seven days. Usually it's over spread over three weeks. Oh, okay. Um so it's like a whole month. So usually you get a better chance to see a lot more, right? Um I I think that was one thing that I was noticing where like you know, you can only put in I think two reservations per day, whether it's a a keynote speaker, a workshop, a movie, uh, anything you have to put reservations in for. You can only put two in a day, and then the rest of the time, if you're trying to see something, you gotta go to the standby line.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And you know, to make sure you get in through the standby, you need to go like two, two and a half hours before the doors open. Oh my gosh. Um and and and that's not even a guarantee that you'll get in then, right? Because you're you're uh in the standby line, you're you go in after all the reservations.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you're like a seat filler, basically.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so it's it's uh it is a lot of it is a lot of waiting when you're when you're just uh a a lowly patron like I was. Um I'm sure filmmakers get get a little bit better deal when they bring a film there, but uh but yeah, it was really cool. I got to see Steven Spielberg speak. Uh some other which was really cool. That was a great keynote. Um, you know, uh I some other true blue horror movies that were there were Hookem. Uh I would be really yeah, I'll be really uh interested and excited to hear you and and Marlo talk about that. Um because that was the same director who did Oddity.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04From a couple years ago, which I I think I can't remember if we covered on this pod, but uh I remember talking about it somewhere.
SPEAKER_05I feel like we did watch that one. Yeah. I at least like watched it. I remember watching it. I don't I can't remember off the top of my head if we did the episode on it or not. Um but yeah, they also had what was the other one that the other film that they did?
SPEAKER_03It was Oddity and uh Caveat. Caveat, yeah. And um what was another one?
SPEAKER_04Uh Never After Dark uh is a Japanese horror, like good ghost story that I would recommend checking out. Um but yeah, it was it was a great time. It was a great experience. Um you know uh I I hope when I return that I'll be part of a film going down.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, you'll have you'll have your own seat like designation like for your for your films premiere. Yeah, yeah. Let me know when that happens, man, and I will be down there standing in the standby line.
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah. But uh but yeah, yeah, I I would I would recommend checking out uh South by if if you get a chance to.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I I definitely want to get down there. I want to get to some of these big film festivals. Like I've been listening to the No Film School podcast a lot more lately. Like they've just like had some episodes that I really wanted to listen to. Uh one of them they talked to the editor of Undertone, uh, and I was like trying to like get it like consume as much like Undertone, you know, yeah, you're you're Undertone's number one fan. It was it was really good. And you know what's kind of funny, like, is and I'll talk to Kristen more about this because we were gonna kinda do a combo episode because I went and saw Undertone with her uh a second time uh because I wanted to get her her take on it, like because she's the co-host for the show. And I was like, we need to have her see this. So I went and saw it with her and I'll I'll talk more in depth about it when like on our episode our episode for that, but it was it wasn't I felt like it almost wasn't as effective seeing it a second time. Like some of the stuff that like really like the tension that you really like kind of sit in, like in your when I first watched it, uh was like a little like dampened, I guess, like a little bit.
SPEAKER_04Well, is that because you know where it's going?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like you you just kind of know, and because they they did such a good job with like the framing and everything and leaving the negative space in the frame and all that and things empty space in the background, like you your first watch, you're just waiting for something to happen. And it's like once you go through once you go on the roller coaster ride, you're you know where all the like you know twists and turns and loops are, so you're like you anticipate anything that like you know is coming up or that you like know isn't going to be there, so it's like it's like the tension was less it was still like a great film, and like you still felt that tension, but just not not as heavy because I wasn't anticipating something happening in the moments where nothing was happening.
SPEAKER_04So Right. Yeah, it's it I mean, listen, that it's an amazing what they made it for five hundred thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_05Five hundred thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_04Five hundred thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_05One location, two cast members, like that you see on screen.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I mean that's that's that's how you do it right there. And and they've gone on to make, you know, four times their their budget, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_05So Oh yeah, like it was it was already at nine mil when it was at nine mil opening weekend, so yeah, crazy return on on that film. And now he's now he's pegged to direct uh the new paranormal activity movie, which I think is great. Like if he can, you know, if he does that with five hundred thousand dollars, then let's see what he does with a with a big budget.
SPEAKER_04Well yeah, and and paranormal activity, another one of these movies that's so dependent on sound.
SPEAKER_05Well yeah, that was my big that was my big comp in our episode. I was like, paranormal activity is like what I was thinking about when I was watching this movie, just because like attention, like listening, because everything was audio driven. And same thing with paranormal activity, you're kind of like trapped in that perspective because you don't have like a traditional like roaming camera like you would for you know any other like the way other movies are shot. Like it's all very stationary, and you're kind of like trapped on this on this ride. And you know, for undertone, like you were kind of trapped in the house, like you never saw outside of the house. So yeah, I uh Paranormal Activity was a big comp for me with that film. And yeah, I'm excited to see what he does with uh what he does with the eighth one.
SPEAKER_04Under so it w Undert Is that officially a a 20 what are we in? We're in 2026, right? Yeah, it was a 2025 release, right?
SPEAKER_05Uh 2025 premiere, technically. Because it premiered at uh Fantastic or Fantasia Fest? One of the one of those two I can't remember which one it was. Uh it was in Canada uh that it technically premiered there.
SPEAKER_04Uh well I was gonna ask, does it go on your top five horror of 2025 or is it on your 2026?
SPEAKER_05Uh it's 2026. Like I would I would slot it in 2026 when it got its like theatrical release because it hit um because it was 2025 for that first film festival that it went to, but it was 2026 that it premiered at Sundance?
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, it's gross now, is at 18 million.
SPEAKER_04I'm looking at the uh 500,000 you made 18 million. Yeah. And was it put out by A24? It was it just reviewed by that?
SPEAKER_05It was picked up by A24 at um after Fantasia Film Festival. So Fantasia's where they saw it and they picked it up there and then they changed some stuff about it. Like they changed the her co-host, uh, the actor who played the co-host changed, and then they changed the name from uh the undertone to undertone.
SPEAKER_04Take the yeah, knock out the the Facebook, just Facebook.
SPEAKER_05This isn't 2000s band names anymore. Like uh yeah, Fantasia Film Festival uh is where it premiered in Canada July 27th, 2025, and then Sundance January 24th, 2026. Nice and then Worldwide.
SPEAKER_04Um okay. Not to put you on the spot, but I'm gonna put you on the spot. Let's do it. What what other 2026 horror movies are have that you have seen are you excited or are are like is in your top five, or are there ones that you're really anticipating coming up?
SPEAKER_05Uh I am really interested in um disclosure day. Uh disclosure day looks like it's gonna be uh it's probably I feel like gonna lean more like thriller uh than like true horror. Um I you know I've kind of like I went when I went and saw They Will Kill You, I got there earlier than I probably should have, so I saw some like extended trailers for some other movie, other movies, and Disclosure Day was one of them, and it felt like they were kind of doing what Marvel does sometimes, where they'll show you scenes in the trailer, but they'll take stuff out of that scene, like they'll hide stuff. So I feel like there's I feel like some of those scenes that we were seeing in the trailer, like there's going to be more that we see like in the theater in those scenes. Uh and I felt like that trailer was done just fine. I I didn't feel like it gave anything major away. Uh it wasn't like the Jurassic World one where I saw the entire movie in the trailer. Uh so disclosure days one, uh the new one from uh J.J. Abrams, uh The End of Oak Street. Uh
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah, the dinosaurs. Dude, I'm taking dinosaurs back.
SPEAKER_05Dude, I had I had this one. I had actually had this one pinned like months ago. Uh I was looking, I was looking through like some lists for like upcoming horror films and everything because I was trying to like get ahead of some of these uh releases and stuff, so I kind of knew what was coming, what was going to be coming out this year, so we could kind of like anticipate stuff for the podcast and kind of plan a little better for some new release stuff. And because there's other things that we're like trying to implement this year, so I kind of wanted to have a little bit better of plan. So I looked at like a bunch of like upcoming movies and uh End of Oak Street was one of them. Uh at the time when I saw it, it was originally still called Oakvale Street. Uh and a lot of people were talking about if there's gonna be like Cloverfield tie-ins with that one because it's JJ Avery. So anything he makes now is just gonna be like, you know, speculated to be tied into the Cloverfield universe. Uh yeah, that one and another one that I saw a trailer for um that was a little more that showed a little more than I had seen before was uh Lee Cronin's the mummy. I feel like that's gonna be kind of a cool like body horror.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I'm hoping that's I'm hoping that's good. Lee Corman, he did he did Invisible Man, right? Or no, that's Lee Wan Wanel.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, uh that was Lee Wanell. Uh Lee Cronen.
SPEAKER_03Did he do was that Possessor?
SPEAKER_05No, that was that was uh Brandon Brandon Cronenberg. Uh oh Lee Cronen did Evil Dead Rise. Oh. Awesome.
SPEAKER_04And the hole in the doing a mummy movie now?
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Oh, it's gonna be gross.
SPEAKER_05Dude, like the extended trailer that I saw uh the other day, yeah, it's there's some I think I've only seen the teaser so far. Stick with just the teaser, like show up, show up 25 minutes late to any movies you go see in the theater. Just cause I was like, that's that's gonna have to be my policy now. Like if I want to avoid things that it getting spoiled for me.
SPEAKER_04So well, you know what the best is? We are so our home theater down here that Kaylee and I go to are is called the Vista, and it's it's it's like a we can walk there, so it's it's great, so close. But it it only shows stuff on 35 millimeters, so it doesn't get everything. It's only one house, right? So it like gets one movie a week, but they don't show uh they don't show modern trailers, they unless there's like a 35 millimeter version of a trailer. I guess we we did see he a He-Man trailer there the other day, but um usually they just throw on like old old movies that kind of correlate with with whatever you're seeing. Like we went and saw Project Hail Mary there, and they showed uh an Interstellar trailer. Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Or Capricorn One from the 70s. Um that's cool though.
SPEAKER_05That's that's kind of cool.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, right. So like that's a theater that like you want to get there as early as possible. A because it's it's also it's also old school where it doesn't do it's not reserved seating, so you have to get there to get it, get a good seat. Um, but then like it shows it shows a cartoon, shows an old cartoon, okay, and then it shows like three trailers, um, old trailers, and it's really fun. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_03I like that. Yeah. Well, when I come down to visit, you'll have to take me out there.
SPEAKER_04Oh, absolutely. I've I've got dude, when it when you come down, like we're gonna do is see movies. There are so many theaters, so many amazing spaces to go watch movies here. Uh, and you know, and again, a lot of it's repertory. A lot of it's like like at the Egyptian, we went and saw um did we go see the exorcist at the Egyptian? I I think so. I think I mean we've seen a bunch of different stuff at the Egyptian, but like that's it, that's one like right on Hollywood Boulevard, and it's you know, it's decked out like a like an Egyptian pyramid kind of thing going on. Um but yeah, they do a lot of old stuff. They do they I think they're owned by Netflix, so sometimes they show Netflix stuff there. We saw the new Frankenstein on that screen, that was great. Um Braindead Theaters is over in West Hollywood, uh, very kind of small, like almost like the grand, but again, just one screen. I think we went and saw Heat there. Um yeah, and then Los Three is another one we can walk to, a little further walk, but uh it there's just there's so many. There's so many. Every night you can see something, probably something you haven't seen before on the big screen, which is really cool. Oh, I can't wait.
SPEAKER_05Alrighty. I think we've uh we've stalled long enough. I think we gotta start uh talking about the actual movie that we watched uh for this podcast. So uh we're gonna take a quick little break here. Uh but first I should let you know that the uh talk the toxic waste drinking deer roaming the woods isn't the most dangerous thing you'll encounter. No, that would be the spoilers up ahead. So if you haven't seen Bambi the Reckoning yet, head on over to Peacock and check it out, and then come back and listen to this podcast. Uh and we're gonna be right back with a segment we all know and love, Max's Facts. Uh right after we take this quick little break.
SPEAKER_03So don't go away, Scream Team. We will be right back. And we're back. We're back.
SPEAKER_05All right. Uh well, I am I'm happy to bring this segment back uh once again. Uh uh it's it never left. It never left. Like it's it's different, you know. We slapped a different name on it, but it's the spirit remains, you know. Uh it's time for Max's facts. Christian, I'm contractually obligated to fill that in there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we watched Bambi the Reckoning. Uh, this was, of course, released in 2025. Not rated, surprisingly. Uh straight to streamer.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_04Uh unrated, not rated. It's an hour and 20 minutes, which means it's 80 minutes on the dot. Could have been shorter. Could have been shorter.
SPEAKER_05I uh I will say, uh, when I was watching this movie, I felt like I felt like the ending was coming like halfway through the movie.
SPEAKER_04I mean, it's yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yes. I some of the stuff that was happening, I was like, I don't know where they're going from here. Like, it's what what do you do after this part?
SPEAKER_04Probably, probably someone else shows up and then uh and then Bambi gets to kill them. Yep. Um here's the synopsis from IMDB. A car wreck strands a mother and a son in the deep woods where a mutated, vengeful deer stalks them. I'm gonna stop right there because I believe he's not a deer. He's a stag, right? He's not a deer. He's just male deer are stags, aren't they?
SPEAKER_05I think that's like a like a name you can call them, but I think they're still considered deer. Okay, well, it's like it's stag stag is the male deer, does are female, so they're both deer.
SPEAKER_04Like it's just the designation for I think it would sound better if it said in the deep woods where a mutated, vengeful stag stalks them. There you go. As local hunters and obsessive grandmother converge, the forest becomes a bloody arena for grieving creatures' primal rage.
SPEAKER_05Now, car wreck is being a little disingenuous here, like right out of the gate, because it's not really a car wreck that strands them. It's not so much a car wreck that's the fucking deer.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, right. The deer standing top of the car like he's fucking the T-Rex film Jurassic Park.
SPEAKER_05That's exactly what it was.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Uh this film is directed by Dan Allen. And uh, I just want to open up Dan Allen's credits. Uh he this is his first feature film. Yep. Um, it is written by Felix Salton and uh Reese Washington. Uh, and the stars of this film boy are wow, I didn't I didn't down here and look at the pictures on IMDb. Uh Roxanne McKee, Samira Mighty, who from the picture looks like maybe she's a wrestler or something, uh, Nicole Wright, Russell Jeffrey, uh, and a whole bunch of other people that you you'll you you don't know. Um lot of a lot of I don't know, uh not famous actors, I guess, is is the way to say it. Um this is a uh it is rated 4.9 uh out of 10 on uh uh what what are we on IMDB out of uh with over 5,000 different reviews uh from users. Um Samira Mighty was on Love Island apparently.
SPEAKER_05Oh back in 2018 and she was in the Beauty and the Beast 2017.
SPEAKER_04So this did play, this does have a box office gross.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_04Um I don't see a budget anywhere because we all know that modern day movies do not like to release their budgets anymore, which is really, really silly. Um if you had to guess, what do you think the gross US and Canada unless you're looking at it right now, uh box offices.
SPEAKER_05Box office? Oh geez, like how do you determine this? Like if it didn't have a theatrical release.
SPEAKER_04Uh yeah, it must have. It did. It did. Because it's got a box office group.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Well, yeah, I guess yeah, it would have to.
SPEAKER_03Uh I am going to say. Uh I I don't think it's very much at all.
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna say like less than undertone.
SPEAKER_05Less than okay, cool. Like it narrows it down.
SPEAKER_03Uh I'm gonna say I'm gonna say like eighty thousand dollars.
SPEAKER_04Okay, it's higher than that. It's$172,000 and eight uh$172,187. Huh. Okay.$172,187. That's how you say that. Uh yeah, so I'm I'm really I really want to know what they made it for. Because there's a lot of VFX, and not that the VFX are especially good, but they're still expensive. No. Um can you guess?
SPEAKER_03A little piece of trivia here.
SPEAKER_04Uh the film, okay, yeah. The I I think we kind of already. The film functions as the fourth installment within the Twisted Childhood Universe media franchise. Okay.
SPEAKER_05That's the official name, yeah.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Yeah. That's the TCUMF. Uh, can you name the other three?
SPEAKER_05Uh Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey, Winnie the Pooh, Blood and Honey 2. Electric Woo Gloo. Uh, and let's see, is it it's gotta be either like the Piglet one or the Peter Pan one?
SPEAKER_03Let me see if they tell me here.
SPEAKER_04Uh I believe it's Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare.
SPEAKER_05Neverland Nightmare, okay.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Which let me tell you, 4.8. This looks like it might be the next one you guys have to fire. Looks really creepy. Um yeah, uh those are the facts. Do do do do do do all right, let's talk about this film.
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, man, like this there was so much like going on that never gets that never like gets explained. Like, I this is one of those times where I was like, I kind of wish they were like like having long exposition about like where how they got here because there's stuff in this movie that just never gets followed. Like you see things like little tidbits, like the open it opens with like a f like a fairy tale typical fairy tale style, like a book falls on the ground and opens up, and you get the little storybook animated, you know, narration at the beginning that kind of sets up the story, and it's you know, it shows Bambi uh the kind of what would be the ban the original Bambi story, you know, a like the doe, like Bambi's mom and him out there, uh Bambi's mom gets shot, and so he like runs off, grows up, uh meets meets a doe of his own, and uh they have a little a little baby deer, and then the story like I guess goes that they were crossing a street and Bambi's wife gets run over and dies. It's really her fault. I mean, you're crossing a street without looking. I mean, this is what dear like Deer in the Headlights is uh saying for a reason, so Nature's gonna do what I think she's gonna do, man. Uh yeah, and so in you know, like completely enraged, Bambi goes off and uh drinks from a stream, but un unbeknownst to him, uh some evil like corporation has been dumping toxic waste into the waters, and so he he becomes poisoned and mutated. Now, here's here's the fun part. Here's the fun part. That's the only time that this gets brought up uh in the beginning of the movie until one character mentions it later in the movie.
SPEAKER_04Like the last five minutes in passing.
SPEAKER_05Like just a brief little mention of like dumping waste and nothing after that. Nothing before that, nothing after that. Uh so basically, like it it shows you like in this little story animation that this company dumped toxic waste in the water, and the animals drank from the this deer drank from the water and became mutated, and that's all you get right there for the for where we are in the in the movie. And then it opens up with uh with the mom and son Benji, uh yeah, it's Zana and Benji. Uh they're getting ready to go to go visit, and we find out Benji's dad's a deadbeat and is backing out of meeting up with him. And yeah, uh first encounter with Bambi happens like what is it like five, ten minutes into the movie?
SPEAKER_04I mean, I I I appreciate that, you know. Uh that we're gonna we're gonna get right to it. We're gonna show you what Bambi looks like as a mutated monster, how big he is.
SPEAKER_05Uh it doesn't reveal ever it doesn't reveal like the full look of Bambi. Like you get that a little later, but like you get the gist of it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and like you know, it I yeah, I mean it it I think I feel like it's it has to uh it has to start off with a bane like that. Otherwise, you know, you are gonna get a little bogged down. I'm sure because again, because this is a straight to streamer, you know, or or a predominantly streamer movie, um, you know, there there are uh there are mandates these days where it's like something exciting needs to happen within the first five pages of the film.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. It's like script where you're saying if you don't hook me in the first five minutes, like I'm not reading the rest of your script. Right, right. And that's what we get. Yeah, Bambi charges this taxi that's taking this mom and son to this little quaint little country country cottage, and just flips the car over, and like you said, goes full T-Rex in Jurassic Park and stands on the car and starts crushing it, uh, crushing the driver, breaking his arm. And the mom and son make it out.
SPEAKER_04And then we're just for some reason this this stag, this deer, is uh is like hellbent on hunting, which uh, you know, I guess it's mutated and it's a creature that you know has to kill things, but like uh it's so strange that I I felt that it was strange that the baby deer because they a baby deer does come in to the picture at some point, and I don't even remember when that happened.
SPEAKER_05I just at the very like at the end of the movie when they like make it when they discover so like we're just we're going to go completely out of order here because there really is no like logical like like thread to follow in this movie. Like there's so much like I got whiplashed so many times from like whipping my head back and forth when something would happen on screen. I was like, what? Uh so yeah, the baby deer comes into play when uh you when when Xana and Benji get uh like drive off and get rescued by one of the uh by one of the people there, like it's uh one of the other hunter Yeah, there's three hunters, right? Running around. Hunting this deer, and they actually like that's how it starts. One of them's trying to shoot like a dead quail or something that's like pinned to a tree and he misses, and somebody's like, Have you ever shot like have you ever even shot a deer before? And guys like, no, and have you? And he goes, Once, like ominously.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so like he's he's the hunter that killed Bambi's mom.
SPEAKER_05Maybe, yeah. I think I think maybe that's implied. Uh yeah, Michael, I think, is the bearded one, and they when they rescue uh Benji and Xana at this point, they take him back to like their little headquarters, where we find out that the mastermind of this little hunting operation is actually Benji's dad, uh, who's apparently a secret agent for hunting mutated animals or something. It's like it's his the company he works for is the one that uh is that put the toxic waste in the in the water. Doesn't really like that's all we get from it. Like the that's the other clean up the mess. Now he's got to clean up the mess they made by going and hunting these mutated animals. And at one point you see like on on one of the computer screens, there's like a bunch of a there's like a badger and like some other like weird animals too that have been mutated that they've like hunted down, and they've got like the little red stamp thing like image over the images that said like killed or like missing still. So they're hunting they're hunting all these mutated animals, and uh yeah, that's where the baby deer comes into play because they have it caged up at their little base here, and they're gonna use it as bait to lure Bambi out and kill him.
SPEAKER_03Oh Bambi.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and okay, and then there's like a like a clairvoyant grandmother. Yeah. Uh who has some sort of power.
SPEAKER_05Grandma has like amnesia or dem some kind of dementia or something. She's she's in a trance, it seems. Uh she's transfixed on this mutated deer that who knows if she has seen before. Like only only in her dreams, apparently, because yeah, she's got all these drawings throughout the house, like and in her her little art room, like she's got arts and crafts going 24-7, uh, just drawing scratched images of this deer on on all the paper and stuff. And everybody, like all the other family members that are there, uh, because the so the place that uh Zana and Benji are going is kind of like the family cottage or whatever. And it's out there in the woods where where Bambi's roaming, and grandma's out there, all the other like the uncles are out there, uh, the cousins, and nobody nobody fucking likes grandma out there. Like everybody's annoyed by grandma, like this poor old lady. She just wants to hang out and draw pictures of her deer, and everybody's just like treating her like shit.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, they yeah, you treat your grandma like shit. You deserve you deserve to get stabbed by an antler.
SPEAKER_05Yep, you deserve what you get.
SPEAKER_04I really hated the way this movie looks.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Uh it is so muddy and so dark, and like just no like visual style or or shape to the light. Um, it is I I I think a lot of modern horror films do this, and maybe because it's such a small budget, but I I just feel like you know, it's so hard to see anything on screen half the time. Yeah. Uh that it instead of like making me like lock in and try to figure out what's happening, it really makes me check out more than than locking in.
SPEAKER_05I think the lighting was like one thing that I mentally noted when I was watching this. I think it's when they were when the hunters like got to the house after everybody had like left, uh, when they were kind of like tracking where Bambi was going. It's when Michael, one of the hunters, was like moving through the kitchen and it was just like that harsh blue like LED lighting. And I was like, this looks like this looks like trash. Like it just looks like you fucking like plugged in like an LED panel and just like pointed it at the actor, and that was it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, and like and and I I I get like not having a ton of equipment and that being on a limited budget and all that, but like you gotta be a little bit more creative. You gotta you gotta try a little bit harder to because yes, I I understand that like digital cameras are better in low are you know really good in light and their sensors can really like do well, but man, when it looks just like this, it just looks like a slab of concrete. Like it just it looks so it's so boring, yeah, visually. Uh, which is too bad. And and I again probably you know, I I think maybe some of it was to hide some of that VFX on Bambi because that's that I want to talk about. Bambi, there are moments where it's it is uh laughable and cartoony uh when he's like I I remember him like chasing the RV.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And there's a couple shots where like he's literally like floating in the air. It doesn't even look like he's touching the ground. And again, you know, and again, I I get it, it's low budget. Yeah, you know, we're we're making these these twisted universe movies uh on the cheap.
SPEAKER_05Pumping them out, like get them out as fast as before anybody else does, because it's public domain now. So anybody can you and I could go out and make one of these movies if we wanted to.
SPEAKER_04Gosh, I think it would be a little bit more creative than than than what we saw. I would like to. I was wondering I I think there was only one time that they used like a physical like prop for Bambi, and it made me laugh out loud.
SPEAKER_05It's well, I know what scene you're talking about. It's the bathroom scene, right? Yeah, when he opens the door. He uses his hoof to open the door knob. Not even like one of those, not even one of those, like not even one of those ones that you push down and like push. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04It's it's literally a knob. It's literally a round, smooth knob. Yeah, ridiculous.
SPEAKER_05And mind you, this is after, this is well into him being in the house, and you know how he got into the house by smashing his way through the fucking house like it was a fucking sand castle. Like, why doesn't he just smash down the door? He is easily moving, like forcing his way through this house. Like he breaks through so many door frames, and then he gets to the bathroom and puts his hoof up there and tries to like unbelievable. Not just tries, does so like he manages to open the door.
SPEAKER_04It's not even an attempt. He it it isn't even it's not even a struggle for him. No, he's done this before. He's walking around with his hooves opening doors left and right. He trained for this moment.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I it's insane.
SPEAKER_05I like as soon as you said like as soon as you mentioned like laughing out loud, I was like, I know exactly what seamless, because I did the same thing. I did the same thing.
SPEAKER_04I think that might have been my favorite favorite part of the movie. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, another maybe maybe it was just another homage to Jurassic Park with the Raptors. Like, at least those ones were like the little flappy handle those uh doors though. So that like it made a little more sense that and they had fingers that you know could operate that. But yeah, that was that was something that was a choice they made.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, it was.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Uh I will like you you were talking about VFX here. I will say that for for all the faults of it, like you said, like it seemed like he was kind of floating, like the way that he was running and stuff often looked ridiculous. The it was never like and granted, like it's obvious that they the plot and like physics rules in this un in this world that we're seeing don't really matter because you know they're they're here to like put this film on on in the can and get it out to the people as quick as possible. So everything else be damned. Uh I will say that I actually liked the look of Bambi. Like the mutated deer, like who looked genuinely creepy, uh, unsettling. And so I I was like, if I'm gonna if I'm gonna give him props for anything, it's gonna be that. Uh the making the you know, a creepy-looking deer. It reminded me, like, I hearken back to the bear in Annihilation.
SPEAKER_04Uh when yeah, very much so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Like I almost maybe it was just like the shots uh that they had of like kind of when you would see one of the characters coming face to face with Bambi, and but he wouldn't see Bambi's full face, you would see his snout kind of come in and his jaw open with like the teeth kind of sticking straight out and everything. That was maybe what like triggered that memory from Annihilation in my mind, kind of when the bear like sticks his head in between the characters and just like roars there. It was it something like akin to that. It just like that shot made me think of it. But yeah, I think they did a good job like creating the look of this bad Bambi. Bad Bambi. Performing it next year's Super Bowl. Hey, we did get some bad bunnies in here, too. Let's not let's not exclude Thumper.
SPEAKER_04Another one of my favorite parts. I mean, Night of the Lepis.
SPEAKER_05Night of the Lepis, yeah. This is the this double this doubles as our Easter holiday film.
SPEAKER_04Rushing back, man. These cute little bunnies.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, this this part, I I was like Candace and I were watching it, and like the part that happens right before you find out that they're you know vicious bunnies. Like I was sitting there watching it, and when this part happened, I was like, what the fuck? Uh like because so what happens is one of the one of the characters, the shithead cousin, uh, I think Joshua. No, Harrison. Harrison. Harrison was the shithead cousin. Uh has gotten separated from from uh Xana and Benji uh in the R V, and he's wandering out in the woods, and Bambi's chasing him, and he manages to manages to get away uh by sticking his face in some like dead animal, and like Bambi sniffs him and smells dead animal and like decides to leave him alone after hearing another animal off in the woods that he goes chasing after. But Harrison gets up and starts like meandering through the woods. And this is another one I'll give him props for. Uh brilliant use of uh Chekhov's bear trap here. Uh because you see the you see the bear trap in the foreground, like lying on the ground, and you're like, oh shit, this guy's gonna step on it, and that's where he's gonna get trapped, or whatever. He hears like rustling and stuff, you think Bembi's coming back, and then up hops this cute little bunny on a log right in front of him. You're like, oh, that's cute. Like, and Harrison fucking punts this thing. Like, out of the fucking blue. It's just sitting there looking at him and in his teenage angst frustration, like you know, serial killer path, like just fucking kicks this bunny on the body.
SPEAKER_04He deserved to die.
SPEAKER_05Like 60-yard field goal punt, like kicks it. Like, and yeah, I was I audibly, like out loud, said, What the fuck? Like right after that, I was like, fuck this kid, like he can die now. Like I already was saying fuck this kid because he was being an he was one of the ones being a shit to his grandma and like being rude to everybody in this film. So I already didn't like him, but like this cemented it. Like you kick the bunny, you're fucking dead to me. Like and then right after that, uh the bunny hops back up, like you hear another wrestling, and then the bunny hops back up on the on the log and it looks like a little beaten up, and then there's other bunnies that start to like come around too, and then it like lets out its little bunny roar. Adorable, adorable little bunny roar screech thing. And they all like compies, like the compies from Jurassic Park, yeah, swarm him and attack. And this is like I love that they like flipped it because you see the bear trap and you think he's gonna step in it and like you know, get trapped that way. No, he he's walking backwards away from these bunnies and falls backwards and his head lands in the bear trap.
SPEAKER_03In the bear trap. And amazing.
SPEAKER_05Like he's face up in the bear trap, it clamps down around on either side of his head, and now he's just laying there while these bunnies come up and like rip him apart. And like there's a trail camera that's like pointed right there, of course, like because they were trying to trap Bambi. And so yeah, then it cuts to the to the trail cam footage back at the base, and like he's just seeing all these bunnies that were ripping him apart. Oh, that was great.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, I also loved the the other bunny part was was with the dad. At the very end, yeah. Yeah, because the dad gets away and you're just like, What the what the fuck? Where what happened to the dad? And then it cuts like one of the many endings, it cuts to him in the in his truck or whatever, and all of a sudden a bunny is on his dashboard and just gets around.
SPEAKER_05You see something you see something wrestling in the backseat or whatever, yeah, and this it was like multiple fake outs like with the camera, like camera movement and stuff, because it's like shooting from the passenger seat looking over at him, and then he like looks back and the camera moves like with his sight line looking down and everything and trying to see like what's there and there's nothing. And then as it like slowly comes back, each time you're anticipating something being like outside the window, like Bambi being out there or whatever, and it does this like two, three times and fakes you out, and then like the next time there's just the bunny sitting on the dashboard, and he's like he's just like frozen there, and he's like very slowly like reaching for the the door handle to try and get away, and then it you get the jump scare attack.
SPEAKER_04Right onto his face, eats his face.
SPEAKER_05Love it. There's there's a couple couple bright spots in this film, like it's it wasn't all it wasn't all stinkers, so yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04I mean there was as long as you're watching it with the right mindset, you know.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, if you if you want to watch something where you don't have to where you don't have to think about a plot. You don't have to you don't have to remember any of the characters. You don't have to remember any characters, you don't want to like you don't even want to like really watch the movie itself, like, because in you're not missing out on any like beautiful, you know, shots or anything like that. Like there's nothing like this is this is strictly something that you throw on to show your friend. This is kind of like a something akin to like troll two. Like it's not nearly as like as you know shitty as that. Like the acting wasn't that terrible. Uh it's you know not nearly not nearly at the level of troll to, but it's something akin to that, where you're not throwing this on to like impress anybody. You're throwing it on to like have a laugh and just like eat some popcorn and just veg out.
SPEAKER_04I wonder I wonder if Kristen actually might have liked this because there are so many gory kills. Yeah. You know? Or or and like and again, like you don't have there's no like weird plot to follow. There's no, you know, you don't have to remember any characters' names. You just gotta know that you just gotta buy in that there is a mutated giant deer going around decapitating people.
SPEAKER_05Yeah. Who can open bathroom doors? I I don't think she would I still don't like even with the gory kills, like this might get, you know, a scream out of her uh in the ratings. Like I don't I I yeah, I don't think she would fully enjoy it, even with the kills. I think the kills would be the only thing that saved any kind of rating for for this for her. Uh the fact that you saw any kills at all, like the the gore factor. Um yeah, this uh that I I guess like that's what kind of I I didn't have ex high expectations for it, like when you texted this to me. Like I said, I didn't even think it was like an actual movie until I looked it up on on just watch to see where I could see this. Uh but yeah, there like it even with the l you know next to no like expectations I still found myself getting like frustrated with the plot holes, like the lack of you know, background on anything. Like I think the biggest one for me was the grandma. Like, why was she like entranced by this deer and why did why was it like the the explosion at the base camp? Like that she shouldn't have survived also? Can we talk about that? Like you saw this base go up in a fireball that can be seen from you know half a mile away, and she walks out of there like not even like covered in smoke or anything. Uh because the last the last time we see her uh right before that is Bambi is at the base and like goes in and is like we we kind of get one of those shots that I that I liked where it's you know grandma's sitting there staring off like thousand-yard stare, like not even noticing there's a mutated deer standing in front of her, and Bambi's face comes in, you know, the other side of the frame and starts to open its jaw like it's gonna like bite her face, and that's when one of the other henchmen like makes a noise and draws Bambi's attention away from her, breaks in there, and this other henchman, Joe, uh she like fires a couple shots at Bambi, doesn't do anything to him, and then she sees these like uh canisters of highly explosive stuff, because there were only there were only two canisters, but it blew up this entire base. She decides to shoot it. This, you know, grandma, like, even if she got up and wandered off in one of her like trance states, like couldn't have gotten very far like from this from the base. And the next time we see her, she's got the gun that shoots the hunter Michael, who who has shot Bambi, and after reuniting with Bambi's uh Bambi's baby, the baby Bambi, uh has shot Bambi and Bambi's on Death's Door now, and then Grandma shows up still like perfectly clean white nightgown and shoots Michael and is like seemingly out of her trance. So maybe it's the explosion that snapped her out of it. Like But there's no there's nothing that explains what happened to Grandma. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Like when she started like acting this way, when she started drawing the deer, like this is all we've the this is all we've known of grandma is she just draws this deer and wanders off into the yard occasionally and stands out there and has visions of the deer chasing her daughter and grandson through the woods.
SPEAKER_04It's crazy. Crazy movie.
SPEAKER_05It's yeah, like that and like the no explanation of like you know, the company that dumped toxic waste or anything, like how it got to that point, and you know, the absolute just like shit person that Benji's dad was. Like when he when he turned and ran and like abandoned them when Bambi was like about to like rip them apart. Yeah. I was like, yeah, man. And then have to remind myself, like, say the say the title of the movie again. Remember what you're watching. Bambi the Reckoning. Just along for the ride. Part of TCUMF. Yeah. And you know what's wild too is that uh I was going back and reading some reviews for this on Letterboxed, and a lot of people were saying that this was like in a marked improvement in the TCUMF.
SPEAKER_04Oh.
SPEAKER_05Like Wow.
SPEAKER_04Well, you guys should do a series and go back on.
SPEAKER_05This like if we I know like back in the early days of the pod when we had Patreon and everything, we talked about doing like franchise uh like franchise rankings and stuff. Like this might be one of them. Like we might go and have to watch these, and maybe it I think it's gonna have to be you and I that do this. I don't think I don't think I could con Kristen into into doing any of these movies. So maybe maybe this is a Max and Derek adventure, like we we go through and like experience the universe and come back and report.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, yeah. I give me give me give me two or three months and and uh we I can get through that.
SPEAKER_05Alright. Well, so we've talked about the things that we didn't like in this film, which was a lot. We talked about the few things that we did like. Now let's talk about something that we really like on this podcast: the kill count.
SPEAKER_04Nicely done. That's a lot harder to do when you're not doing it every week.
SPEAKER_05Yeah you're just gonna have to do it. Like that's gonna just have to be one of those things like like exercise just to stay in shape. Yeah. You just gotta do it every every morning when you wake up or every night before bed.
SPEAKER_04You just randomly start doing it. I think Kaylee would hate both both versions. Whether she's waking up to that or going to sleep to that.
SPEAKER_05Yep. Alright, so yeah, some people died in this movie. Uh I didn't lots of people died. I didn't keep an official kill count. I think it was pretty much everybody except for Zana and Benji died. And grandma. And grandma. Grandma made it too. So everyone else dies. Ten people. I'm just looking at the at the cast list here. And Max, what was your favorite kill?
SPEAKER_04Man. To choose from. I think the most satisfying kill was one we we touched on earlier, the the dad uh and the bunny. Uh just because you really learn to hate him. Yeah. Um, and and then you're kind of like worried that he's getting away, like it's gonna be sequel bait or something. Yeah. But then the the bunny gets him.
SPEAKER_05Um waste no time in you like solidify like cementing that hate too, because yeah, you already kind of don't like him because of what you learn about him early in the film. Like about him, you know, canceling out on this trip, and now mom has to cover for him, like saying that he's gonna show up to the cabin when he's really not. Uh, so you're already like, okay, yeah, this guy's a deadbeat, and then when you meet him and learn that he's the like he's one of the people that's responsible for this monstrosity running around in the woods, and then for him to again literally abandon his ex-wife and kid, uh, leaving them to be torn apart by Bambi and just runs off into the woods. That's when you're like, okay, yeah, fuck this guy.
SPEAKER_04It's true, it's true. Yeah, so I I I think I would I would go with that. I there's another one that visually I really like, but I want to hear what your favorite was, and then I'll I'll touch on it if if it wasn't.
SPEAKER_05I feel like maybe the I feel like we might be thinking. Of the same one visually, uh, because that's not the one I if it's the one that I'm thinking of, that's not the one I'm gonna pick for my favorite kill. My favorite kill is definitely gonna be Harrison, uh, the bunny getting ripped apart by the bunnies. Just because it like subvert it subverts the expectation like in a couple different ways, because it like you're not expecting the bunnies to be mutated also until like you realize that oh, okay, like everything in this forest is probably like this now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_05Uh the difference being the bunnies are like cute in appearance still, like they don't look mutated like Bambi does. It's not until Harrison like punts that one that it comes back and looks beat up and everything, but it's still standing. Uh but the other ones like still look cute and unassuming, and then to have them, you know, to have Harrison like trip backwards and fall like head first into the bear trap. I think that's part of it that I loved the most was that rather than just him trying to run away and getting his leg caught in it and not being able to get away, it's like the fall backwards and just having your head trapped in there. Like that good use of the bear trap. Uh loved the you know, the compy uh the compy scene there with the bunnies like ripping him apart slowly and everything.
SPEAKER_04So I think that was I wonder if they were like, yeah, we're gonna make Jurassic Park, but with woodland creatures.
SPEAKER_05Maybe. Like he like he was he was trying to like he was sitting down to write this thing and like Jurassic Park's just playing in the background and he just like looks up every every now and then, like, alright, I got another kill to kill to get through here. He looks up and lost world's on, and the compy scene happens, and he goes, Alright, I don't know how the bunnies are killing. Uh yeah, I think that one for me, kind of in the same vein as you, like, is the most satisfying because, like I said, I was I was I had a reaction when he kicked that bunny. Yeah, yeah. It was like, what the fuck? It was unprovoked. Like it wasn't like the bunny was like jumping on him or something and being like annoying him. It was just sitting there on this log and he just straight up boots it. So yeah, satisfying for me to see Harrison go out that way. Uh let's talk, let's talk about the visually pleasing kill because I want to hear like tell me what you think is the most visually pleasing kill. I want to see if it matches.
SPEAKER_04I really loved I you know, this is a close, close second. I really loved when I think it was Rob, the black hunter, gets his head fucking popped off by Bambi running by him at like and he's taking a piss in the woods. Yeah. Yeah. I thought that was really, really great. Actually looked looked really good. Um, you know, because they do a wide shot of it, and uh I I thought the effects were great, and um yeah, I was I was like, oh yes. I that that that one just felt good to watch.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, it was a fun one because it was like there's a little bit of misdirection in it too, because when he's taking the piss, you he looks up out into the woods a couple times and it cuts to like his point of view, and you see like the the trees, the darkness, and everything, like you're and you're kind of like squinting, looking to see if you see any movement or anything. Uh and then like when it cuts to the reverse angle, like looking at him again from that point that he was looking at, and then to have Bambi just run by, like unheard too, like completely stealth. This this was one of the times he was just floating across the the ground, like super stealth. Uh and yeah, just like chops the head clean off. So we weren't thinking of the same one. The the like one for me that was a close second was Harriet's.
SPEAKER_04Uh the the slow motion running around the house.
SPEAKER_05Slow-mo, yeah, running around turning the corner, and like everybody's watching from the RV. And uh I think the part that I liked about it too was like the way they decided to like reveal how that kill happened was uh Harriet's running, turning the corner of the house. Bambi's chasing her. Uh she was like the last run out of the house, Bambi's chasing her, and yeah, like you said, slow-motion shot of her running, and you it cuts to a shot of like her lower half, like her feet and everything as she's running, and then all of a sudden uh you see like the blood splatter and stuff, because you see that Bambi's catching up clearly. You see the blood splatter like fall down onto her legs and stuff, and you're like, oh yeah, she got gored. Alright. And then the legs just collapse and there's no upper half of the body. Like she's been cleaved in half. And is the lower half of the body falls, and then you see like the up like her upper torso like come flying through the air and land on the ground. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04That was a very clever, clever way. Again, like, you know, filmmaking. How how how can we we want to do uh a kill where Bambi bites a person in half, but we can't show it.
SPEAKER_05We don't have the money to show you. Fuck the plot, fuck character development, just give us the good the like all the people want is the good kills. Like that's what they said when they were writing this movie. And god damn it, they did it. Alright, well, after we talk about these movies, we gotta give them a rating. And on this podcast, we use the scream scale. For the uninitiated, the scream scale is a scientifically perfected system where we award the films that we watch a number of screams from one to ten. So, without further ado, Max, how many screams are you giving Bambi the reckoning?
SPEAKER_04I I'm gonna go I'm gonna go slightly below the IMDB. I'm I'm gonna go with a 3.85. 3.85. Solid 3 for Max. I think you know, uh, again, like I I hate the way it looks. I again I don't know any of the characters or what the plot was, but you know, there were a couple times where either I laughed out loud or I cheered, or you know, I said fuck you to the screen. Like it had me interact.
SPEAKER_05And I think uh I think it got you to feel something, Max. Like they did their job.
SPEAKER_04In this day and age, it sometimes it can be really hard to get someone to interact with a movie at home. So uh I'll give it that.
SPEAKER_05Uh all right. For me, like when in the lead up to recording today, I like I was thinking about it, like, what am I gonna give this film? Because it wasn't like, you know, you heard all the gripes that we've talked about, like they're the plot was missing so many like the holes the there were plot grand canyons in this movie. Like they weren't just holes. Uh you know, character development's non-existent. You hate most of the characters that like die in the like almost everyone that dies in this movie is like justified. Like you find a reason to justify them dying. Uh so there's never any like sadness, like when any of these characters dies. Maybe it's like the two uncles are like the saddest ones. Uh the one that goes to like find the find the cab driver, like gets hit by a stray bullet from one of the hunters. Like, who knows how far away he was? Like, it that was wild. Like he he's walking through the woods, like one of the hunters like hears something and fires a sh panic shot and cuts to the shot of this uncle like walking through the woods, you hear the gunshot, and then like a just like the impact of it hitting his head, and you see the blood splatter and him fall over. So just like out of the blue kill. And then the other one gets drugged by his nephew behind the RV when they're trying to like uh move a tree out of the road, and Bambi shows up early, so Benji takes off in the RV early, and the rope gets wrapped around the other uncle's leg, and he gets drugged uh like a cartoon character behind this vehicle. So yeah, those like you don't care about any of the other characters in this movie, the plot holes are all over the place. And I I started thinking about like the visual of Bambi itself, and I was like, okay, they did a good job with that. Like there was the kills were creative too, so I slowly like talked myself into increasing my rating. So I am going to give Bambi the reckoning two screams.
SPEAKER_04Wow, I was higher.
SPEAKER_05I I I no sorry, sorry, sorry. Uh I I was thinking in terms of like the letterboxed rating. So two stars on letterbox for me. So four that translates to four screams. I I forgot I forgot to do my conversion math there. Sorry, guys. Four screams.
SPEAKER_04Scientifically proven. Yep.
SPEAKER_05My I like I said, I moved the office around so my chart isn't posted up next to the next to the podcast stuff like it usually is. All right. Well, that was Bambi the Reckoning, guys. Uh what a what a film.
SPEAKER_04What a film. Go out and watch it. Peacock, it's free on Peacock. It's free on Peacock.
SPEAKER_05You can watch that. You can watch the other Puneverse movies. Uh you can watch uh most of the Leprechaun movies. I think Leprechaun 2 is missing out of there.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, if you come over to my house, I've got all seven on Blu-ray because I bought that one well one day I I a long time ago. I I bought that in in lieu of uh maybe doing a uh whole leprechaun series on Silver Screams every St. Patrick's Day, and I just poo-pooed away from that decision. Now I just have all seven leprechaun movies.
SPEAKER_05Hey, if you still have it, you and I will make that dream come true, Max. All right. Well, Max, thank you so much for for joining me on short notice and for recommending such a such a wonderful film for us to talk about. Yeah, always picking winners. Always picking winners. That's all we do on this podcast. Just knock knocking them out of the park. Oh, it's fun to talk about. Like, and like we said, we got some creative kills, we got some laughs out of it. It got us to feel some things, you know. So interactive. Yeah, interactive.
SPEAKER_04Good job, filmmakers. I I I do want to put my hat in the rain for the back rooms in May.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yes. Mm-hmm. I saw that you've seen that trailer, but I've only seen the teasers for that with like the little changing room descending camera shot one. That's the only one that I've seen. I did see that there was an extended trailer that came out. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Is that I watched it. It's a good trailer. It doesn't it doesn't give a ton away. Okay, but but if you haven't watched it and you're already in, don't watch it. I but it is it is my birthday movie this year, and I'm very excited to go see that. Okay.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, we will we will have you on for the back rooms. I will make I will make that happen to you. Happy birthday. Alright, well, that's gonna do it for us here on the Silver Screams podcast. Uh thank you all for listen for listening. Make sure you go follow us on Instagram. Uh, you'll see what other movies we got coming up this month. Uh schedule for April hasn't come out yet, uh, because like I said, scheduling conflicts came up, so we're kind of reworking things and figuring out like when our episodes are going to come out. We're still gonna release on Fridays. I just don't know exactly when Kristen and I are going to get to record together. So we'll see. We'll make it happen. And who knows? Max, I may be calling you up next week for uh for a last-minute uh fill-in pod here. Alright, yeah, just let me know. So uh April, April Max month, I guess. Alright, well, that's gonna do it for us here on the Silver Screen Podcast. Once again, I'm Derek. And I'm Max. And we'll catch you next time. Stay sweet screen.