Bambi: The Reckoning (2025)

October Challenge Day 27

I walked into this without a drop of expectation. I was feeling whimsy and devil-may-care though, so I dove in with eyes wide. Let's talk about:

Bambi: The Reckoning (2025)

The original cartoon naturally traumatized me as a kid - in two ways. One: It's BAMBI, it's traumatizing. Second: when I came home from watching the movie in the theater, Mom and I found Dad and my older brothers in the shed with a dead deer hanging from the rafters! 

I was inconsolable. 

Took me a long time to even watch the cartoon film again. 

So here I am, decades later, giving ol' The Reckoning a try! And I frickin' loved it!!!

This is the heartbreaking bloodbath story about how Bambi grew up without his Mom, because she was shot by hunters, he makes it through, grows up, falls in love, him and the doe raise their little one, life is grand, and then BAM!

His family is murdered, he encounters toxic waste, and turns into this wild beast of a creature and he has one mission: TO KILL

Bambi is pretty scary here, pretty fun scary. With the combination of the dark woods and sound effects, he was animated effectively. Again, this is a gruesome story so hang on to your heads!

Oh and there are bonus killer Thumpers!

This movie is diabolical for it's one last kicker: You'll Be SAD. Bambi is going to Break Your Heart Again! Just brilliantly diabolical. Made even more wail-inducing by the soundtrack at the end.

Evil geniuses. 

Best watched at night with friends who love to hoot and holler at the TV or alone with headphones on. Pairs with a classic childhood dish.

I watched this film on Shudder or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this surprise.

Crystal Lake (Television Show, 2026)

My Mom died suddenly, 10 years ago. She would have been 80 today. Let's do a little mama celebrating with:

Crystal Lake

As stated in my Carrie review, I knew I was going to be talking about this eventually.  Hell, heartbreakingly, nearly 10 years ago exactly I wrote my review on Friday the 13th (and about a memorial for Mom). 

OH LIFE. 

YOU ARE FUNNY

I absolutely loved this show. Absolutely loved it.

Right away, we see Jason as the kid we all knew was there. Just a .... kid. A smart and curious kid who is wildly loved by his mother. It's a shame about his face, head, and the  radiation....

And we see his mother! A dedicated and hardworking single Mom making ends meet with side jobs and maybe hiding out from something.

This show is *slick*. I mean that in multiple ways. Where the original movie is, perhaps, grainy and loosey goosey, this show ties up frayed ends and really connects the viewers to the humanity behind the "monsters". 

Naturally, we have sex curious teens, to be expected, but they don't play the same role as they do in the movies. Not exactly. They are acknowledged and almost act as tributes - with rather spectacularly gory death scenes, and their morals and downfalls are not really the terror of the film.

This show is about heartbreak, friendship, madness, desperation, psychosis, insane scientists, abusive relationships, and those unfortunate to be caught in the cross fires of all that.

This is the 8 episode story of a Mom trapped and the lengths she'll go to protect a child who the world would otherwise abandon or exploit. 

Mama just loved her kid.

I think what made this series work so well is that it really felt like it was made with LOVE (not necessarily a Mama's love) by people who understood the Jason lore. They understood the first film (and the 3rd....), in particular, and took all the great parts and refined them. Sharpened them. Doubled down. 

Again, I love this show! It's not for the newbies though. I really think you need to see *at least* the first movie to appreciate the series. Also, it's a gore fest - a shockingly delightful blood bath, so get your rain/splatter gear on and hold tight.

Best watched with Moms. Pairs with cafeteria food and canned beverages. I watched this show on Peacock or use the Find It! Watch It! links to see where else you can eventually find this SLASHER.

Invitation to Hell (1984)

October Challenge Day 25

HAHAHA - AHHHHH

This is so great! 

Let's talk about the TV movie:

Invitation to Hell

Tubi did me a solid and selected this one to watch as I was washing dishes and didn't make it to the remote in time - and good thing I didn't, because I otherwise would have missed the opening scene (which had me sat). 

This is the story of an *All American Family* on their way to their new home and Dad's new job at a tech company.

We have Sebastian from Never Ending Story Robbie Winslow as the young son who is just as interested in computers as his Dad, the baby sister he picks on because girls aren't smart enough for computers, Rose from Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter is Dead Mom Winslow as the ideal caregiver, and Dad Winslow - who is honestly a great Dad in so many ways. 

They pull up to the Poltergeist house ideal suburban home of the '70s and '80s and get ready to start their new nightmare life. 

The community has a Mar-a-lago club, however, and it's *THE* place to be a part of....

I couldn't quite tell if this was a warning about the dangers of gated or isolated communities or not - considering it was directed by Wes Craven, I think it was, although it had a little religious and moral obligations to the family undertones too. Either way, I actually enjoyed it, particularly since the father Husband-ed and Dad-ed so hard it was kinda hot. 

Good, kind men are ATTRACTIVE AF and this film had my continued attention because of Pops, here. Rose Mom also had my continued attention because she still had her "I'm Right on Top of It Rose" laugh while the world was burning around her.

In short, this is a story about the desire for power at the expense of yourself and others.

Hell yeah, I'm glad I accepted Tubi's invitation to this film. 

Best watched alone or with a friend who understands and appreciates '80s made-for-TV movies. Pairs with meatloaf and potatoes, and in your best comfy clothes. 

I watched this film on Tubi or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this strikingly cozy film. 

Servants of Twilight (1991)

October Challenge Day 24

Well, this was a little strange and uncomfortable. Let's talk about the curious:

Servants of Twilight

This is the Dean Koontz story of a single mother, trying to protect her son from a cult who thinks he's the antichrist. 

This is such a bonkers story, and wildly scary for practical reasons. The idea of a cult randomly targeting your young child as someone who must be killed: BONKERS

It doesn't even need additional thriller aspects to this - but thrillers are still coming! 

Now, a PI is hired to protect this family and things get ugly quick. This cult will stop at nothing (Still Scary). Why ... why were the police never involved? I don't know. 

This is absolutely an early '90s thriller, with guns ablazin' and all. Now, I have not read the book this movie is based on, but I suspect the book is much better. This one struggles but still it's interesting and entertaining for a weekend afternoon fling.

**** I typed all that up when I was about halfway through the film. Here are my thoughts at the end of the film ****

WELL WELL WELL

I actually had a fast one pulled on me here. Yes, it's a little boring and silly but the end was legit a wild surprise for me. 

Maybe it was because I was mending jeans at the time I started this film, content to experience this movie as the whimsy '90s thing it is - when out of nowhere things got really really interesting and I put the mending project down. 

I'm surprised I didn't watch this growing up - I would have Ate It Up and been in a trance about the bats in particular. 

So good job, little sleeper! You got one on me! I was impressed. My prior thoughts still stand though. 

I watched this film on Tubi or use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this sneaky little thriller.

Death Machine (1994)

October Challenge Day 23

This is what I picture AI is doing when it breaks out of the sand boxes. Let's talk about: 

Death Machine

Here we have technology going wildly out of control. Naturally, the killer in the machine was all created under the watchful eye of a socially unhinged megalomaniac tech bro who has unhealthy attachments to women ... where have we seen that before....

He has also acquired his seemingly red pill DOGE team to do the dirty grunt work. Don't worry though. The one woman in this film is smart, so, there is hope.

This is the story of a tech firm, under scrutiny in a depraved future, where a killer robot thing is unleashed. 

Oddly, I enjoyed this a lot more than I was expecting. Bonus Brad Dourif is SO Scary! Man, that man is exceptional. 

The robot creature monster thing is also wildly entertaining and frankly, scary! I giggled screamed, like at a carnival ride.

I don't know what personality disorder this film has, but somehow it's a fun one. In small doses. 

Gore, tech, fast-paced, and where the one woman asks "Do we have any more explosives?" after falling in an elevator shaft, and one beat later, "Does anyone have a cigarette?"

It was wild to see the discussion of replacing humans with robots, all being played on a floppy disk though - where did they find the space? They can save your personality on a floppy disk too. So. lolololololololo

This is a wildly trippy, mind-fuc of a film if you too have lived through the technology changes over the last 30 years. At 16, I learned about the internet (or as I was introduced: "The World Wide Web") in a FUNERAL HOME, from a man who was paying me in internet classes for doing clean-up labor for the home's remodeling project. It's a long story.

In any case, this film is well worth the watch, particularly

NOW

I watched this film on Tubi, use the Find It! Watch It! links on Horror Habit's side bar to see where else you can find this emotionally unregulated diamond in the rough.