听 User Rating 
Sadly not featuring Disney's cartoon fawn, Who Killed Bambi? is a French medical thriller directed under heavy anaesthetic by Harry He's Here To Help scribe Gilles Marchand. We're looking at a familiar case of deadly doctor syndrome, as Harry star Laurent Lucas gives sinister after-hours treatment to his patients, arousing the wide-eyed suspicions of student nurse Isabelle (Sophie Quinton). For once, this is a foreign flick that's crying out for a Hollywood transfusion.
At least then we might get some excitement, even if it's of the crass, exploitative kind. Here we get zimmerframe pacing and flatline suspense. Characterisation is on the peaky side, too. Rapidly revealed as the baddie, Lucas remains two-dimensional throughout, and has hardly any fun with the role. Take the bit where he quotes Bambi's most famous line of dialogue: "Your mother can no longer be with you." It should be an outrageously camp, creepy moment, but he could just as well be reading out a prescription for shingles.
"HARD TO STIFLE A YAWN"
Still, the atmospherics have the desired effect: the hospital's white corridors and harsh lights glow with antiseptic unease. And it's hard to suppress a shiver when a patient wakes up on the operating table. But unfortunately it's equally tough to stifle a yawn as the plot plods towards its humdrum resolution, failing to deliver the stinger twist we've been primed to expect. Neither slick enough for thrill-seekers nor smart enough for arthouse-lovers, Who Killed Bambi? never quite finds its legs.
In French with English subtitles.
