Haunted Forest got nothing new served on the table, it is the same usual Filipino horror film following the traditional and already exhausting plot flow. The difference that this film have to separate itself from other local horror films is its introduction of a new supernatural entity that causes the succeeding unexplainable deaths in a particular province. Being the only horror film in the current festival, it offers no advantage in comparison to last year's festival sole horror film entry Seklusyon. It had a slow start and honestly only showcased its commitment to its genre in the last 15 minutes of the film, but still highly predictable because of its redundancy in presentation. There were sequences as well featuring poorly edited visual effects.
Haunted Forest possibly got its nod from MMFF committee because of its excellent cinematography (who also did a great job on last year's Saving Sally). Jane Oineza could also possibly land nomination as Best Actress, without her compelling acting lead, the film's horror factor will be much lesser convincing. The attempt though to create romantic connection among the four teenage leads also isn't as effective because of its seemingly lack of chemistry as a pair (Jane-Jameson; Maris-Jon). Apart from Jane's superb acting, Maris' natural bubbly personality and Joey Marquez' slapstick comedy help in making the audience bit engaged on screen.
Overall, Haunted Forest is like a replacement to Lily Monterverde's Shake Rattle Roll series and we are all so fed up with the similarity.
