Into the Forest

I don't agree with those who find the story line slow, or try to compare this film with Kubrick's "shining". This is a european film after all and european films only rarely handle their characters the way Hollywood does. In "shining" a father gets crazy and tries to kill his wife and son. Period! No further development of characters, all black and white, all it matters is horror itself. In "dans la foret", a realistic, european psychological thriller, we have a character who struggles and fights with his demons and in his desperation turns to his six years old son for help, a little boy, who having a special charisma can actually personalize his father's evil side. To a sentimentally intelligent viewer the "peace" the little boy offers to his father, a process which helps him too to get rid of his nightmares as it is illustrated in the end of the film is really heartbreaking and deeply touching. Horror is part of the story but not its goal. So i strongly recommend the film to the ones who like psychological thrillers based on human characters and not just horror. Especially the ones who are still trying to decide wheather their father has been a "devil" or an angel to them (for that was the case of the little "son" in the film) may shed a lot of tears in the end...