Into the Forest

Definitely not a bad movie. I was oddly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Any time someone is caught in the woods in the dark there's usually a pretty good chance it's gonna be scary. The characters were somewhat unique, they weren't annoying like some groups in movies. The one guy was but it was kind of his job as a youtuber. I wish more had happened but there was enough intensity and creepy scenes to make up for a lack of actual visual effects. It's not a movie that's gonna stick in my head but it was decent. Acting pretty good, dialogue fairly good, storyline ok, scenes ok-good. It's not a hit but it's definitely not deserving of 1 star. Some people just have incredibly high expectations. Some blood but no gore or nudity.

Sweet jesus don't waste your time on this garbage, the scariest thing about this one hour movie is the guy wearing black socks pulled half way up to his knees with shorts on. Lol 🤣

INTO THE FOREST documents the efforts of yet another paranormal ghost hunting team that wants to make it big on television as they enter a forest infamous for having a large number of people disappearing in it.

Yes, this is a low budget found footage movie featuring not so great acting, a well-worn concept if not a nonsensical story, and poor makeup effects. However, at 67 minutes, the movie is short, and the film-makers used this to tighten the story. That, in turn helped create and build tension.

The main characters are not as unlikable as in many comparable found footage movies, yet the actor who plays the father of the missing girl steals the show. His performance contributes to one of the most tense scenes in the movie, and yet that scene is only about midway through.

The apparently made-up mythology features an evil woman who decades ago kidnapped 13 kids and then killed everybody, including herself. I was amused when they said that a copy of the Codex Gigas ("Large Book"), also known as the Devil's Bible because of an unusually detailed portrait of the devil, was at that site and then presented what looked like a small booklet or leaflet to the camera. The Codex is a gigantic book, 36 inches long and 165 pounds heavy.

The ending was conventional and the final reveal a letdown, but in its place, this movie avoided a common bane of found footage horror movies, namely a slow pace and humdrum progression until things pick up toward the end, and I believe that counts for something.

Found footage films generally have a lower bar to reach, and at that, Into the Forest definitely has a more than commendable attempt at being better than the standard found footage film.

But there are still some issues to point out here.

Good found footage, and good horror in general, either have annoying characters for the sake of comedic relief or for some satisfaction when they die a brutal death. I've brought up the annoying character issue in my review of The Girl in Cabin 13, which has some of the same people involved, but it really needs to be mentioned here as well. It's fine to have an annoying side character, because it adds some comedic relief, but to have an annoying protagonist is not great, especially in modern horror, where the viewer expects a bit more out of the characters. Always, always flesh your characters out. Give them some soul and spark. Out of the three main characters, only one is really interesting, and she doesn't have as much screen time as she should. A solid base for the characters is important in any storytelling medium, but Into the Forest doesn't quite have that. The writing is better than The Girl in Cabin 13, especially in terms of the dialogue, but it still needs a lot of finetuning. This isn't meant as a knock on what has been set up, but there is definitely unrealized potential here........ The story hits most of the same territory and tropes as most found footage set in a forest, but the pacing is faster than expected. For the most part, the story is decent enough and pushes along quite nicely, but I do feel like it doesn't do enough to stand out among the many, many, many found footage films with similar ideas and concepts. Too much feels familiar to concepts and ideas that have been done to death in many, many different ways........ Granted, it is difficult to make found footage content stand out when pretty much everything has already been done, but found footage is also that subgenre where you feel that satisfaction if you're that one in a thousand that makes that stand-out content. There was definitely potential here for that, but it didn't quite hit that mark....... Visually there's more polish and flair than the typical found footage. There's definitely visual strength at hand, and the look punches above its budget for some truly great content. I found nothing wrong with the approach to the look of the film, with some above-average cinematography on display and a good overall aesthetic.

While the visuals are definitely strong, especially during dark scenes, the writing and acting just weren't where they needed to be. Some interesting ideas here, but further polish was definitely needed for Into the Forest to realize its potential.

I didn't know it was possible to hate a movie within 30 seconds of the start....but this managed it.