The Forest

After Sarah discovers her twin sister has disappeared into the suicide forest, she travels to Japan in hopes of finding her, after getting some help from a guy she's met, of which had clearance to take her into said forest, things take a turn for the worse as strange occurrences befall Sarah, as well as the others, turning more, and more sinister, and even deadly. First off, the story of this entire film I personally thought was neat. Having the emotional depth of knowing your close siblings missing was unique, and added impact toward this film. Making things serious, including having said sister missing in another country, let alone the deadliest place in said country is worse, adding tension, as well as some hope for the audience. Moving on; throughout this entire movie, things ended up a bit clichéd-like, in terms of the whole genre of horror. This horror movie took the clichéd route. You know when your sitting there, soaking the film in, and suddenly, for example, someone slams their face randomly against the window of your house, or say car for absolutely no reason, other than the sake to just make you jump. This movie did that a few times, for absolutely no reason, out of nowhere, something just jumps at you for the sake of scaring you. Another element, following through with that. Again, have you ever seen a horror movie to where the film tricks you to think the characters actually going through a trauma, but awakes to find out it's just a nightmare? I personally felt as if this movie overdid that quite a bit, it kept having our main character, Sarah dream of something terrifying, then awake - Once again leading the film to just throw that randomly in there for the sake of scaring us. However.. for the scares in this film to where actually made sense, they successfully succeeded in not only adding tension, but managing to be nerve racking, and completely unsettling. Dark, creepy atmosphere, as well as a tense build-up of suspense succeeded in not only making the audience paranoid, but scaring them in the process of unleashing the awaiting scare. The characters, all around, I felt did a solid job executing their characters, and what they stood for, in terms of their background stories, in-depth traits, etc., as the audience, it felt compelling to know more, and dig deeper toward the characters' personality depth, instead of keeping them vague, and randomly placed just for the sake to be killed off, as they were actually quite intriguing, and well played out.

Overall, this movie had flaws. But usually horror movies in January are red flags, showing it's bad. However. This movie was quite surprising, succeeding in some successful jump scares, but more importantly creepy, unsettling atmosphere, and an overall white- knuckled environment. Although this film took a cliché toward the constant, randomly placed jump scares, as well as dream sequences, in my opinion, it still managed to tie in necessary jump scares, so to speak. The characters were intriguing, with great back-story, and development. The film managed to tie in some thought - provoking moments that succeeded, but were answered. The film, however, not mentioned before seemed to have a bit of a mixed - unresolvable way of answering the entire film itself, making the entire thing a bit confusing, but for the most part answering needed answers to have this movie make sense. For a first weekend January horror film, this wasn't bad, but it suffered heavily clichéd plot flaws. Aside that, this was surprising! I honestly had a good time with this film, and would recommend a look toward horror fans / people who want an intriguing, unsettling time!

Upon seeing Jason Zada's "The Forest," I feel like I'm at a point of indifference I have never been at before when it comes to watching and reviewing films. Normally, I emerge from films eager to talk about some aspect, or feel empowered to emphasize details or things in the film I wouldn't have thought general audiences might have noticed themselves. With "The Forest," I emerge with depressingly little to talk about. It's become far too common to kick off a new year with an underwhelming horror film (2012 had "The Devil Inside," 2013 had "Texas Chainsaw 3D," 2014 had "Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones," and 2015 had "The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death"), and if nothing else, that seems to be the only constant in American cinema alongside with a surefire hurricane of blockbusters starting in May and continuing through July).

"The Forest" is set in the Aokigahara Forest, located in Japan's sacred Mount Fuji. It is a forest that was once known as the place where family members would leave sick, crippled, or disabled loved ones to die during times of famine and war, and in present day, is a popular suicide location. We focus on Sara Price (Natalie Dormer), a young woman who gets a call from the Japanese police telling her that her missing twin sister Jess (also played by Dormer) is dead after she was seen going into the Aokigahara Forest. Knowing her sister all too well, and knowing that she is unstable but not suicidal, Sara commits to flying halfway across the world to try and find her, as a strong part of her believes she is still alive.

Sara's belief is only strengthened when she sees that the body discovered is not Jess, leading her to believe that her sister is still somewhere deep in the forest. At a bar one night, she meets an Australian reporter named Aiden (Taylor Kinney), who decides to do a story on her and her quest to find her sister. She tells him how Jess was always the one that looked toward danger, when she turned her head; she recalls when their parents were killed by a drunk driver and how Jess saw the bodies while she closed her eyes. The next morning, the two venture into Aokigahara with a park ranger named Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa), in efforts to try and find Jess.

The idea of the forest, as explained in very disjointed and vague manners by the locals throughout the course of the film, is that if there is an inkling of sadness in your heart upon entering Aokigahara, it will be exploited through things that you will see in the forest to the point where you'll believe the only way out is suicide. Michi explains to Sara upon entering deep into the woods that anything she sees from here on out is a result of hallucinations and her own mind playing tricks on her. The natural world leaves as soon as you abandon the trail of the forest.

"The Forest" is marginally effective in creating atmosphere, especially during the late night and early morning scenes when the forest becomes less a collection of trees, branches, and leaves and more of an abstract maze. The issue the film has is rooted in the screenplay, penned by Nick Antosca, Sarah Cornwell, and Ben Ketai. In order for the character relationships and the setting to be simultaneously successful, or at the very least harmonious, they need to be equally developed. Initially, the trio of screenwriters do this right by giving Sara enough time before she has to go in the forest to allow her personality to be open to us to get to know. We get to know about her and her sister's backstory after she meets Aiden and we get a hold on their characters quite nicely.

The problem is that once Sara, Aiden, and Michi go in the forest, the focus should shift on the forest being the character in the film, which it really isn't. Nothing about this forest feels that eerie, except for the music and the jumpscares we experience when we are immersed into it. The feeling of being trapped in the forest with the characters is there, since there is no cutting to a search party or Sara's fiancé, but there is still no real involvement or characteristic with this forest aside from ropes and the occasionally successful jolt.

Because of this, "The Forest" grows repetitive, and at the end of it all, we have a conclusion that doesn't answer any of our questions about who Jess is as a person and why she would have wanted to go into these woods in the first place. This is especially frustrating since, from the beginning, Zada and company make it seem like they will develop the story in a manner that's focused on the characters, only to leave the most intriguing soul of the entire film undeveloped in her motivations and her intentions.

Well-shot, but lacking sustenance and the graceful blend of character and location, "The Forest" is a mediocre horror film, though its PG-13 makes it perfectly acceptable for the middle school/high school crowd to experience a Friday night scare. It's a bit humorous to think that the path the film took is the same the film's characters took upon entering Aokigahara. Instead of following the path that would've keep them safe (the filmmakers keeping both the characters and the location in mind), they took a wrong turn and ended up losing themselves in a sea of unfortunate circumstances.

I had my eye on this movie since it came out earlier this year. It was a January release so I was in no rush to see it, but it had a genuinely cool premise: looking for someone in the suicide forest, which is an actual place in Japan where people go to commit suicide. It's pretty unsettling. In the movie, it's said that the forest compels people to kill themselves due to supernatural forces or vengeful spirits. The Forest focuses on Sara, whose sister has gone missing in said forest, and Sara's desperate endeavors to find her sister despite the evidence pointing to her being dead. Up until about the 30-minute mark, I was on board. The pieces were set, the exposition was established, and the characters (Sara, her journalist friend Aiden, and a tour guide) were finally heading into the forest. Again, the atmosphere is creepy throughout. The director clearly has a grasp on how to build tension.

The problem is that the promising build ups lead to zero payoffs. There are handful of cheap jump scares, a couple of which admittedly shocked me but only momentarily. Once the initial shock wore off seconds later I was in the same state of mind as before. Effective jump scares linger for a while; they imbue dread and usually add something to the narrative. The jump scares here are your typical, "Boo! Something's behind you!", which are easy to shrug off. Also, once they're in the forest, the characters make some decisions that are unfathomably stupid and out-of-character. Like, the main point of the forest is that it makes you think you see things, a psychedelic effect if you will. So after Sara receives this crucial information, she runs after the first thing she sees scurrying around in the forest. While it's pitch black, mind you. It completely takes you out of the movie and makes you lose all empathy for the characters for putting themselves in these avoidable situations.

Also, The Forest focuses more on the bond between Sara and her sister than the actual forest. So there are plenty of flashbacks, dream sequences, all that garbage that just muddles the fact that, hey, this forest is really f*cking scary. Why not focus on the forest instead of forcing character development, if you can even call it that? It makes no sense. Also, there's nothing we haven't seen before. People being hung? First scene in Sinister. Claustrophobic underground tunnels? The Descent. The only thing that makes the movie unique is the actual setting which is used as a backdrop more than anything.

The acting is good, as is the premise, but the potential littered within this movie is never fully realized. The director can definitely creep you out but he'll need a better script if he wants to make a truly great movie. The Forest just leaves you feeling hollow and disappointed.

Aokigahara, otherwise known as Suicide Forest, literally writes its own stories. It's a place where people go to end their lives, a real life horror vista which has haunted many documentaries and videos. As creepy as the setting is, The Forest is still trapped on archaic horror gimmicks. It doesn't mean it has no merit, few of its moments are quite delightful, yet it spends most of the time wandering across predictable set-ups and mundane scares.

Sara (Natalie Dormer) goes to Japan to find her missing twin sister Jess (also Natalie Dormer). The search leads her to Aokigahara, the infamous forest. Unfazed by this revelation, Sara is still determined to search for her, almost stubbornly so. Natalie Dormer of Game of Thrones' fame is definitely a draw as this is a different genre than her other works. She does put in the effort, her strong motivation persists although the character is stuck on typical scream queen stereotype.

It's insane how many times her character randomly strolls to dark corners or investigates weird occurrence alone even though ample warnings have been given. These are actions common sense would dictate as unwise, especially on a place called Suicide Forest, yet she performs them blindly anyway. It's pretty over saturated that the excuse of her being in trance because hypnotic forest made her do it is not sufficient anymore.

There are some good moments that are chilling and well presented, it even occasionally ventures to psychological perspective of the ordeal. However, the movie usually returns to average scares of oriental horror such as vague ominous warning or lost girl in peculiar outfit. It's a rigid showcase of horror, one that's been used since the days of Ju-On and arguably even before that.

While the draw of exotic location and appealing lead actress might interest visitors, they would only find basic horror in The Forest.

Natalie Dormer plays a woman who is searching for her twin sister(also Dormer) who has gone missing in Japan, last seen in a forest where everybody seems to die, but she is determined to find her no matter what, but will she find her, or will the forest drive her insane?

The film does have some good scares, and Natalie Dormer does give it her all here. But the story itself feels to cut down, and actors like Taylor Kinney who play it so bland, he just does not have much to work with. The movie tries to hard and it shows, the ending does not leave much to be explained. All in all, it could have been better. Just don't leave much to enjoy all of it.