Imagine this: twigs snapping. Screaming in the distance. Leaves rustling. Doesn’t that make you want to scream your head off? No? Well, too bad, because that’s basically all The Forest had to offer.
The plot is essentially that Jess goes into the forest and has a history of suicidal tendencies, so Sarah goes to Japan to try and find her, only to get lost herself. The movie does do a good job of making you question reality, but it also made me ask a variety of other questions, such as, “What’s actually going on right now?” “Really? She’s tripped AGAIN?” and “When will this be over?”
The main problem with The Forest is that it had some good elements, but they only drew attention to how terrible the rest of it was by comparison. For example, the film had some moments of wonderful cinematography- only to later include sloppy CGI edits akin to something you could make in less than two minutes on an iPhone app. Natalie Dormir was able to show off some great acting skills when she played the roles of both Sarah and Jess, twins. However, her character Jess had hardly any screen time to speak of, and Sarah spent most of the time running and tripping. Basically, this movie was like putting glitter on dog food- the good parts weren’t nearly enough to cover up the bad.
Another issue with this movie is that the plot reads like something a teenage weeaboo would write to try and be edgy enough to impress his goth friends. It takes the idea of the suicide forest ( a real place in Japan where people actually commit suicide), adds ghosts, and stops there. Not only is this disrespectful to the people who actually died there, it is completely uninspired. So many horror movies take place in the woods that it’s not enough to base a whole movie on without seeming absolutely contrived.
The movie only got an 11% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critic Norman Wilner saying, “After about half an hour, I found myself thinking how much nicer it would be to go for a decent walk myself, which isn’t really the reaction this sort of movie is supposed to elicit.”
So, if you’re a big fan of jumpscares, cheesy effects, and hate complex plot, go see this movie.
Mikayla Rust, Editor in Chief
