It’s not a huge secret that January hasn’t always been the kindest month to horror movies, as it has become a dumping ground of sorts for genre fare over the last several years. That’s why it’s great to see a film like The Forest come along right about now; it probably won’t be the most revolutionary excursion in terror to come along in theaters in 2016, but it is an incredibly well-made effort from first time feature filmmaker Jason Zada and features strong performances from both Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney, all making for a solid and creepy start to the new year of horror.
The Forest follows Sara Price (Dormer) as she heads into the Suicide Forest (or the Aokigahara Forest as it is known as officially), which is located near Mount Fuji in Japan, to find her twin sister Jess (also played by Dormer) who mysteriously disappeared there while on a trip. According to mythology, the area is known to drive anyone who goes into the woods completely mad and earned it’s suicidal moniker due to the fact that many folks often travel there to end their lives in solitude. Sara isn’t convinced that her sister is dead, despite the fact that she’s been missing for several days, and upon her arrival in Japan enlists the help of Aiden (Kinney), a journalist who has a familiarity with the area and promises to take her with him into a guided trip into the forest he’s coordinated with the help of a local.
Once they arrive at the Suicide Forest, there’s only one rule that must be followed above all others – never leave the path – and as you may expect (this is a horror movie after all), Sara’s search for Jess leads her, and her fellow travelers, right off the path and directly into harm’s way, resulting in a haunting experience that only gets weirder and more surreal the longer their search continues on.
When it comes to supernaturally-themed horror, I’m always appreciative of movies that go against the grain and try to deliver something a bit different for viewers and that’s one of biggest reasons I enjoyed The Forest. It starts off with this air of familiarity to it, but as the story unfolds and Sara goes deeper into the woods, Zada takes us through his disorienting cinematic vision that’s packed with a few unexpected turns, making it so you can never quite tell what is reality and just what’s being manipulated in the minds of these characters.
The script from Ben Ketai, Sarah Cornwell and Nick Antosca does a great job of tapping into some of our most basic human consternations – loss, regret, the fear of abandonment and our struggle to let go of what we love most – and I really applaud their ability to give us a narrative that dabbled in ambiguity but doesn’t feel like its underdeveloped in any way whatsoever. Zada, who first dazzled horror fans with his unnerving online video Take This Lollipop a few years ago, proves with The Forest that he’s got a keen ability behind the camera and I’d certainly welcome more films from him in the future.
My only quibbles with The Forest are with some of the film’s CGI shots, as they do a huge disservice to a project that otherwise looks rather incredible (a tip of the ol’ hat to DP Mattias Troelstrup for utilizing the movie’s wilderness backdrop to the utmost in The Forest). The final shot also feels a bit shoe-horned in at the end (and somewhat takes away from the tragic nature of the finale, which to me, was effective enough on its own) but considering how much I enjoyed the rest of The Forest, none of these issues were real deal-breakers for me as a genre fan.
As a whole, I really liked The Forest and dig just how ambitious the project was from every aspect; Zada and his crew shot some of it on location in Japan, the cast was asked to endure a lot of physicality for their roles, and it just didn’t feel like a horror movie I’ve seen a hundred times before. Being based on a real-life location that’s mired in such eerie controversy adds so much as well, and while I don’t think it’ll make my favorites list, I do think The Forest is an admirable start for the horror genre in 2016 and proves good movies can – and should – be released this time of year.
Movie Score: 3/5
Heather A. Wixson was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs, until she followed her dreams and moved to Los Angeles in 2009. A 14-year veteran in the world of horror entertainment journalism, Wixson fell in love with genre films at a very early age, and has spent more than a decade as a writer and supporter of preserving the history of horror and science fiction cinema. Throughout her career, Wixson has contributed to several notable websites, including Fangoria, Dread Central, Terror Tube, and FEARnet, and she currently serves as the Managing Editor for Daily Dead, which has been her home since 2013. She's also written for both Fangoria Magazine & ReMind Magazine, and her latest book project, Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume One will be released on October 20, 2021.
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