the forest horror movie review

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For a while, "The Forest" defies expectations. We're used to the usual scare sequences, in which some eerie music plays on the soundtrack while some character wanders through a spooky locale. The music builds as the inevitable startle moment approaches, and when it arrives, there's the dissonant, deafening sting to accompany the howl/screech/yell of the frightener and whatever terrifying form it takes (monster, masked killer, pale demonic child, etc.).

In his debut feature, director Jason Zada doesn't quite take the usual route. Sure, our protagonist wanders through an assortment of dark, potentially haunted places, but that score is absent. There's a reliance on building tension with editing rhythms and ambient noise here that theoretically is refreshing. When the inevitable does arrive, that jarring music cue is absent (the growl/shriek/scream is, of course, still present, because the audience's reflexes have to be tested somehow). Zada clearly knows that the usual tactics have grown stale and predictable, and while he isn't exactly reinventing the wheel here, he's at least reducing some of the traction by eliminating an aural redundancy.

It doesn't last for the entirety of the movie, though. That would be hoping for too much at a time when it seems that every other (if not every) mainstream horror movie feels obligated to end with a shot of the visage of some allegedly frightening entity rapidly approaching the camera. This movie does not buck that trend, and indeed, the other cheap, familiar tactics eventually show up here, too. In the meantime, there are plenty of other ones to compensate for the ones that are absent but not missed.

The story follows Sara Price ( Natalie Dormer ), who has come to Tokyo after receiving a call from local police that her twin sister Jess (also played by Dormer) has gone missing (it's a little amusing that Sara shows people a picture of Jess when all she really needs to do is point at her own face and say, "But she has black hair"). Jess was last seen walking into Aokigahara, a forest at the base of Mount Fuji that has become known as the "Suicide Forest," on account of the considerable number of people who end their lives within it. Legend is that spirits in the forest feed on people's sadness, driving them to suicide. The sisters, of course, have a traumatic event from their past that is easy fodder for the spirits.

Sara is determined to search the woods for her sister, even though everyone warns her not to venture into the place. She's eventually accompanied by Aiden ( Taylor Kinney ), a travel magazine writer who thinks her story would make for a good article, and Michi ( Yukiyoshi Ozawa ), who makes regular rounds through Aokigahara to search for bodies.

The screenplay by Nick Antosca , Sarah Cornwell , and Ben Ketai is in a rush to start, with the movie's expository scenes playing out in flashback as Sara arrives in Tokyo, but still takes a long while for anything significant to happen. As Sara uncovers more details about Jess' activities leading up to her disappearance, the movie offers scene after scene of her walking through darkened spaces, winding up startled, and realizing that it was all just a dream (the "It was only a dream" gimmick occurs so often that it deflates whatever tension may exist in the earlier scenes). Whatever difference Zada's relatively minimalist approach to scenes might make, it does not outweigh the overarching feeling that the movie falls into a predictable, repetitive routine.

The central locale (a real place with depressing, ever-increasing statistics that might make one question the taste of exploiting/publicizing it) holds a lot of promise. That promise, though, is only realized in fleeting flourishes—menacing fog rolls through the forest, tape and rope connected to trees serve as guides to the bodies of those who wanted to be found, a river seemingly changes course to discombobulate Sara. That last one points to the method of much of the movie's third act, which raises questions of what is real and what is imagined. There's little rhyme or reason to the confusion. It's just a matter of convenience to lead the story to its underwhelming, sort-of twist.

The admiration for the little that Zada does differently in the early sections of "The Forest" does not last for long, as the movie repeatedly hits the same beats over and over again. Zada's film ends up feeling like an extended journey to a predestined shrug of a conclusion.

Mark Dujsik

Mark Dujsik has been writing about film since 2001. He is the sole writer, editor, and publisher of Mark Reviews Movies. Mark was a staff writer/co-critic at UR Chicago Magazine from 2007 until the end of its print edition in 2008, has written reviews for various online publications, and currently contributes to Magill’s Cinema Annual.

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The Forest (2016)

Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and images.

Natalie Dormer as Sara / Jess Price

Eoin Macken as Rob

Taylor Kinney as Aiden

Noriko Sakura as Mayumi

Yukiyoshi Ozawa as Michi

Yûho Yamashita as Sakura

Rina Takasaki as Hoshiko

Kikuo Ichikawa as Businessman

Nick Antosca
Sarah Cornwell

Cinematographer

Mattias Troelstrup
Bear McCreary

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The Forest (2016) Review

95 min | 2016 | (USA) | Jason Zada

Grade : B-

Synopsis : A young American woman named Sara Price (Dormer) travels to Japan’s Suicide Forest (Aokigahara) in search of her missing twin who has a troubled past.

Review : Slow, building horror with a cerebral bend.

If you are looking for jump scares, tons of special FX, or gore, this movie is not for you. If I had to categorize it, I would call it more of a suspenseful thriller. The Forest is like the burn in your muscles the day after a good run. While watching The Forest , it is at times difficult to tell the difference between what is real and imagined. The film’s dream-like quality leaves you as disoriented as the characters that attempt to navigate the labyrinth inside the Aokigahara Forest.

Be prepared, the Aokigahara doesn’t actually play as large of a role in the film as you might think. I won’t give away any spoilers but if you are going to enjoy this film, you have to go in with an open mind. Upon viewing trailers, one might think the whole film is about the horrors that lurk within this specific forest…not so much. The Suicide Forest is a conduit for the larger portion of the film to unfurl. In fact, I would suggest that the nebulous forest is just a means for Sara and her twin, Jess (also played by Dormer) to work out their equally ill-defined inner demons.

The amazing part about this film is that you don’t realize how well thought out it is until it ends. While the slow build up has been a point of contention by other critics, I have to disagree. Sitting in the theater, I initially thought that there was nothing overtly memorable about the film. Then the film ended and I found myself rethinking the smaller intricacies of the larger story. I believe that part of what makes a good film is when it resonates with you beyond the 95 minutes in the theater.

On a more basic continuity level…there is no way in Hell Sara’s cell phone battery lasted the whole time she is in the forest. She uses the flashlight app so frequently I was beginning to think the movie was a commercial for the app or the phone. Granted, it is inconsequential but if the film is going to point out the poor reception and probable roaming, then why didn’t anyone’s phone die in the forest?

The Nuts and Bolts : The plot builds slowly but offers a good ending. The acting by Dormer dominates the film along with a special showing from Rina Takasaki who played Hoshiko. Don’t go into it expecting to be scared witless, but rather think of it as a mystery with horrific elements. This film doesn’t bash you over the head with horror; it instead creeps in to your mind when you are not expecting it.

Check out Gwen, Liz, and Dawn “Talking The Forest ” in their podcast on the film .

You can stream The Forest on Amazon, and it’s also on Blu-ray:

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Movie Review: The Forest (2016)

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5 responses
--> January 16, 2016

In junior high school, my good friend Sara would show me “fast-forward” versions of films — she would sit me down and show me her favorite movies, speeding through the parts that were too drawn-out and inconsequential, with the purpose of getting to the good stuff faster.

The Forest , the first mainstream horror movie of 2016, begins with just this type of “fast-forwarding” in order to “get to the good stuff.”

Having recently been informed that her identical twin sister, Jess, has gone missing in Japan, Sara Price (both girls played by Natalie Dormer, “ The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 ”) becomes determined to find her. She shrugs off any professional advice from authorities and any offers of help from her husband, growing increasingly convinced that her sister, reported to have disappeared into Japan’s “Suicide Forest,” is alive, yet lost, and needs her help.

She arrives in Japan and is warned about the dangers of the Aokigahara forest — known as the “Sea of Trees,” the forest is incredibly dense, standing at the foot of Mt. Fuji and resting above a network of ice caves. A real location, and the site of hundreds of suicides, the Aokigahara forest is believed to be home to malevolent demons (who lure people into the forest, confusing them with voices and visions, causing them to become irretrievably lost), and yurei , lost souls filled with sadness and anger seeking vengeance for wrongs in their mortal lives. Despite the warnings of every Japanese man and woman with whom she comes into contact, Sara pushes on, visiting the school where her sister taught, speaking with her students, and searching her apartment for clues about her state of mind. She boards a train for the Aokigahara forest, and meets Aiden (Taylor Kinney, “ Rock the Kasbah ”) a travel reporter who convinces a Japanese guide friend of his to take her along on their next hike through the forest.

The guide, Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa, “ Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends ”), tells Sara that he walks through the forest regularly to search for the remains of men and women who have committed suicide, or have gotten lost in the trees succumbing to the elements. He stresses the importance of searching only in the daytime, and tells Sara that anything bad she sees is only in her head, and isn’t real. As in every encounter she’s had to this point, Sara disregards what he tells her, and decides she wants to take the lead, drawing the small group down a new path that leads them to a tent she recognizes as her sister’s. Convinced Jess is nearby, she refuses to leave, and she and Aiden remain in the forest overnight, faced with those visions and voices and terrors they were repeatedly and emphatically warned of.

Written by Nick Antosca, Sarah Cornwell and Ben Ketai, The Forest is an exercise in watching an arrogant foreigner tramp her way into another country’s historical landmark, convinced she knows better than those native to the area. Granted, Dormer’s Sara is intent on saving her sister’s life, but she comes across as rude, ungrateful, and completely condescending to the Japanese men and women who try to keep her from making a terrible mistake. She is the typical horror-movie-girl who boldly, and foolishly, marches into the dark room where everyone — including all of the characters — knows a madman lurks. Despite how often she tells you she wants to save her sister, Sara speaks of Jess very coldly — she describes her as always needing to be bailed out of trouble, as someone dealing with her own demons, as the one who looks at the dark side of life. She tells Aiden that Jess tried to commit suicide twice before, and we’re shown that Jess takes anti-anxiety medication, but at no point does Sara seem genuinely concerned for Jess’s well-being or state of mind. She’s treated as an annoying errand interrupting Sara’s otherwise upscale life. As a result, it’s difficult to sympathize with Sara’s insistence that she can “sense” that her twin is still alive and in need of help. Moreover, her treatment and disregard for everyone who’s trying to convince her that the Aokigahara forest is a very real and very dangerous threat makes you feel that she deserves what’s likely coming to her.

As a horror film, The Forest is short on frights, relying principally on loud noises that precede rush-at-you/in-your-face jumps scattered throughout the narrative, seemingly as ways to remind the viewer that the movie is supposed to be scary. The writing, as mentioned already, is rushed in the beginning, but it doesn’t get appreciably better once it settles from condensed conflict set-up to main character in danger essentials. Additionally, the conversations had between most characters are stiff, flat, and, at times, laughable; for example, when showing Aiden a cellphone picture of her missing twin, Sara says, “Same, right?” and Aiden replies, “Identical.” Finally, it’s incredibly difficult to suspend disbelief (an accepted element of watching horror) when Sara seems to have purchased the world’s one-and-only never-ending cellphone battery — her constant use of the cellphone flashlight is incredibly distracting, putting more focus on the unlikelihood of still having power after two days in the forest than on the tension that should be developed by a character exploring a dark cave.

Overall, while the movie itself isn’t necessarily boring, it creates more frustration than fright. The Forest , like its protagonist, doesn’t respect the history of a real place in the world; instead, it cheapens a somber location into another disappointing supernatural horror movie that will soon be gone from theaters and forgotten in minds.

Tagged: forest , investigation , Japan , sister , suicide , supernatural

School teacher by day. Horror aficionado by night.

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'Movie Review: The Forest (2016)' have 5 comments

January 16, 2016 @ 8:50 pm CANMBIE

Who is Natalie Dormer and why are they trying so hard to make her a star?

January 17, 2016 @ 12:16 am LiamAllGood

She’s Britain’s answer to Jennifer Lawrence and because of Game Of Thrones and The Hunger Games she is a nerd’s fantasy girl. This was supposed to be her leading lady coming out party. Guess it didn’t go off as planned.

January 16, 2016 @ 10:21 pm Eliot

The moment anyone in a film knowingly and willfully goes against the advice of those with specific knowledge to their cause, I wish them a foul end.

January 17, 2016 @ 9:52 am CSchell

The Forest. The Boy. With inventive names like those it’s hard to imagine them not being great!

February 1, 2016 @ 6:10 pm future-amplification

I don’t see it as harshly as you do Lisa. It principally relies on jump scares for its abrupt shocks but I thought it had the psychological creepy factor the entire time. It also ended with a good twist that I didn’t see coming

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If you go down to the woods ... The Forest

The Forest review – copse chiller set in Japan loses its path

Japan’s Aokigahara forest is a notorious suicide spot – and it’s also proving fatal for film-makers, as this incoherent and meretricious horror movie proves

A merican movies don’t know what to do with Japanese culture. They aren’t world war two baddies anymore and the fear of their determined economy “coming to buy us up” has dissipated. The Forest, a trashy horror picture from first-time feature director Jason Zada and screenwriters Nick Antosca, Sarah Cornwell and Ben Ketai, plays to an audience that probably hasn’t done too much thinking about Japan lately. They eat weird food (it’s still moving!), all the girls wear the same school uniform and everyone believes in ghosts. What powers those ghosts have or how they can harm you is all rather vague, but you best believe it involves being real quiet, then charging at the camera when you least expect it, emitting a high-decibel shriek.

The Forest hinges on a “weird, true fact” likely to be found on internet list articles , the Aokigahara forest at the base of Mount Fuji, which has the dubious distinction of being a preferred spot for people to commit suicide. The iron ore in the nearby mountain also creates magnetic anomalies, so it is easy to get lost if you stray from the official paths. An interesting and certainly beautiful location for a movie, to be sure, but the contrivances made to incorporate it can easily bend a story until it breaks. This is something Gus Van Sant learned this past year at Cannes when Sea of Trees , also set at Aokigahara, was greeted with boos and still lacks a distribution deal.

Sarah (Natalie Dormer with an American accent) gets a call that her twin sister Jess (Natalie Dormer with different hair and makeup), a teacher in Japan, was seen going into the forest during a school outing. Jess has always been the rebellious one, and has self-harmed, but Sarah has always been there to bail her out. She jets across the ocean to investigate because, as an identical twin, she senses that Jess is still alive, but in danger.

Shots of travel-weary, beautiful women riding in the back of taxis through Tokyo at night may not be a genre unto itself, but it should be, and the nicely framed images in the film’s earlier scenes are a setup for the disappointment of the movie’s second half. It’s when Sarah makes it to Aokigahara that the movie gets completely lost, unsure if it wants to be a serious exploration of repressed memories or a work of giddy, spooky trash.

There’s a very promising scene in which Sarah tells her history over beers to a travel writer Aiden (Taylor Kinney), but the visual flashbacks reveal a more sinister truth. This is immediately undercut by a ridiculous and unnecessary jump scare effect where our hero is suddenly and inexplicably in a hotel hallway with flickering lights and an old woman made to look like a zombie leaps out at us. One can easily envision director Jason Zada, whose previous work included the viral Facebook stunt Take This Lollipop , needing to fulfill a contract that ensured X amount of moments where something pops out on the screen.

Less certain is that the producers ever cared that The Forest makes sense. Sarah enters the visitor’s center, where rotten, stinking corpses are stored in the basement. Is this based on any truth? Is this some sort of surreal, Lynchian exploration of manifested dread? Some gross-out revelry of the absurd horror genre? It ends up being none of these things, and besides there’s no time to discuss it. Just have another jump scare and move on. Moving on means (finally) getting into that forest to look for Jess, but maybe hallucinating that Aiden is actually a serial killer not to be trusted.

The “rules” of the Forest are never explained, which means Zada can go nuts throwing creepy images of skeletons or maggots or demonic-looking Japanese schoolgirls all over the frame. It quickly becomes very tiresome, which is a shame because for every three scenes of rote tedium, there’s one where a kernel of an idea clearly exists, yearning to sprout in a more professional picture. But the desultory storyline and unremarkable performances keep that from happening.

Dormer has great difficulty with the role, toggling between babe-in-the-woods and determined sisterly saviour, adding to the slapdash sensibility. Then there’s the whole final act, in which entire story arcs are dropped once the movie reaches acceptable feature length. (Consider that a reverse spoiler, I suppose.) But we still get the obligatory final switcheroo shot, always a close-up of screaming, with a smash cut to credits over awful nu metal. Talk about missing the forest for the trees.

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The Forest (2016) Horror Movie Review

“The Forest,” directed by Jason Zada , is a psychological horror film that takes its audience on a haunting journey through the real-life Aokigahara Forest at the base of Mount Fuji, notoriously known as the Suicide Forest. The movie follows Sara Price, played by Natalie Dormer, who ventures into the ominous woods in search of her twin sister, Jess, also portrayed by Dormer, who has mysteriously disappeared. Jason Zada is credit for writing The Houses October Built .

The film opens with a sense of urgency and a rush of expository scenes that set the stage for Sara’s desperate search. As she arrives in Tokyo and heads to the forest, the audience is quickly introduced to the legend that the spirits within Aokigahara prey on sadness, driving individuals to their demise. This premise alone sets a chilling backdrop for the narrative, promising a blend of emotional depth and supernatural elements.

Zada’s approach to horror deviates from the conventional path. Early on, the film relies on ambient noise and editing rhythms to build tension, rather than the typical eerie score that often accompanies the genre. This choice is refreshing and adds a layer of authenticity to the experience, making the audience feel as if they are part of Sara’s journey, every step of the way.

However, as the story unfolds, “The Forest” seems to fall back into familiar territory, employing some of the more predictable scare tactics that the genre is known for. Despite this, the film offers a few twists and turns that keep the viewers engaged. Natalie Dormer delivers a compelling performance, effectively portraying the dual roles of Sara and Jess, which becomes a central element to the film’s psychological exploration.

Critics have had mixed reactions to “The Forest.” Some appreciate the slow build-up of suspense and the cerebral approach to horror, while others find it lacking in genuine scares and too reliant on horror tropes. The film has been described as an “expertly crafted missed opportunity,” with solidly intriguing ideas that it hesitates to fully explore. Despite the criticisms, “The Forest” has been noted for its visual appeal and the performance of its lead actress.

In the Nutshell

“The Forest” is a film that may not redefine the horror genre but offers a unique setting and a strong lead performance that are worth the watch for fans of psychological thrillers and supernatural horror. It’s a movie that walks the line between exploiting the lore of its setting and providing a character-driven story of resilience and determination against unseen forces. Whether it succeeds in delivering a truly frightening experience is subjective, but it certainly provides a thought-provoking look into the depths of sorrow and the human psyche. I give 2 out of 5 stars.

If you already saw this movie, help us rate the movie by click on the Star Rating.

Genre: Paranormal

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The Forest Review: A Standard Horror Movie

Director: Jason Zada

Cast: Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Eoin Macken, Stephanie Vogt, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Rina Takasaki, Noriko Sakura, Yûho Yamashita, James Owen

Running Time: 93 mins

Certificate: 15

Basically…: Sara (Dormer) travels to Japan to find her missing twin sister Jess (also Dormer), but finds something more sinister when she enters the Aokigahara Forest during her search…

NOW FOR THE REVIEW…

It’s a well-regarded fact that any horror movie that is released in the first couple of months in any given year, as opposed to, say, around October time when it’s closer to Halloween, is usually expected to suck. Of course, there have been exceptions in the past ( It Follows , for instance), but mostly they tend to fit well within the variety we’d expect from dumping ground season, when studios quietly release underwhelming projects with little fanfare and watch it die a slow death at the box office.

The Forest , the debut feature from filmmaker Jason Zada, is unfortunately just another example of that trend, sacrificing a promising set-up for the standard jump-scare mentality we’ve seen time and time again.

Such a set-up in this context includes the mythos surrounding the Aokigahara Forest, a blanket of woodland located by the base of Mount Fuji in Japan, notorious for being a quiet and secluded place where the suicidal head to kill themselves. Truth be told, there is definitely material for a truly chilling horror film in there somewhere, and with the right script, director and cinematographer, this could have been an effective and atmospheric mood piece where the scares would come from the pure isolation and scent of death from all corners.

Needless to say, this doesn’t end up happening with this film. The plot sees American woman Sara (Natalie Dormer) head to the forest to search for her twin sister Jess (also Dormer), who has gone missing; but instead of the sense of isolation getting to her, it’s actually ghosts. Yeah, bet you didn’t know that living and breathing demonic hell-spawn were actually the cause of people going mad and suddenly suicidal in these woods, not that silly excuse of interior depression and loneliness that nobody could POSSIBLY take seriously in a film like this. But nope, it’s all the work of creepy ghosts that either look like demented Japanese schoolgirls or the hanging corpses of people we’re guessing weren’t strong enough to fight these literal demons, who want nothing more than to jump out at you as loud music blares from the soundtrack instead of, y’know, mentally scar you with dark memories and give you more reason to off yourself.

Yeah, it’s that kind of horror film, folks; one that thinks it can get by on outrageously silly supernatural elements and irritating jump-scares alone, instead of developing mood, atmosphere and characters to create more suspense and feelings of dread and despair. At a time where the genre is going through a mini-Renaissance with films like The Babadook , It Follows and The Gift , a film like The Forest feels somewhat redundant in its increasingly outdated approach to horror, especially as it uses the kinds of scares that we’ve not only seen many times before, but done much better and more intelligently in the past. This is a film that actually uses the “ghost face” effect we’ve been subjected to in many a YouTube video or Snapchat filter as one of its many attempts to frighten the audience, and after it’s been used in those capacity it’s almost impossible to take it seriously anymore.

You get the feeling that this was a script that was not only passed around from person to person in an effort to make it more conventional a horror film than was probably originally set out to be – no fewer than three writers are credited – but also left somewhat unfinished, with the film’s unsatisfactory closing point feeling more like a break into the third act instead of the actual ending. Zada, as a first-time director after helming a few short films, suffers from the usual first-timer tropes of not steering the film in the right direction and instead making it as safe and predictable a horror film as you can imagine; meanwhile, the actors are definitely trying their hardest to make their material work on-screen – Dormer still gives a fairly strong performance here, although her talents as a leading actress would probably be put to better use in a much more sufficient film than this – even when their efforts threaten to be blindsided by the film’s overwhelming thoughts and contrivances.

So, yeah, The Forest is pretty much as standard a bad early-year horror film as you can get. But hey, at least it’s not Grimsby .

SO, TO SUM UP…

The Forest takes no advantage of its intriguing set-up, instead relying way too much on silly plot contrivances and lame jump-scares that make itself look fairly redundant next to the much better horror films of late.

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‘The Forest’ Movie Review

“Look, people sometimes see things in the forest. Important to remember if you see anything bad, anything strange…it is not real, okay? It’s not there – it’s here,” says Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa) as he points to his head while he warns Sara ( Natalie Dormer ) of the dangers of the forest they’ve just entered in the horror film The Forest .

Sara Price leaves her home, husband, and country to go to Japan when she finds out that her twin sister, Jess (also portrayed by Natalie Dormer), went camping in what’s known as Japan’s suicide forest, Aokigahara, and has been missing since. The authorities tell Sara they gave up looking for Jess after two or three days and assume she followed through with ending her life, but Sara insists that Jess is alive because being a twin she can feel her.

After spending a few days trying to hire a guide to take her into the forest unsuccessfully, Sara meets Aiden ( Taylor Kinney ), a writer for an Australian magazine. Aiden will try to convince Michi, the unofficial guide who goes through the forest and finds the bodies of the dead and marks them for the rangers, to let her come on his next search as long as he gets to write about it for his magazine. Deal struck, Sara, Aiden, and Michi enter the ominous forest to see if they can find Jess, with Michi reminding them that the forest is dangerous and never to leave the path.

Unoriginal and lacking any good scares, The Forest is a forgettable ghost film that borrows most of its tone and images from other scary films such as The Ring and The Grudge . The writing and character development are weak, never giving any of the characters any depth or personality.

Natalie Dormer ( Game of Thrones ) delivers an acceptable but surface performance as Sara, the sad and responsible sister determined to find her twin and save her from certain doom. Her best scene is in the bar when she first meets and starts to get to know the reporter Aiden. It’s the only scene where she comes off as natural and believable.

The film’s pacing, camera work, and attempts to generate goosebumps are telegraphed by the overdone use by the director of the classic ‘jump scare’ tactic, which fails after the first attempt. The Forest fails almost every time to generate or build up any real tension or suspense. The only scene that’s effective in creating some hair-raising scares is the one where Sara is taken down to the basement of the cabin just outside of the forest where the dead bodies are kept after being retrieved from the forest. Sara begins to look to see if one of the bodies covered by a sheet is her sister, and…no, I won’t reveal here what happens, but it’s one of the film’s true scary moments.

With only two genuine scares and almost zero character development, The Forest is a boring, frightless ghost film that even horror fans should skip seeing.

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and images

Running Time: 95 minutes

Release Date: January 8, 2016

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The Forest (2016) Ending, Explained

‘The Forest’ is a horror movie that presents a thrilling story revolving around the infamous Aokighara Forest in Japan. The actual forest is often referred to as “the suicide forest” as it has become one of the world’s most-used suicide sites. Moreover, it is also believed to be haunted by the locals. The movie stars Natalie Dormer of ‘Game of Thrones ‘ fame. She plays two characters in the movie: Sara and her twin sister, Jess. The former heads into the Aokighara Forest in search of the latter who has been missing.

The Forest Plot Suumary

Sara is informed by the Japanese police that her twin sister, Jess is suspected to be dead since she entered the Aokighara forest and has not returned for a few days. The forest is thought to be haunted and people who go missing in the jungle hardly return. She travels to Japan and heads to the hotel where her sister stayed.

At the hotel, a man named Aiden starts conversing with her. He is a reporter and offers to accompany her to the forest along with a guide named Michi. He wants to report Sara’s story in return. Sara tells Aiden how her parents had died after a drunk driver rammed into their car when they were turning into the driveway. Jess had ended up seeing her parents’ dead bodies while Sara had not.

In the forest, Sara finds Jess’s tent and wants to stay the night there if her sister decides to return. Michi tries to persuade her to leave and come back the next morning, but Sara disagrees. Aiden volunteers to stay with her. After Aiden sleeps, Sara hears noises in the forest and steps out of her tent. She finds a Japanese schoolgirl named Hoshiko who tells her that she knows where Jess is. However, she asks Sara to not trust Aiden and runs away upon hearing his voice.

The next day, Sara demands to check Aiden’s phone. She thinks that he has ulterior motives. She finds Jess’s picture on his phone. When Aiden continues to deny having met Jess, Sara runs away from him and ends up falling in a hole to an underground cave.

Sara sees Hoshiko in the cave once again and follows her. Hoshiko turns into a ghoulish figure, making Sara run back near the opening. Aiden finds Sara and uses a rope to pull her up. Sara’s fiance starts looking for her with Mishi and a search party.

Sara and Aiden go to an abandoned ranger station. Sara sees a closed room. A note is slipped out from under the room’s door informing Sara that Jess is in the room and that Aiden has held her captive.

Sara ends up killing Aiden with a knife after her demand for the room’s key turns into an altercation. She realizes that her distrust for Aiden had been a result of hallucinations. The door opens to a basement where she sees visions of her dead parents. It turns out that her father had killed her mother and then committed suicide. Her father’s demonic spirit grabs her wrist. To free herself, Sara uses a knife to cut her father’s spirit’s hands away.

Sara runs out of the ranger station and sees Jess running in front of her. Jess does not listen to Sara’s shrieks but she ends up making her way to the search party. She is alive and has been rescued. Sara, on the other hand, realizes that she is already dead. Sara’s father’s spirit grabbing her hand had been a hallucination. Sara had ended up cutting her own wrist and dying due to blood loss. Then, ghoulish hands grab her feet and pull her underground. Mishi glances into the forest one last time and sees Sara with a demonic face.

The Forest Ending Explained

At first glance, one might think that ‘The Forest’ has an open ending. The film takes its time to develop its premise, providing viewers only a sense of imminent danger from time to time. However, the final forty-five minutes is when the set pieces boil over for a neat conclusion. The final scene sees Michi glancing in the direction of the forest one last time. He sees Sara with a ghoulish face advance towards him in a swish and let out a scream.

This leaves several viewers to wonder whether Sara has turned into one of the forest spirits. Moreover, did she actually die? Was the forest actually haunted?

Is Sara Dead?

Firstly, the most burning question is whether Sara actually died. Unfortunately, she did. While Jessica managed to make it to the search party and get out of the forest alive, Sara died in the process of finding her. However, there might be some unclarity here.

Jess’s final words in the movie are the strongest indication of the fact that Sara actually died in the forest. After realizing that she has been rescued, Jess cannot believe that Sara risked her life to find her and is now missing. Hence, she glances into the forest, before stopping abruptly and says “That’s it. It’s silent.”

Jess’s words indicate that she cannot feel the mystical connection with her twin sister anymore. Sara had known that Jess had not died because she did not feel her twin sister’s death. According to her, the twins had an almost supernatural connection and could feel what the other was going through. Hence, Jess not feeling anything/silence indicates that this connection has been broken due to Sara’s death.

Such a connection between identical twins is referred to as “twin telepathy.” The belief that twins share a form of telepathic connection has been around for a long time. However, science has discredited such a connection due to a tiny percentage of twins actually reporting such experiences. Yet, the belief still runs strongly and ‘The Forest’ (which is fiction after all) uses this somewhat unproven characteristic. You can read more about twin telepathy here.

Moving on, the film aptly explains how Sara died. She sees visions of her late father’s spirit grabbing her hand and uses her dagger to set herself free. However, the spirit had been a figment of her imagination and Sara ends up cutting her own wrist and dies due to too much blood loss. What about the hands pulling her underground? This is best explained in the next section…

Is Aokighara Forest Haunted? What Did Michi See?

Whether the Aokighara Forest was actually haunted in the movie or not can be considered a question open to interpretation. There can be both, a psychological explanation and a supernatural one. Let’s start with the former.

One ought to remember the warnings given to Sara by multiple people at the beginning of the film. She is told that the forest makes people hallucinate and sees visions of things that trouble/sadden them the most. This is the reason Sara sees ghosts of her dead parents.

From a psychological point of view, one can imagine the psyche of a person who ends up being trapped in the forest at night. The place has a petrifying myth/legend and actual dead bodies of people who committed suicide. This ought to be quite stressful even for the most rational person. Hence, it is not too far-fetched to assume that people start to lose their minds in the forest at night and see visions of things that horrify them the most.

Michi is seen expressing his regret for not forcing Sara and Aiden to leave the forest at night. He thinks that Sara is in danger because of him. Hence, it could be this regret that makes him see a vision of a ghoulish Sara after realizing that she might be dead. If the psychological explanation is true, then Sara was not actually pulled underground by ghosts/spirits. She only hallucinated being pulled underground since she was dying anyway.

However, there is also an equally convincing supernatural explanation. The Aokighara Forest is said to be haunted by spirits of those that died there. These spirits are referred to as “yurei “ in Japanese folklore. They are said to be roaming the material world due to some unresolved emotional conflict or not having received proper last rites. Perhaps, Sara turns into a yurei and that is what Michi sees.

However, even with that explanation, it ought to be noted that Sara sees the spirits of her parents in the forest. This has to be a hallucination or another yurei showing Sara visions of things that trouble her the most since her parents’ spirits cannot be in the Aokighara forest as they did not die there.

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Movie review: 'the forest'.

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25 Best Horror Movies Set In The Woods

Woodlands and forests are effective backdrops for horror stories, offering unique close-to-nature scares and allowing filmmakers to be more provocative.
The best horror movies in the woods span various sub-genres of horror and feature gore, ghosts, monsters, psychological horror, and post-apocalyptic survival horror.
Movies like " Annihilation, " " The Ritual, " and " Tucker & Dale vs. Evil " demonstrate how a single forest location can be used in limitless ways within the horror genre.

Woodlands and forests are one of the most effective backdrops for horror stories, and the best horror movies in the woods use the unique close-to-nature scares only a forest or jungle can bring. They also tend to be more provocative, shocking, and experimental with their ideas. Some of the most well-known horror movies set in forests span various distinct sub-genres of horror and can boast some of the most notorious horror movies ever, thanks to movies like The Blair Witch Project, Deliverance , and many more.

From cult slasher favorites to critically acclaimed modern classics, the best horror movies set in the woods demonstrate how a single location can be used in a limitless number of ways, all within the same genre. Whether searching for gore, ghosts, monsters, psychological horror, or even post-apocalyptic survival horror, there's a horror movie set in a forest featuring almost every kind of threat imaginable . In day or night, the forests and woodlands prove to be perfect settings for some of the best horror movies to date.

Trollhunter (2010)

A norwegian found footage movie about legendary trolls, trollhunter.

Director Andr vredal

Release Date October 29, 2010

Writers Andr vredal

Cast Robert Stoltenberg, Knut Nrum, Johanna Mrck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Hans Morten Hansen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Otto Jespersen

Rating PG-13

Genres Drama, Horror, Fantasy

Stream now on Prime Video

Trollhunter is a Norwegian found-footage movie about a man hired to hunt trolls in the countryside by the government. In this world, the government knows trolls exist, and the main job is to keep them out of the public eye and in a part of the country where they can't hurt anyone. However, this is foiled when a group of student filmmakers set out to make a documentary about Hans, a suspected bear poacher. What they don't know is that Han is a troll hunter.

Trollhunter was directed by André Øvredal, who used it as a calling card to get jobs on movies like The Autopsy of Jane Doe and The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

This is a found-footage movie, but since the kids are making a documentary, the movie shows some nice footage of the troll hunter in action, although the movie still utilizes a lot of the trappings of the genre, including shaky cam and quickly moving the camera away from the actual trolls.

The Ruins (2008)

A movie about killer vines at a mayan temple.

The Ruins , based on the novel by Scott B. Smith, is a movie that takes place at a Mayan Temple in Mexico. While technically in a jungle - and not the woods - the genre remains familiar . A group of travelers go into a strange, exotic land and not everyone makes it out alive. Nothing starts right for these travelers, as villagers show up with guns, knives, and other weapons and kill one of them when they try to leave. Forced back up the temple, the survivors realize the vines are the real threat.

The gross-out moments and the horror in the temple are enough to make most viewers squirm

The Ruins is a single-location horror movie, one that is both gruesome and bleak. It also resides in the body horror genre, as the vines attack and get into the skin of the travelers, forcing them to cut themselves open to get them out and, in some cases, undergo amputations to try to save their lives. This is a horror movie that fans won't watch for the characters, as none deserve much sympathy, but the gross-out moments and the horror in the temple are enough to make most viewers squirm.

Hatchet (2006)

Adam green's slasher horror calling card.

Director Adam Green

Release Date September 7, 2007

Writers Adam Green

Cast Amara Zaragoza, Deon Richmond, Tony Todd, Joel David Moore, Kane Hodder

Runtime 85 minutes

Genres Comedy, Thriller, Horror

Adam Green made his name with the franchise Hatchet , the original movie coming out in 2006. This movie used the horror in the woods concept by adding the dangers of the swamps and bayous in Louisiana. Hatchet introduces a new horror villain named Victor Crowley. The legend says that Victor's father accidentally killed him when he hit him with an axe while trying to save him from a burning house. Since his father's death, Victor is said to roam the swamps killing anyone who enters.

What results is a new Jason Voorhees-styled slasher killer, with Victor a terrifying man wearing a mask and killing with a hatchet, chainsaw, and anything else he can get his hands on. What really makes this a movie for horror lovers is the supporting cast. Candyman actor Tony Todd plays a tour guide named Rev. Zombie, Freddy Krueger actor Robert Englund as a victim named Samson, and Jason Voorhees actor Kane Hodder as Victor Crowley.

Wolf Creek (2005)

Based on the real-life outback backpack murders.

Director Greg Mclean

Release Date December 25, 2005

Distributor(s) Dimension Films

Writers Greg Mclean

Cast Kestie Morassi, Cassandra Magrath, Andy McPhee, Nathan Phillips, John Jarratt

Runtime 99 minutes

Genres Thriller, Horror

In the same vein as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , Wolf Creek is a horror movie that claims to be based on a true story. Also, like TCM , it is not entirely true. Both movies are based on the stories of real-life serial killers, but they are mostly fictional retellings of these killers. While TCM was based partially on John Wayne Gacy, Wolf Creek was based on the murderers, Ivan Milat in the 1990s and Bradley Murdoch in 2001. What results is similar, although Wolf Creek is bloodier and more violent than TCM .

It is excessive in its violence and very brutal when it comes to the kills.

This Australian horror movie received mixed reviews, although that is expected from something as violent and harrowing as this slasher movie. The movie does play things fair, as it doesn't rely on gimmicks or twists and just presents a terror-filled movie that shows a remorseless and seemingly unstoppable man murdering people for sport. It is excessive in its violence and very brutal when it comes to the kills, but it makes no apologies and is a movie that should please hardcore horror fans.

Knock at The Cabin (2023)

M. night shyamalan's apocalyptic thriller, knock at the cabin.

Director M. Night Shyamalan

Release Date February 3, 2023

Distributor(s) Universal Pictures

Writers Michael Sherman, Steve Desmond, M. Night Shyamalan

Cast Kristen Cui, Ben Aldridge, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Abby Quinn, Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Jonathan Groff

Runtime 139 minutes

Genres Mystery, Thriller, Horror

M. Night Shyamalan had attempted a horror movie in the woods before with The Village, and it ended up as one of his worst critically-reviewed movies at that time in his career. The biggest problem was the twists that had become commonplace in his films, and many fans and critics didn't buy that specific twist. Shyamalan has enjoyed a career resurgence recently and Knock at the Cabin shows that he might have learned from his lessons. This movie is an apocalyptic thriller set in a secluded cabin in the woods.

Based on The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul G. Tremblay, Knock at the Cabin tells the story of a little girl named Wen who is staying on vacation at a cabin with her dads, Eric and Andrew. However, when a group of four people arrive and say someone must sacrifice themselves or the world will end in an apocalypse, they have to find a way out and determine whether they would sacrifice the world for their family. The movie earned positive reviews and was a minor box office success.

Annihilation (2018)

A scientific anomaly turns a forest into a nightmare, annihilation.

Director Alex Garland

Release Date February 22, 2018

Cast Kola Bokinni, David Gyasi, Tessa Thompson, Cosmo Jarvis, Sonoya Mizuno, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac, Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez

Runtime 2hours

Annihilation was an interesting mix of science fiction and horror. Directed by sci-fi auteur Alex Garland, Annihilation sets up its story by introducing The Shimmer, a quarantined zone where nature has started to transform and morph. In Annihilation the woods don't just conceal a threat, they are the threat. When one team of scientists goes in investigating and never returns, a second team of all women is sent in to figure out what happened to the first team and what is going on.

Natalie Portman leads a cast full of powerful female characters, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, and Gina Rodriguez. What these women find in the woods when they venture into The Shimmer is deeply disturbing. This is almost more sci-fi than horror when the final twist comes, but what leads to that moment is very scary.

The Ritual (2017)

Four friends are stalked through a scandinavian forest.

Released in 2017 as a British horror movie that received a Netflix international release, The Ritual is one of the best horror movies in the woods released in the last decade. In The Ritual, four friends are on a hiking trip in Sweden in honor of a close friend who was murdered. However, the four friends end up lost and realize that something in the woods might be tracking them.

This is a tense horror survival story with some very scary moments that make full use of the remoteness of the forest , which also feels somewhat unique to The Ritual thanks to the incredible Scandinavian setting. At the end of the day, this is a movie about friendship, loss, and trauma, and the monsters that are hunting these hikers are all just a way to describe and show the sense of loss they are all experiencing as they head into this story.

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil (2009)

Two hillbillies living in the woods watch prejudiced young adults destroy themselves.

One of the more comedic horror movies in the woods is Tucker & Dale vs. Evil , which uses the forest setting both for scares and laughs . Tucker & Dale vs. Evil takes the basic setup from movies like The Hills Have Eyes and then subverts the genre tropes. A group of stereotypical young adults found in almost any horror movie encounter Tucker and Dale, two locals who live in a cabin in the woods.

The group believes Tucker and Dale are killers, but the pair are harmless. The bewildered Tucker and Dale are unable to stop the scared "victims" dying due to their own stupidity as they set up traps for their own "protection." While this is almost a satire of the horror genre, it takes its kills seriously enough to make it a fun horror movie in its own right. It is just told from the point of view of two hapless friends trying to figure out why all these kids keep dying.

Deliverance (1972)

John boorman's genre-defining classic taught audiences to fear the forest.

One of the earliest horror movies in the woods that turned the forest setting into the source of fear is the 1972 movie Deliverance . Directed by John Boorman, the movie stars Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ronny Cox, and New Beatty as four friends who set out to canoe down a remote Georgia river . However, after making fun of the locals (with an iconic Dueling Banjos moment), someone starts hunting them down with nefarious plans for the four of them.

Disturbance is never really classified with other horror movies in the woods, as it is more of an adventure thriller, but it fits the trappings of the genre perfectly, with the friends willing to go to any level to survive this scary experience. The movie won three Oscars and remains iconic, added to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 2008. This remains one of Burt Reynolds's most iconic roles, as well as one that goes completely against type for his career.

Deliverance is available to rent on Apple TV and Amazon Prime Video.

Wrong Turn (2003)

The cult early 00's gem starring eliza dushku and jeremy sisto.

Released in 2003, Wrong Turn featured a familiar story as a group of college students end up trapped in the woods after some cannibalistic mountain men flatten their tires and then start to hunt them . The movie featured Eliza Dushku at the height of her Buffy the Vampire fame, and Jeremy Sisto during his time on Six Feet Under . Between the West Virginia setting and the fear of getting lost in the woods, this was a movie that caused stress for many road-weary travelers.

While it wasn't groundbreaking, Wrong Turn found a home in the hearts of horror fans and ended up spawning a franchise with five sequels between 2007 and 2014 and then a Wrong Turn reboot in 2021 . The following movies had their moments of horror, but none of them really matched up with the original, which remains a nasty horror movie with some gruesome kills and a young, fresh cast. If anything, the original was a throwback movie to classic horror movies in the woods.

Dog Soldiers (2002)

The low-budget british werewolf movie that helped revive a subgenre.

Neil Marshall's Dog Soldiers was a movie that came out two years after Ginger Snaps , and the two movies really helped revitalize the werewolf subgenre with very different experiences. While Ginger Snaps was more about an allegory of a young woman reaching puberty, Dog Soldiers was a movie about werewolves hunting people in the woods at night . 2002's Dog Soldiers followed a group of six British soldiers dropped into the Scottish Highlands for a training exercise.

However, soon the werewolves attack, and when the heroes flee and find shelter, they quickly realize they've wandered right into the werewolves' lair. What really makes this movie standout as one of the best werewolf movies of all time was the practical effects for the wolves. Their awkward transformations and movements made them some of the most memorable lycans in movie history.

Dog Soldiers is available to stream on Hulu and Shudder.

Eden Lake (2008)

Local kids turn a couple's woodland vacation into a truly disturbing movie.

A talented cast drives this deeply disturbing horror-thriller about a couple (Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender) who are harassed by a group of young kids while on a secluded woodland getaway. One of the most extreme horror movies set in the woods or anywhere else , and one without supernatural elements, the situation quickly descends into a nightmarish ordeal of torture and murder. Eden Lake features extreme violence and is an unforgettable and unflinching movie.

However, it is also hard to watch at times since it features violence from and towards children. The movie received overwhelming critical praise, but it is also one that remains controversial when it comes to the fear of youth in Britain in what became known as the fear of "hoodies." This movie joined others like Harry Brown and Cherry Tree Lane in a series of movies that showed how the older generation should fear the youth movement.

Eden Lake is available to stream on Roku.

Sleepaway Camp (1983)

The cult 1980s hit about two cousins who turn summer camp into a slaughter-fest.

Sleepaway Camp is a cult hit that, despite being a derivative summer camp slasher in many ways, left an impression on audiences in 1983 and has been doing so ever since. The story sees a young girl (Felissa Rose) and her cousin (Jonathan Tiersten) go to a summer camp, and any who disrespect them end up meeting a bloody end. What really makes this movie stand apart is the reveal of the killer in the final moments of the run time.

Sleepaway Camp has a wry sense of humor and some creative kill scenes, but many remember most about Sleepaway Camp is the movie's final twist . The film spawned a successful straight-to-video series of sequels and its popular legacy lives on even today. While this is a movie that has a twist ending that remains problematic in today's society, it remains a cult classic for horror movie fans.

Sleepaway Camp is available to stream on Peacock.

The Burning (1981)

1980s slasher about a killer wielding gardening shears.

Another 1980s slasher horror set in the woods is The Burning , a killer-in-the-woods story now considered to be a cult classic due to its cast, pacing, and Tom Savini's marvelous makeup effects . The cast includes pre-fame Holly Hunter and Jason Alexander as two members of the typically ill-fated summer camp adolescents. They and their friends run afoul of the local legendary murderer, Cropsy, who kills his victims with super-sharp gardening shears.

The movie makes good use of its outdoor setting and provides genre fans with an entertaining take on the early 80s slasher formula with plenty of gore. When it was released, it did garner complaints that it was too much like Friday the 13th thanks to its setting in the woods with summer campers as well as the addition of Savini for its effects. However, it has since become a cult classic and critics looking back on it seem to appreciate the horror movie as one that stands on its own merits.

The Burning is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

The Last House On The Left (1972)

Wes craven's grindhouse classic that the uk banned.

Wes Craven's The Last House on the Left is a disturbing and effective horror movie, and one that makes great use of the remoteness of woodland settings. The story sees two teenage girls kidnapped by a group of sadistic killers, with the parents of one of the girls seeking bloody revenge. A remake of the Ingmar Bergman movie The Virgin Spring ââââââ, The Last House On The Left gained notoriety in drive-in and Grindhouse theaters thanks to the overt brutality and extreme violence .

The Last House on the Left was controversial upon release and even banned in the UK for decades due to its content, particularly the murder scenes in the woods. To this day, it still remains a polarizing horror movie for viewers. While it is easy to see why Wes Craven became a famed horror director, he took the more nuanced Bergman movie and created something that stands alongside other video nasties of the 70s and 80s thanks to its gratuitous violence and disturbing storyline.

The Last House On The Left is available to stream on Paramount+.

Dead End (2003)

A cinematic campfire story that makes audiences fear the shadows between the trees.

Driving to a Christmas gathering along an isolated forest road, a family comes across a ghostly woman in white cradling a baby. Before they can find help, she disappears and their night becomes an endless series of bizarrely horrific encounters throughout 2003's Dead End . Dead End is similar to a campfire ghost story and makes full use of the darkness of the woods around the characters, leaving the worst of the horror up to the audience's imagination.

This is unlike many horror movies in the woods, as it takes it in a more mythical direction. This isn't a movie about cannibals or wild country people wanting to kill partying kids. It also isn't a movie about a masked vengeful slasher killer. This is a movie about trauma and the effects it can have on a family. The movie has a disturbing twist ending that seems almost like of a Twilight Zone episode.

Dead End is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Lake Of The Dead (1958)

Norwegian horror that proves how eerie the woods can be even without bloodshed.

A little-known oddity outside its native Norway, Lake of the Dead is an atmospheric ghost story set deep in an idyllic yet haunting forest that houses a creepy cabin. The cabin comes with a dark story attached to it, but the movie uses it for more of a deconstruction of storytelling rather than using it as an opportunity for murder and monsters.

Filled with a unique sense of humor and a pervading feeling of mystery, Lake of the Dead has a lastingly eerie atmosphere throughout thanks in no small part to its natural surroundings. Critical reviews praised its atmosphere, and Kåre Bergstrøm received praise for his direction and camerawork with the movie that became known as his defining work and one of the best horror movies in the woods for fans of the genre.

Lake of the Dead is available to stream on AMC+.

The Cabin In The Woods (2011)

A homage to almost every horror movie monster in cinema history.

A rare horror-comedy that puts as much effort into its scares as it does into its laughs, The Cabin in the Woods can be viewed as a parody or satire of the genre, but it acts just as well as a straight exploration of its most prevalent themes. The wild story starts when a group of young friends visits a secluded cabin. It is the typical setup to a cabin in the woods story, but what happens next takes this movie in a wildly different direction.

Cabin in the Woods ends up as a parade of homages to some of the most beloved and inventive monsters and sub-genres from horror history , with the woodland setting unfolding into something much more sprawling and satisfying than the typical slasher spoof setup. The movie explores very unexpected directions and by the end, it turns the entire genre on its head.

The Cabin in the Woods is available to stream on Max.

It Comes At Night (2017)

The movie that proved even forests aren't safe after the apocalypse.

A unique and highly dramatic take on a post-apocalyptic survival horror setup, It Comes at Night follows a family surviving the collapse of civilization in seclusion in the woods when another family stumbles across their home seeking refuge. However, it isn't the disease or the fear of infection that carries this horror movie in the woods. Instead, it is the paranoia and mistrust of survivors in a post-apocalyptic landscape. Humans should always fear each other above all else.

The dynamics of trust and paranoia are played out to their most horrific ends as the two groups try to live together in a world filled with deadly danger that can crop up at any moment — and the stillness of their forest surroundings making the anguish and horror of their ordeal echo out all the louder.

It Comes At Night is available to stream on Paramount+.

Friday The 13th (1980)

The classic slasher that introduced the world to camp crystal lake.

One of the biggest box office surprises in history, Friday the 13th was a low-budget movie that took theaters by storm and officially ushered in the slasher craze of the 1980s. The story of Mrs. Voorhees (Betsy Palmer) taking her revenge on the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake is one of the most well-known 80s horror films. It is also often misunderstood because this is not about Jason - the legend of the franchise - and that makes it a better movie thanks to that fact.

The slaughter of the campers in the woods is made all the more memorable by makeup guru Tom Savini and, although it is his mother who does the killing in the original movie, Jason Voorhees was introduced and an iconic and seemingly never-ending horror series was born. Next to Halloween , few horror franchises have the legs of this series of horror movies in the woods.

Friday the 13th is available to stream on Max.

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Horror in the Forest Reviews

It doesn’t do anything new with the form, and some elements don’t make a lot of sense, but it’s competent and better photographed than many of its kin.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Aug 28, 2023

Horror fans will do well to spend a late night checking this out.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 28, 2023

Horror in the Forest can surely become a delightful little Found Footage movie to die hard fans of the genre. But those who are not so much into it may also enjoy the simplicity of its craftsmanship.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 19, 2023

While “Horror in the Forest” does bear similarities to “The Blair Witch Project,” it manages to clear its own path through its thematic exploration of grief, loss, and the supernatural.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Aug 17, 2023

Rudnicki attempts found footage and makes the best of it by going for a subtle horror film that’s more about other things than the average horror tropes in the subgenre.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.9/5 | Aug 17, 2023

Screen Rant

Infested review: a horror movie about spiders made me feel like it was 2020 again.

I'm hardly going to complain about a monster movie where the monsters, not the humans, feel underdeveloped. It plays so much better than the reverse.

Infested is more than just a creature feature - it's a character-driven ensemble piece about disaster and community.
The film explores pandemic-era themes like isolation and quarantine, along with police violence and racial discrimination.
While the spiders in Infested are terrifying, the true source of tension comes from the well-developed characters and realistic horrors.

To call Infested ( Vermines ) a creature feature is both literally true and somewhat misleading. The French horror film by writer-director Sébastien Vaniček is, at the literal level, about an apartment building that becomes the hunting ground of absurdly dangerous spiders. But that's only part of what's going on in this movie, and perhaps its weakest element. The spiders aren't exactly shortchanged; arachnophobes will undoubtedly find this tough to sit through. They just aren't the true source of tension.

Infested (2024)

Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a bazaar and brings it back to his flat. It only takes a moment for it to escape and reproduce, turning the whole place into a dreadful web trap.

Creates a compelling ensemble of well-developed characters
Explores pandemic-era themes that really hit home
The script grounds everything in reality
The monsters end up overshadowed by more realistic horrors

Instead, Vaniček presents us with something better. Infested is a character-driven ensemble piece about a marginalized community visited by disaster , and how that disaster both tears them apart and brings them closer together. Faced with arachnid swarms, these people don't merely fear dying, but dying alone, without saying goodbye, or before making long-overdue amends. The film is savvily aware that the unreality of an overrun building pales in comparison to being trapped there by a too-plausible, police-enforced quarantine. Those expecting to sit down and switch off will find this monster movie more affecting than they bargained for.

Infested Actually Takes The Time To Develop Its Characters

So we really care when things take a turn.

After a killer prologue showing how smugglers catch these spiders in a Middle Eastern desert to sell on the black market, we meet Kaleb (Théo Christine), the poor soul who purchases one from the back room of a local shop. We follow him for some time before any carnage begins and come to understand his life, and the lives of those around him. His neighbors come from a wide range of racial and immigrant backgrounds. The building they live in is run-down, and opportunities for its inhabitants are limited.

If Infested suffers from anything, it's that Vaniček makes its characters and themes too real, and the monsters can't keep up. I'm still torn on whether that's a bug or a feature.

The narrow line Kaleb is trying to walk is quite skillfully drawn in Infested 's early scenes . He loves this place and these people; a love instilled in him by his mother, who has passed recently enough that the wound is hardly scabbed over. His sister, Manon (Lisa Nyarko), is fixing up their apartment herself to get it ready to sell, which he sees as a deep betrayal. He, instead, has started selling quality sneakers out of his storage locker, hoping for a path to financial stability that isn't on the harder side of crime.

He tries to nudge the other young men around him away from that, too, but the pressure is clearly there. And there's a gnawing sense that his good intentions might not matter — one neighbor, the building's voice for white male hostility, treats him like he's dealing drugs anyway. They certainly matter to us, though. The film's approach to dialogue gives every character we meet, however briefly, a touch of realism that grounds us in this world, but it's Kaleb's perspective that sells it. Seeing this community through his eyes gets us invested in it pretty quickly.

Which makes it all the more tragic that Kaleb's purchase proves its downfall. The spider is meant to be part of the collection of creatures (ranging from insects to frogs to fish to a rare scorpion) he keeps in his room, the endurance of a childhood dream. It doesn't stay in its box for long, and gets right to multiplying. Before Kaleb even notices it's gone, the first unsuspecting victim dies a painful, disfiguring death.

Infested Makes A Compelling Horror Movie About 2020

And undercuts its monsters in the process.

Infested , whether thematically or stylistically, recalls movies like Attack the Block , Cloverfield, and (occasionally) the 2022 French film Athena . But from the handling of this first death, which everyone at first assumes is due to some rare disease, I understood it first and foremost as a 2020 movie . The infestation isn't purely a metaphor for the pandemic, but the imagery of isolation and quarantine makes the parallel pretty clear. And the film's interest in the distrust this immediately sows between these tight-knit people puts that imagery to good use.

I say 2020 movie, not pandemic movie , because police violence gets equal attention. The racial makeup of this building's inhabitants and the discrimination they face is already text when cops in riot gear are dispatched to deal with the potential deadly outbreak. Sequences follow that make very clear how the institutions supposedly protecting and serving these people end up hurting them, even if at first by tragically misunderstanding the threat. Another example of good intentions not amounting to much.

If Infested suffers from anything, it's that Vaniček makes its characters and themes too real, and the monsters can't keep up . I'm still torn on whether that's a bug or a feature. That a fantastical horror film scenario should feel less scary than horrific things we've lived through is only natural, and would look pretty good as a movie's "point," if that's what Infested is after. Regardless, I'm hardly going to complain about a monster movie where the monsters, not the humans, feel underdeveloped, when it plays so much better than the reverse.

Infested is available to stream on Shudder from Friday, April 26. The film is 106 minutes long and is not yet rated.

Cast & crew

Speak No Evil

A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare. A family invited to spend a weekend in an idyllic country house, goes from a dream vacation to a psychological nightmare.

James Watkins
Christian Tafdrup
Mads Tafdrup
James McAvoy
Aisling Franciosi
1 Critic review

Louise Dalton

Agnes Dalton

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Technical specs

Dolby Digital