Review of The Forest (2016) by Thequietgamer — 07 May 2016

Like many I was pulled in by the potentially awesome setting of Aokigahara (the "Suicide Forest") and it's lead actress Natalie Dormer (Hunger Games, Game of Thrones). I really wish I hadn't been. "The Forest" manages to miss out any potential creepiness it's setting could have brought. All potential is squandered in what is just a really boring horror movie.

The big emphasis here is less on horror and more on telling a story. There are some interesting ideas floating around here and there, but the director doesn't know how to deliver them. What we get is a film that majorly consists of Dormer walking around Japan and eventually Aokigahara. There's a lot of talking going on while this is happening. It's just hard to care about it thanks to the subpar acting coming from everyone involved. Dormer looked just as bored with the material as I was.

When the movie does finally get around to trying to scare us it falls even shorter. We get a few glimpses of some ghosts or "Yūrei," but director Jason Zada is unable to make them scary. Mostly because all they do is just stand there. The rest of the attempts at horror consist of snapping branches and whispering voices. Wow. How terrifying.

I respect it's attempts to be a more psychological horror experience. It tries hard to be deeper than the average scary flick and Zada does try to capitalize on the creepiness of the setting. Unfortunately the movie just fails at both. The end results are a boring, poorly acted, unfrightening experience. One better left forgotten despite the talent in it's lead and setting.