Review of The Forest (2016) by Tyde D — 08 Jan 2016

As awards season ramps up and the nominations come rolling out, The Forest offers a bit of counter programming. Sporting a safe PG - 13 rating, this chilling tale is a take on the story of things that go bump in the night. In this case twin sisters Jess and Sarah (Natalie Dormer) are connected by that special bond that only twins share where one is always connected to the other somehow, someway, even when on separate sides of the continent. Despite being twins they have one thing they don't share; Jess witnessed her dead parents bodies on the front lawn while Sarah didn't see. Jess becomes the darker spirited of the two, easy to keep track of as she has darker hair.

Jess, in need of a fresh start after Grandma died, moves to Japan to teach English and on a class trip to Mt Fuji, stumbles upon the Aokigahara forest, a place where people go to die. So she decides to go off her medication and take a vacation there but not before notifying people of her intentions to spend time there. The police of Japan don't even bother looking for assuming she offed herself but Sarah knows best. After not hearing from her for a few days Sarah comes running to the rescue. The Forest has but two rules, stay on the path and know that anything you see that cannot be isn't real. So naturally her search party of Aiden (Taylor Kinney) and Michi (Yushiyoki Ozawa) wanders off the path pretty quickly. But its' day time so its OK.

Eventually, they find Jess's tent, which we learned earlier in the film means you aren't there to die necessarily. Well Sarah didn't come all that way to find the tent and leave her there. Against Michi's objections, Sarah and Aiden stay the night in the big scary forest. Off the path and knowing things aren't real Sarah succumbs to visions anyhow. While the plot unfolds pretty quickly from there, its got a few nice layers and a couple of surprises in store you.

The atmosphere of the real life spooky forest is sufficiently creepy and despite being PG-13, the absence of gore in the scares works. The movie builds reasonably well but has room for improvement. I know from experience that turning the light on your camera on your phone kills the battery like crazy but not in Japan apparently. Some more fun things could have been done with a dying battery and the darkness but that was completely ignored. Tech vs nature vs spiritual realm could have been more interesting to be explored.

In the end though, it was stupid white woman being a stupid white woman at the hands of those pesky spirits. Not terrible but not that good either. This Queen was somewhat entertained. The 90 odd minutes goes by pretty well.

2 out of 5 rainbows.

1 rainbow - How did this get funded?

2 rainbows - You might find something of interest here but unlikely.

3 rainbows - Serves as a useful and entertaining enough distraction as a matinee.

4 rainbows - Stop reading this review and find a theater showing this film now!

5 rainbows - I'll need to find a spot for this in my Top 100 list. Absolutely flawless.