Film Review: The Forest

 Genre: Horror, Mystery 

Cert: 15

Director: Jason Zada

Screen writer: Nick Antosca (writer) Sarah Cornwell (writer) Ben Ketai (writer)

Starring Natalie Dormer ,  Eoin Macken , Stephanie Vogt , Osamu Tanpopo , Yasuo Tobishima , Ibuki Kaneda , Akiko Iwase , Kikuo Ichikawa , Noriko Sakura , Jozef Aoki , Yûho Yamashita , Taylor Kinney , Gen Seto , Terry Diab , Nadja Mazalica

Running time: 1h 33min

Parents advised to read before viewing film as some scene may contain scenes unsuitable for younger viewers.

Sex & Nudity:

• A woman wears skin-tight jeans with tops that reveal cleavage.

• A woman wearing a scoop-neck top bends toward the camera and displays substantial cleavage.

Violence & Gore:

• A man and a woman struggle over a knife, until he lands on top of her on the floor with the knife stuck in his heart; he rolls over, grabs his chest and blood flows as he gurgles and dies with open eyes.

• A man and a woman argue, she accuses him of wanting to kill her, and he becomes exasperated; she finds a locked door and a note slides out from under it that tells her the man will kill her so she finds a knife, sticks it against the man's throat and says she will kill him and he shouts, "Wake up! Your sister's been dead for five days!"

• A woman walks through a door and finds her childhood basement with her dead parents lying on the floor, she grabs her twin who is now a little girl and tells her not to look this time as the father revives and attacks the first woman, grabbing her bandaged and bleeding hand; she uses a knife to cut his fingers away from her arm and the scene ends (we see blood on her arms, hands, and some blood spots on her T-shirt).

• A woman seated on the ground in the woods is pulled under the ground by six human hands as she screams.

• A woman accuses a man of trying to kill her, they argue, and she runs away through a forest; she falls into a pit and injures her ankle then struggles to stand and hobbles through a dark tunnel with a flashlight where she meets a teen girl that smiles insanely and leads her down another tunnel; the girl stops and as the flashlight reaches her face, we see a pale, round, zombie face covered in black vertical stripes of gore and the woman screams and runs back through the tunnels to an opening above her head and a man throws down a rope and pulls her up.

• A woman and twin girls hear two loud thumps in the basement (in a flashback); they descend the stairs and one girl and the woman see the girl's dead mother lying on the floor, eyes open, with some spots of blood beside her and both witnesses scream into the camera and run upstairs.

• A woman falls, cutting her hand and we see a long cut on the palm with blood flowing; a male friend arrives and helps her to her tent, where she wraps the hand in a piece of cloth and the wound bleeds through it a little.

• A woman runs through a forest at night, panting and shouting for her twin sister while we see several human heads around her in the background; these beings chase the woman another woman hears the commotion and calls her name; the second woman escapes the woods and is shown in a police patrol car while the first woman is shown in the woods looking at her forearm, which is cut and bleeding.

• A woman says that a drunk driver ran into two people, knocking them into a basement and killing them, but we do not see the action.

Profanity:

• 3 scatological terms, 2 mild obscenities, 1 religious profanity (GD) and 2 religious exclamations (Oh My God, and Jesus.)

• Name-calling (crazy, caveman and foolish.)

Alcohol/Drugs/Smoking:

• A prescription bottle label on a night table reads, "Anxiety Medication," and another prescription bottle label is unreadable.

• A man and a woman drink from glasses of wine in close-up.

• A man and a woman are joined by another woman and all three have glasses of wine (they are not shown drinking.)

• A woman holds a short glass at a bar where two long shelves on the back bar are filled with various colors of liquor.

• A man at a bar turns in an empty beer mug and receives a full mug that he sips from.

• A man and a woman drink from mugs of beer.

Frightening/Intense Scenes: 

• The film contains several scenes in which the protagonist is confronted by spirits and experiences supernatural occurrences and hallucinations.

• In one of the stronger scenes, as a spirit grabs the protagonist by her wrist, she uses a knife to pry its fingers off to free herself, but ended up cutting her own wrist.

• Other jump-scares include depictions of spirits with ghoulish faces chasing the protagonist down a tunnel, sudden appearances of spirits, and so on.

• Three elderly women rush at a younger woman at night in a dark forest and we see a close-up of a wrinkled, screaming face and hear a screech as it disappears with the other two crones.

• The depictions of terror are somewhat realistic and intense, however, these scenes are brief and do not contain strong details. Not recommended for anyone under 15.

Story: Based on a true story & a very real place called Aokigahara Forest, a forest at the northwest base of Mount Fuji in Japan, Known by local's as the most haunted forest in the world know as the suicide forest. After a called saying Sara Price sister is dead, she set out to find her sister who she believe is still alive, but she will have to face more than trying to find her sister, she will have to face the supernatural forces of the forest.

Likes : I'm gonna start by give you some back ground of this forest before i start the actually film review.

Geography: The forest floor consists primarily of volcanic rock and is difficult to penetrate with hand tools such as picks or shovels. The forest itself is very dense, and one can get lost easily if leaving the official trails. Because of this, in recent years, hikers and tourists trekking through Aokigahara have begun to use plastic tape to mark their paths so as to avoid getting lost.

Past the designated trails leading to tourist attractions such as the Ice Cave and Wind Cave, the first kilometer of the forest is littered with tape and other rubbish left by tourists, despite officials' attempts to remove it. After the first kilometer into Aokigahara towards Mount Fuji within the Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, the forest is in better condition, with little to no litter and few obvious signs of human presence.

Suicides: The forest is reportedly the most popular site for suicide in Japan and among the top three most popular sites for suicide in the world. Statistics vary, but there were around 30 suicides documented every year during the period leading up to 1988.

In 2003, 105 bodies were found in the forest, exceeding the previous record of 78 in 2002. In 2010, it was estimated that more than 200 people had attempted suicide in the forest, of whom 54 completed the act. Suicides are said to increase during March, the end of the fiscal year in Japan. As of 2011, the most common means of suicide in the forest were hanging or drug overdose. In recent years, the local officials have stopped publicizing the numbers in an attempt to downplay Aokigahara association with suicide.

The high rate of suicide has led officials to place a sign at the forest's entry, written in Japanese, urging suicidal visitors to seek help and not take their own lives. Annual body searches have been conducted by police, volunteers, and attendant journalists since 1970.

The site's popularity has been attributed to Seichō Matsumoto's 1960 novel Kuroi Jukai (Black Sea of Trees). However, the history of suicide in Aokigahara predates the novel's publication, and the place has long been associated with death: ubasute may have been practiced there into the nineteenth century, and the forest is reputedly haunted by the yūrei (angry spirits) of those left to die.

Film review section:

As for the film itself i wouldn't expect too much from it being a 15 cert because you cant really call a 15 cert a horror film, it more of a teenage spooky film than anything, Natalie Dormer does a pretty convince character playing Sara Price, not once though out the film does she not feel like the character she portraying, some scene can be a little predictable & some moments throughout the film put a chill down your spine due to the location & it background story of it concept.

Would i say this film is amazing not really but it does have it moments, location of the film actually adds to the film atmosphere which is a good thing because it stop it from tanking, although this film does lack in it being a 18 cert, despite some scene giving you the chills in a psychological way. 

One thing that actually works for the film is its creepy moments along with it twists in the story, it does this very clever way of throwing off, (I.E) like you think one thing is going on but then does this playing with the mind trick with something else going on, it clever in a way that tie with the whole story of the forest playing with your mind, the ending was clever although a little creepy.

This is actually good for the film as a whole, despite some review of this film being bad, this wasn't that bad, but still could of had room for improvements, so it's kind of a film that your iver gonna love or hate, but to understand this film you really have to understand the nature of Aokigahara Forest to fully get the concept of what going on other wise you find yourself think meh this is a mediocre film.

Dislikes : The few thing's wrong with this film was its pacing it was to slow for not much going on which in all honest was killing the concept of the film, it felt like it could of had more going on to really make this a truly frightening film.

But i think the 15 cert is killing the horror genre to be honest this film is an example of that when this film had potential to be better than it was, it felt like it was miss's thing's, its wasn't scary enough, it was just more slightly creepy just to give you a chill. 

Overall : Creepy moments, Not scary, Good try on a concept that could be better.

Rating: 4.1 out of 5 entertainment / 6.7 out of 10 for concept.