Sara (The Tudors and Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer) is concerned for her twin sister, who is living and teaching abroad in Japan. She has vanished after visiting Aokigahara, an expansive forest notorious for its popularity as a suicide spot. Sara journeys from America to the Japanese forest. The local populace warns her to stay on the path while searching lest she become lost and fall victim to Aokigahara's supernatural power. The Forest's trivialization of a real place (and, by extension, a country's suicide epidemic) goes without saying, but it sadly does not compensate with much showmanship or wit. A credible lead performance and a few moments of eerie mental disorientation cannot overcome a repetitive structure and the amusing decision to render the most loquacious ghost as a mousy Japanese schoolgirl. And, of course, mainstream horror's most grating cliché is on hand in full force: a groan-worthy jump-scare non-ending.

C

Almost a pure mood piece, The Forest beguiled me with it's slow methodical pacing, surprising internal logic for a horror movie, and it's steadfast refusal to provide all the answers. What I'm not surprised about, is that pop horror movie fans might find it a drag even though I found a creepy little treasure buried in The Forest. *B+*

I thought it had a good premise and Dormer certainly tries with the material but overall poorly executed. Take out the cliche stupid loud noise "scares" and maybe a slightly altered script with more explanation (I guess we didn't really need more of an explanation but what was up with the parents...? lol) and maybe we could've had a solid, moody film. Instead it's simply silly.

Do they still not know that to kill yourself you do not slash your wrists across?

This was one monumental piece of shit. Badly acted, badly filmed, awful story. For a great twin sister horror just watch "Janghwa, Hongryeon". It's chilling, great acting, unsettling and wonderfully filmed.

You couldn't just write A Tale of Two Sisters?

I saw this in January and thought it did well in setting up the environment but the horror elements are just not there. What the hell was the Japanese school girl doing here? Aside from one scene in the tunnel she's not scary at all. There are 2 scenes in the entire movie that "could" be called horror but even they are used to just build the tension (which entire movie really needs). The twist ending didn't work for me. Acting was pretty much passable, expected more from Dormer, the death scene from Kinney was so cringe worthy. I liked the tone of the film and the use of forest elements in a couple of night scenes.

C

I could. I didn't.