I lied to Mark Sieber.
My original intention was to review ‘The Fog’ (1980), directed by John Carpenter. I was in the mood for a creepy, goofy, folk-tale-ish horror movie a few nights back, and I loved ‘The Fog’ when I first saw it. It sounded like a good pick. Who cares if I’d just reviewed a novel of no real relation, titled ‘The Fog’? It sounded like fun, this movie, and so I told Mark as much.
But, I lied. After watching ‘The Fog’, I had an itch that needed to be scratched—I wanted to check out some recent films that were low-budget, something that I hadn’t explored, something that The Horror Drive-In readers hadn’t heard of, either.
Maybe I wanted to do this because I felt that ‘The Fog’ looked low-budget, compared with films of today—or maybe I just wanted a little new mixed into my love of the old. I don’t know.
Either way, I landed on a movie called ‘The Forest’. Now, if I were to rate it between 1 and 10, I would rate ‘The Forest’ about a 5—maybe a 6, were I to be feeling generous. That isn’t the best news for those of you reading this, but let me tell you why the movie was so-so, and why I still think a lot of you would enjoy watching it.
This movie has a great set-up and an equally great story idea. There is a forest in Japan where the Japanese go to commit suicide; it is a well-known, real forest, called the Aokigahara Forest. Some individuals go into this forest to contemplate suicide, and when they do this, they bring a tent to stay the night. Other individuals, the ones more intent on ending it, bring nothing but a roll of tape. They drag a line of tape off the path, leading to where their body will be, so that those looking might find them once they’re dead. Added to this, the Aokigahara Forest is said to be haunted. It’s said, by the locals, that the forest knows when you’re ‘sad inside’, and if you stray off the path, it can make you see things that aren’t there. The Forest has an end goal of making you kill yourself; it can’t kill you outright, but it can mess with you until you feel that there’s no other option.
So, naturally, Sara Price (Natalie Dormer) gets a call from Japanese officials who tell her that her identical twin, Jess (also played by Dormer), who is teaching English in Tokyo, has gone missing—has gone into the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, in fact.
There are rules in this movie, too, which is great; there are rules that mix a natural fear of becoming lost in the forest with the supernatural of a forest that sees death on the regular. If you go off the path while in the forest, you are free game for exploitation—and, of course, Sara goes off the path, just as Jess once did. She finds a tent belonging to her sister (though her sister isn’t there). Sara decides to stay there—over night!—to wait for Jess to return. From this point on, it’s a freak-out-fest.
The reason a movie with such a great story, with such a great idea behind it, really, isn’t as awesome as it could be, is because of a few detractors: CGI effects that make it look a little goofy at times, a ‘The Exorcist’ look-alike possessed little Asian girl who isn’t really all that scary, and some uneven scares—some scares that are more for a ‘make them jump’ effect than anything that makes much sense in the context of the story.
This might reflect some un-even writing in the script, but that’s okay, because the actors are fantastic. Natalie Dormer nails her lead role, Yukiyoshi Ozawa (who plays ‘Michi’, this creepy dude who goes into the forest every day looking for people that have killed themselves) adds an incredible amount of tension, and Taylor Kinny (who plays Aiden, a traveling journalist) is so unreadable that you just don’t know what he has or hasn’t done, exactly.
For me, the acting, the story idea and the setup, as well as the second half of the movie, is enough to convince me to overlook the flaws in effects and writing. It was enough to make me enjoy the movie. I don’t think that Rotten Tomatoes (which gave this movie an 11% rating) is entirely fair toward this flick, because there is enough here for you to start to really look forward to future works by the director, Jason Zada. It isn’t a work I’d rush out and purchase, but it is one I’d rent and recommend to you if you’re not sure what to watch (and are okay with what I’ve written above, of course).
As for lying to Mark Sieber … well, as long as I keep out of the Aokigahara Forest, I think I can live with my fib. Maybe. Or, maybe, I need to go and see where I put my tent. Maybe that’s best.
Review by David M. Wilson
My original intention was to review ‘The Fog’ (1980), directed by John Carpenter. I was in the mood for a creepy, goofy, folk-tale-ish horror movie a few nights back, and I loved ‘The Fog’ when I first saw it. It sounded like a good pick. Who cares if I’d just reviewed a novel of no real relation, titled ‘The Fog’? It sounded like fun, this movie, and so I told Mark as much.But, I lied. After watching ‘The Fog’, I had an itch that needed to be scratched—I wanted to check out some recent films that were low-budget, something that I hadn’t explored, something that The Horror Drive-In readers hadn’t heard of, either.
Maybe I wanted to do this because I felt that ‘The Fog’ looked low-budget, compared with films of today—or maybe I just wanted a little new mixed into my love of the old. I don’t know.
Either way, I landed on a movie called ‘The Forest’. Now, if I were to rate it between 1 and 10, I would rate ‘The Forest’ about a 5—maybe a 6, were I to be feeling generous. That isn’t the best news for those of you reading this, but let me tell you why the movie was so-so, and why I still think a lot of you would enjoy watching it.
This movie has a great set-up and an equally great story idea. There is a forest in Japan where the Japanese go to commit suicide; it is a well-known, real forest, called the Aokigahara Forest. Some individuals go into this forest to contemplate suicide, and when they do this, they bring a tent to stay the night. Other individuals, the ones more intent on ending it, bring nothing but a roll of tape. They drag a line of tape off the path, leading to where their body will be, so that those looking might find them once they’re dead. Added to this, the Aokigahara Forest is said to be haunted. It’s said, by the locals, that the forest knows when you’re ‘sad inside’, and if you stray off the path, it can make you see things that aren’t there. The Forest has an end goal of making you kill yourself; it can’t kill you outright, but it can mess with you until you feel that there’s no other option.
So, naturally, Sara Price (Natalie Dormer) gets a call from Japanese officials who tell her that her identical twin, Jess (also played by Dormer), who is teaching English in Tokyo, has gone missing—has gone into the Aokigahara Forest in Japan, in fact.
There are rules in this movie, too, which is great; there are rules that mix a natural fear of becoming lost in the forest with the supernatural of a forest that sees death on the regular. If you go off the path while in the forest, you are free game for exploitation—and, of course, Sara goes off the path, just as Jess once did. She finds a tent belonging to her sister (though her sister isn’t there). Sara decides to stay there—over night!—to wait for Jess to return. From this point on, it’s a freak-out-fest.
The reason a movie with such a great story, with such a great idea behind it, really, isn’t as awesome as it could be, is because of a few detractors: CGI effects that make it look a little goofy at times, a ‘The Exorcist’ look-alike possessed little Asian girl who isn’t really all that scary, and some uneven scares—some scares that are more for a ‘make them jump’ effect than anything that makes much sense in the context of the story.
This might reflect some un-even writing in the script, but that’s okay, because the actors are fantastic. Natalie Dormer nails her lead role, Yukiyoshi Ozawa (who plays ‘Michi’, this creepy dude who goes into the forest every day looking for people that have killed themselves) adds an incredible amount of tension, and Taylor Kinny (who plays Aiden, a traveling journalist) is so unreadable that you just don’t know what he has or hasn’t done, exactly.
For me, the acting, the story idea and the setup, as well as the second half of the movie, is enough to convince me to overlook the flaws in effects and writing. It was enough to make me enjoy the movie. I don’t think that Rotten Tomatoes (which gave this movie an 11% rating) is entirely fair toward this flick, because there is enough here for you to start to really look forward to future works by the director, Jason Zada. It isn’t a work I’d rush out and purchase, but it is one I’d rent and recommend to you if you’re not sure what to watch (and are okay with what I’ve written above, of course).
As for lying to Mark Sieber … well, as long as I keep out of the Aokigahara Forest, I think I can live with my fib. Maybe. Or, maybe, I need to go and see where I put my tent. Maybe that’s best.
Review by David M. Wilson
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