The Forest

As a whole the movie works and is very satisfying. It's like a joke that seems to have a weak set up that's made up for with a hilarious punchline, but waiting for the punchline to come in a feature film can be dull.

It's not like pulling teeth dull or anything like that, It is a good story. It really does not hurt that Natalie Dormer is fun to look at for an hour or two as she plays a woman looking for her twin sister who entered a forest in Japan known to attract those who want to commit suicide and never comes out. For those of you not into Dormer, Taylor Kinney is in it as well as a reporter trying to help, but has his own agenda. If you you don't like either actor that will be a problem cause for the most part it's the two of them in the woods for the majority of the film.

It's not as scary or frightening as I hoped for. The disturbing images did the trick, but it did not get my heart jumping like I expected, but it feels like the overall story is what is supposed to haunt you. I get it but I'm not all that impressed.

As far as horror movies goes this one is not bad..The theme of the suicide forest is intriguing.The stranger in a strange land them works well here.the film avoids most of the horror clichés.

It has plenty of creepy moments and you'll jump a few times.The production is high and Natalie Dormer gives a good twist on the scream queen ..Her character is not dumb repeating cliché lines and behavior..The questions that run though your head her character answers.The film has a dark ending and is not fairy tale at all..I don't understand why its so poorly rated its not that bad...its a good scary movie.....

But then again, wouldn't you if your sister was missing? It's a bit of a stretch and yes there are crazy decisions involved, but there have been far worse stretches in horror movies. So this is kind of "logical" if you want to call it that. Also the horror/shock moments are build up nicely too.

Don't get me wrong though, it's not that it's not predictable or does not have its downfalls, I'm saying that it's still decent considering all those things. Also the ending had a punch (bullet/shock, whatever you want to call it), that is kind of worth watching it through. While not the best of the bunch, you can have some "fun" with this ...

After Sarah discovers her twin sister has disappeared into the suicide forest, she travels to Japan in hopes of finding her, after getting some help from a guy she's met, of which had clearance to take her into said forest, things take a turn for the worse as strange occurrences befall Sarah, as well as the others, turning more, and more sinister, and even deadly. First off, the story of this entire film I personally thought was neat. Having the emotional depth of knowing your close siblings missing was unique, and added impact toward this film. Making things serious, including having said sister missing in another country, let alone the deadliest place in said country is worse, adding tension, as well as some hope for the audience. Moving on; throughout this entire movie, things ended up a bit clichéd-like, in terms of the whole genre of horror. This horror movie took the clichéd route. You know when your sitting there, soaking the film in, and suddenly, for example, someone slams their face randomly against the window of your house, or say car for absolutely no reason, other than the sake to just make you jump. This movie did that a few times, for absolutely no reason, out of nowhere, something just jumps at you for the sake of scaring you. Another element, following through with that. Again, have you ever seen a horror movie to where the film tricks you to think the characters actually going through a trauma, but awakes to find out it's just a nightmare? I personally felt as if this movie overdid that quite a bit, it kept having our main character, Sarah dream of something terrifying, then awake - Once again leading the film to just throw that randomly in there for the sake of scaring us. However.. for the scares in this film to where actually made sense, they successfully succeeded in not only adding tension, but managing to be nerve racking, and completely unsettling. Dark, creepy atmosphere, as well as a tense build-up of suspense succeeded in not only making the audience paranoid, but scaring them in the process of unleashing the awaiting scare. The characters, all around, I felt did a solid job executing their characters, and what they stood for, in terms of their background stories, in-depth traits, etc., as the audience, it felt compelling to know more, and dig deeper toward the characters' personality depth, instead of keeping them vague, and randomly placed just for the sake to be killed off, as they were actually quite intriguing, and well played out.

Overall, this movie had flaws. But usually horror movies in January are red flags, showing it's bad. However. This movie was quite surprising, succeeding in some successful jump scares, but more importantly creepy, unsettling atmosphere, and an overall white- knuckled environment. Although this film took a cliché toward the constant, randomly placed jump scares, as well as dream sequences, in my opinion, it still managed to tie in necessary jump scares, so to speak. The characters were intriguing, with great back-story, and development. The film managed to tie in some thought - provoking moments that succeeded, but were answered. The film, however, not mentioned before seemed to have a bit of a mixed - unresolvable way of answering the entire film itself, making the entire thing a bit confusing, but for the most part answering needed answers to have this movie make sense. For a first weekend January horror film, this wasn't bad, but it suffered heavily clichéd plot flaws. Aside that, this was surprising! I honestly had a good time with this film, and would recommend a look toward horror fans / people who want an intriguing, unsettling time!

5.5 I would say is right on the money. Not academy material but good for a couple of jump scares. Just saw the movie tonight. First jump scare was so good lady next to me spilled her full bag of popcorn and tipped over her drink...we laughed and laughed...then the usher came.

I had the movie pegged to go in another direction but I guess the joke was on me, and everyone I was with thought the movie was going in the same direction I thought, so it was pleasant surprise that it was not that predictable.

Overall 5.5 is good, watchable, scary enough. More psychological than it was Horror or Terror.

It was a little light on the Horror, and there was 1 single plot line, but still enjoyed it.