Here's what the citizens of the Overlook Theatre had to say:
Lord Battle - "By far the worst Pretty Girl Ghost Mystery but I had a hell-of-a time watching this in the theater. The premise sells the tickets, so all the film had to do is deliver something Japanese and paranormal. Seems easy enough, yet they manage to create something that feels incredibly overthought and extremely predictable. Well the ending got me, I seriously didn't see that shit coming. Good job guys." - 2 Stars
Math Mage - "Conspicuously unstable blonde girl visits the alien planet of Japan to rescue her goth twin. There she is attacked by old women, gets lost in the woods, and falls prey to a curiously inventive set of illusions." - 2 Stars
Creature of the ComiCombs - "Trailers tend to give away too much plot these days and you go into a movie already knowing more than you should. The Forest deserves credit here because it doesn't give much away, you have to find out how bad this movie is by actually watching it. For a movie playing the connection angle between two twin sisters, it doesn't do much in the way of building that connection. The plot goes in so many different directions it feels like a few different movies in one big trainwreck. The characters are bland and the story doesn't make any sense, the real horror is sitting through the whole movie. If you like to punish yourself watch The Forest, otherwise I cannot recommend this." - 1 Star
Math Mage - "Conspicuously unstable blonde girl visits the alien planet of Japan to rescue her goth twin. There she is attacked by old women, gets lost in the woods, and falls prey to a curiously inventive set of illusions." - 2 Stars
Creature of the ComiCombs - "Trailers tend to give away too much plot these days and you go into a movie already knowing more than you should. The Forest deserves credit here because it doesn't give much away, you have to find out how bad this movie is by actually watching it. For a movie playing the connection angle between two twin sisters, it doesn't do much in the way of building that connection. The plot goes in so many different directions it feels like a few different movies in one big trainwreck. The characters are bland and the story doesn't make any sense, the real horror is sitting through the whole movie. If you like to punish yourself watch The Forest, otherwise I cannot recommend this." - 1 Star
Huntress - "The whole idea of the suicide forest sounded so potentially awesome that I looked forward to this movie for weeks, while quietly smothering the my concern that it could be awful. There was really no way to prepare just how lame and hackneyed the majority of this story would be. The handful of cool elements were quickly forgotten. The Forest managed to disappoint even when there were no expectations." - 2 Stars
KillDozer - "A good example of how to take beautiful scenery and a naturally eerie Japanese tradition and make them as boring and dull as possible. Full of bad writing and acting, one has to wonder how a film like this receives such a large release. Not even the "spirits" can bring this film back from the dead and to top it all off the dead in this film are blurry silhouettes in Slipknot masks. Needless to say this movie is easily forgettable and not worth the time or money." - 1 Thanks for trying Star (Not collection worthy)
Speed Demon - "Going into this film I had a feeling it was going to be bad... I was right. Poor jump scares, horrible uninteresting story & no likeable characters. I'd categorize this as an entry level creepy movie, wackily executed." - 1 Star
The Impostor - "Do not go into The Forest. Humorous CGI effects, bland characters, and an undeveloped sub-plot. The Forest is mediocre at best. I really wanted to start off the New Year with a great horror film and this just wasn't it. I did find the location and atmosphere to be creepy at times, especially when the sun set it seemed more of a maze than trees and branches. Mostly this film was laughable, I found myself laughing at serious moments and supposedly scary scenes. Overall the film has potential but unfortunately got lost in the forest." - 2 Stars
The Impostor - "Do not go into The Forest. Humorous CGI effects, bland characters, and an undeveloped sub-plot. The Forest is mediocre at best. I really wanted to start off the New Year with a great horror film and this just wasn't it. I did find the location and atmosphere to be creepy at times, especially when the sun set it seemed more of a maze than trees and branches. Mostly this film was laughable, I found myself laughing at serious moments and supposedly scary scenes. Overall the film has potential but unfortunately got lost in the forest." - 2 Stars
Ice Giant - "Huge disappointment. I hope this isn't a sign of things to come for 2016. Hearing about how mad Japanese people were about this movie before it came out I thought they were ridiculous but after seeing the movie they might just have a pretty valid argument..." - 1 Star
The Overlook Theatre Final Rating*
(Below is for after you've seen the film)
First off let me address the resounding bad reviews. Whenever new horror films have a wide release I (Lord Battle) rally the troops behind the idea that we have to review these films so our viewers don’t waste their time/money. This normally works and everyone agrees that we need to review good and bad. This can become a hard selling point for several of our non-horror fans or “cheaper” creatures… So after last year's The Gallows and with The Boy coming up, the frequent ghouls of the Overlook are becoming weary and even angry, which can result in a film like The Forest receiving a much lower star rating than perhaps deserved.
After the film ended, all the Overlook fiends gathered on the floor in the theater and began laughing/discussing all the things they hated about the film. I feel like this may have been the most excited discussion ever held in a public theater. One of the most popular topics was how strange the "Japanese" people felt in the film, like they weren't actually Japanese people but cast to seem like they were. We later learned that a lot of the movie was actually filmed in Serbia, so they essentially did cast Japanese-esque people. Everyone also seemed to be hoping for the film to go in a Hitch Hiker direction. Where Adien (Taylor Kinney, aka Lady GaGa's man) had been seducing girls he met at the mysterious ghost bar and convince them to travel with him into the woods. This wouldn't be a tough sell either seeing as he's a good-looking Australian journalist. I seriously would have loved to see a film where the scary-ass cabin-in-the-woods actually was his torture/rape den, and after the long torture porn scenes ended he would hang them from a tree still alive... And this all could be justified by Sara (Natalie Dormer) being a psychotic bitch, since Adien had her pegged as a nut the minute she walked in. Oh and in this version he didn't kill her sister either. No, we'd cut to her finishing up her stay in the forest after having been scared to death by a vision no doubt caused by the Yori. Except this wasn't a vision at all, she just mistook her sisters body hanging from a tree to be a warning of what's to come.
*Mic Drop*
*Mic Drop*
In-case you were like us here at the Overlook Theatre and wanted to see a film exploring this cultural suicide ground, Vice did an awesome (and graphic) little doc on the subject that I'm sharing below.
A couple things become clear after watching the Vice documentary. The first being that the creators of The Forest were more than just inspired by this documentary, seeing as they borrowed the narritive structure and near to exact shots. The other is that this film is racist. They've basically just added ghosts to a place that's equivalent to our Golden Gate Bridge, which also has a history of attracting those who have lost their will to live. But a movie about ghosts tricking people who are on the Golden Gate bridge into jumping would be more overtly offensive without the guise of a cultural myth.
*Based on the star ratings turned in by character reviewers, others viewed and got to "Dislike" or "Like" but that does not effect the rating.
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