Two stars. Rated PG-13, for disturbing images and content
By Derrick Bang
We must hear it half a dozen
times, from various characters: You shouldn’t visit the forest, because it’s a bad place. But if you’re gonna explore
it, then — no matter what — stay on the
path.
So, naturally, at first
opportunity, our numb-nuts heroine — and her small search party, led by a
supposedly experienced guide — stray from the path.
 |
| Having ventured into the spooky Aokigahara Forest in order to find her missing twin sister, Sara (Natalie Dormer) isn't entirely surprised when their guide, Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa, left) spots something potentially unpleasant. Journalist Aidan (Taylor Kinney) is less concerned; one way or another, he expects to get a great story out of their little adventure. |
It’s difficult to endure movie
characters who behave with such unrelenting stupidity.
It’s also difficult to endure
movie scripts that are so sloppy and ill-conceived. Three people apparently
were required to write this laughable excuse for a chiller: Nick Antosca, Sarah
Cornwell and Ben Ketai. Antosca and Ketai have a minor string of TV credits;
this is Cornwell’s scripting debut. To put it kindly, she’d be smart to keep
her day job. Her colleagues should stick to the small screen.
Their clumsy narrative for The Forest is yet another example of the
idiot plot: a story that lurches from one scene to the next, only because each
and every character behaves like an idiot at all times. I’m guessing Antosca
& Co. were inspired, in part, by the New Asian Horror Wave that produced The Ring, The Grudge, Dark Water
and their many imitators; The Forest
occasionally, fitfully, achieves that level of atmospheric unease.
But director Jason Zada, in an
unimpressive feature debut, has only one unimaginative nail to hit as this saga
proceeds, and he hammers it relentlessly:
Our heroine, Sara (Natalie
Dormer), hears or sees something unusual. She s-l-o-w-l-y walks toward it,
cinematographer Mattias Troelstrup framing her face in an ever-tighter
close-up. Then, smash-cut to a whatzit that leaps out at her — which is to say,
at us — accompanied by an orchestral shriek from Bear McCreary’s score.
Every. Single. Time.
Is it just me, or are horror
movies getting more tired, more predictable ... and more dumb?
The story, such as it is:
The U.S.-based Sara wakens, late
one night, knowing — thanks to their shared bond — that something has happened
to her identical twin. Jess, forever in search of herself, is living in Japan
and teaching English to schoolchildren. During a few frantic and unsatisfying
phone calls, Sara learns that Jess ventured into the Aokigahara Forest, at the
base of Mr. Fuji, where people often go to commit suicide.
As a result, the forest has
become infested with yurei, the
restless and angry spirits of these suicides, who “encourage” despairing
visitors to join their ranks.
Stuff and nonsense; Sara knows that Jess is still alive, thanks
to their connection. Sara therefore hops a plane to Japan, and soon makes her
way to a rustic hotel adjacent to the Aokigahara Forest. She strikes up a
conversation with expat journalist Aiden (Taylor Kinney), a fellow stranger in
a strange land; his connection with an experienced forest guide — Yukiyoshi
Ozawa, as the pensive and brooding Michi — turns them into an expedition of
three.
