Grammercy
2016 color
96 mins.
Horror/Thriller
Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney star.
Written by Nick Antosca, Sarah Cornwell and Ben Ketai.
Directed by Jason Zada
Rated PG-13 for language, violence and adult themes.
The first horror movie of the year always ends up being one of the biggest turkeys. Some prime examples would be Devil's Due and the Devil Inside. The movies are usually high concept with little to no imagination when it comes to the execution. This year's entry is The Forest an overly disappointing film on so many levels. Let's discuss the silly plot for starters a young woman senses her twin sister is in trouble so she travels across the world to Japan to try and save her. The interesting part is where the movie is set. Aokigahara, the suicide forest. A supposedly haunted forest in Mt. Fuji where people come to commit suicide. Their angry, tortured souls supposedly haunt the place. If you have done any research on the location the movie doesn't expand on the material out there or offer any new insights. . Unfortunately the film makers refuse any execution that would make any of this work successfully. There are ways to approach a horror film that would make it work efficiently in my opinion. First up Don't over complicate it. You have think why is horror scary and what about this concept at it's base makes it so terrifying. The dark is scary, isolation is scary, being lost is scary, the loss of trust is scary, confusion is scary, etc. All of these things can be expanded on giving the material depth but fear is ultimately simplistic and if you execute it well at that base level you can make anything scary. You also need a great location, which they have in this case. And if you do have one make sure to make it a character, give it personality. Good cinematograpghy and an atmospheric score are necessary as well to elevate it. And most of all you need a character that the audience can relate too, someone believable so that the experience can be immersive. The film doesn't bother to focus on any of these things instead surrendering to a generic culmination of hokey, clichéd events. And when it's all laid out it's more unintentionally funny than scary. As for the performers Kinney is Hot but his performance is one note with the severly underdeveloped character he has to portray. as for Dormer she adds a fair amount of presence to her characters even while delivering the insipid dialogue. Most impressively she manages to make the twin sisters believably different. Ultimately, her performance falls apart half way through like the rest of the film. .With all that being said the film is not awful. Conceptually the film is quite interesting and handled the right way it could have been something really memorable. Instead we are left with a overly mediocre addition the January dud genre category. The forest could be worse but the biggest thing it succeeds at is being forgettable. **/5
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