Rating of
0.5/4
First Worst of the Year
Unknown - wrote on 01/14/16
'The Forest' squanders a decent horror premise by reverting to the absolute laziest methods in execution. Every scare is a short pause followed by a "boo". No attempt is given to present actual suspense. It feels as if the terrible scares were carelessly rushed through to get to the next scene. There's no investment in the story or characters. I lost interest in the mystery behind the disappearance of this woman's twin sister at about the halfway point. At least the actors are actually trying. The main flaw here is the storytelling. There are multiple false scare dream sequences from the beginning up until the first night in the forest. After that the movie shifts gears and tries to become psychological horror (with those terrible "boo"s still present). This is where everything completely falls apart. It tries WAY too hard to become one of those mind melding 'was it real?' type of finales that only work when there is sufficient intrigue and buildup, which this movie already failed at. You can't be vague about every occurrence after you've already established many facts and never hinted at any different possibilities. This turnaround happens literally within the last few minutes. We're supposed to assume new things about the characters that come out of nowhere, and we're supposed to buy into another character literally showing up out of nowhere. There felt as if scenes were missing, but mostly it's illogical planning of the twisty events. I seriously don't know what the F*** HAPPENED! This frustratingly stupid finale brought my score down.
