Friday 5 February 2016

The Forest Review

  




                                           ~ The Forest (2016) Film Review ~



   Over the weekend I went to see the horror film "The Forest" with one of my best friends. I enjoyed the film greatly and it was worth the 8 dollars I paid to see it.


  For those who might not know, "The Forest" is a horror film set in Japan's suicide forest or Aokigahara.
  
  The Aokigahara is a real forest located at the base of mount Fuji in Japan. It is nick named the suicide forest because often people will go their to commit suicide. It is unknown why so many people are drawn to this place to take their own life but their are many theories ranging from the paranormal to minerals in the rocks.


 The plot of the movie is about a young woman named Sarah who's twin sister, Jess, moves to Japan to teach English. Jess suffers from mental illness and goes into the Forest to commit sucide. Through the super natural connection between the two sisters, Sarah learns about Jess' desicion and drops everything in America to head to Japan to save her sister.



  When Sarah lands in Japan she meets an Australian journalist living Tokyo who says he knows a guy who often goes into the forest to collect bodies of the recently decreased. Sarah agrees to meet this man and the trio head into the forest to find her sister. In the forest they encounter many ghosts and demons of Japanese folklore. 



  I enjoyed the film greatly and it is perfect for lovers of Japanese culture and folklore. There is many details that the filmmakers included that made the film more believable like in the beginning when Sarah first arrives in Tokyo she drives passed Harajuku and a group of Lolitas can be seen talking and laughing for about 10 seconds in the film. 

  The film also has a strong Japanese horror film vibe to it. I kept on thinking they were going to start speaking Japanese and subtitles would appear on the screen because the cinematography was very simular to Japanese horror films. 

  Personaly, I found the movie was more suspencefull then scary. Though the visual effects are fanatstic they are not necessarily scary.

  Me and my friend noticed young childern (around 9/10) running around the theatre. I think the movie was definitely too old for them. The movie of course was rated 14A but there was no sexual content and I bieleve only minor swear words were said in the film  only once or twice. Other than having intensly scary topics and folklore, I don't know if the film deserves this rating. But I do not think it could be listed as PG13 but if there was a rating between PG13 and 14A this film would fall into this category.

   I loved this film and would recommd it to people who love Japanese Culuture and Horror Movies. ~The Kawaii Vampire




Watch the trailer for the Forest here: 





Photo Credits:

Chang, Justin. "Film Review: The Forest". Variety. 7 January 2016. Web. 5 February 2016.

Schumann, Rebecka. "Horror Movies coming out in 2016: Complete list of scary films premering in the new year." 1 Janauary 2016. Web. 5 Febuary 2016

The Forest poster. "The Forest Wikipedia". Web. 5 Febuary 2016 

"The Forest Trailer." Yotube.




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