Wednesday Review: The Forest

I unconditionally recommend this film. That is not a phrase I expected to type in a review of this movie. It had all the tell-tale signs of a truly awful film: A pretentious premise, a January release date, a complete lack of anyone from Japan in the creative process of a movie about Japan, and a director whose Notable Works on Wikipedia start with a marketing campaign. Walking into this movie I was already thinking up insults.

The film is the story of a woman named Sara who goes to Japan seeking her sister Jess, who disappeared into the “Suicide Forest,” where many people go to die (yes it's a real place, but I've seen gag mangas from Japan use it, so I'm not going to be overly critical of it's use here). She and Jess apparently share a psychic link, and so thoughout the film she's convinced that her sister is still alive. She's accompanied into the Forest by a man with an American accent who writes for an Australian magazine, and a Japanese man who patrols the forest for dead bodies and potential interventions..

The first act of this film is exactly what I expected: a complete mess. Looking back, I recognize why. The film tells you in the very first scene that Jess has gone into the Suicide Forest. This basically leaves the movie with no momentum until Sara enters the Forest herself, and so we're treated to scenes of “exotic” Japanese people giving Sara dire looks and warnings about how dangerous the Forest is, mixed with flashbacks and bad dreams. Honestly, I really wish it wasn't too late to re-shoot the first half-hour of this movie with Jess disappearing mysteriously, and a gradual build-up to a reveal of where she went.

Once in the Forest, however, the film changes. Sara begins to see strange things, and hear voices as she hunts for Jess. We get a mixture of supernatural, psychological, and realistic horror that melds seamlessly together. At various points Sara may be going crazy, may be under psychological assault by evil forces, or may be in actual, physical danger. The film actually leaves a number of questions without definitive answers.

As for the ever popular jump scare? They were there, but they were done well. Only once, to the best of my memory, were we given a loud noise to make us jump with no further significance. Instead, we get very predictable jump scares...from things we're supposed to be afraid of. The evil spirits of the Forest appear to Sara, and we're afraid because evil spirits are scary.

I don't want to give away the ending, but I will say that I didn't see it coming. I was expecting the story to be wrapped up in a neat bow, but what I got was much messier, and far more fulfilling. If you're going to see a January film, I don't think you're likely to find one better.