The Forest Review (2016 Movie)

A young American woman named Sarah heads to Japan to explore the legendary Aokigahara Forest after the disappearance of her twin sister. The forest is located at the base of Mount. Fuji and is known as the place many come to commit suicide. Helping her along this journey is expatriate Aiden. At the beginning of her journey she is warned to “stay on the path” but along the way Sarah strays and wanders into the forest putting her life in danger. The more she strays and the longer she is there the more dangerous her situation gets. The forest is said to be haunted by the spirts of those who died there and who are now angry and seek revenge on the living who don’t “stay on the path”. The movie stars Natalie Dormer as Sarah and Jess Price, Taylor Kinny as Aiden, and is directed by Jason Zada. So far since it’s release on January 8^th The Forest has gotten pretty low ratings and reviews. IMDB gave it 5.3 stars out of a possible 10, Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 11%, and Movie Insider gave it 3.09 stars out of a possible 5. Over many reviews it is pointed out that the horror film is just not all that scary and doesn’t give Dormer the opportunities to show her acting abilities for a dual role. The average rating based on 65 reviews for the movie came out to a 4.1 out of a possible 10. Even with such low reviews the movies still pulled in 22.4 million opening weekend more than doubling their money based on a 10 million dollar budget. In the end, Sarah is deceived by Hochiko which turns out to be a yūrei, a Japanese spirit thought to have died violently or suddenly or without a proper funeral. The yūrei, as told in Japanese folklore, will come back and complete the last action it thought of before death which in the case of the Forest would be murder.

Here’s a short trailer of the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hW8hUcXR-A