AI-Film, Lava Bear Films,
Natalie Dormer, Taylor Kinney, Yukiyoshi Ozawa, Eoin Macken
Sarah (Natalie Dormer) gets a call from the Tokyo police department that her twin sister Jess (Natalie Dormer) has gone into the infamous Suicide Forest on the north side of Mt. Fuji on a school field trip (she’s a teacher) and was lost and has not returned and is presumed dead. But Sarah can feel that she’s still alive with a kind of intuition, so she sets out to Japan to find her sister. The Suicide Forest is a very, very dangerous place. There are very strict rules for going in there, and no one wants to be a guide. But in her despair she meets Rob (Eoin Macken) who offers to take her with a local Japanese man who is familiar with the forest and finds the suicide victims for the local police to haul out. Together they head deep into the forbidden forest and face the always present dangers in there, in this brand new horror film.
This film was bashed a lot by the critics. I am a horror fan, and I like films like this one. The ending is quite twisted, and rather hard to figure out. I like the open ending but I can see several theories on what actually happened and what was illusion. I found the story very refreshing as the Suicide Forest is a real thing, and the Japanese government forbids photography in this location so the movie had to be filmed elsewhere. I don’t need to explain the truth of this place as it is well covered in the film, and the research I was able to do pretty much agrees with what we are told in the movie. But the story itself I found really creepy. The “scariness” of the film is what seems to be bashed most, as I am sure people are used to partially undressed teen-age girls running through the woods being chased by a guy with a machete, but this is much more cerebral than that which is what the director was after. I found the unknown to be very suspenseful, and had a good time trying to figure this one out. I was tempted to rate it higher than 4.0 stars, but I do have to admit that even though I enjoyed the film, there are some problems. The acting wasn’t real bad, especially if you are a fan of the Japanese and Korean horror films that have crossed over to the U.S. in recent years. There is no major blood and guts, but it is shocking and builds quite a bit of suspense as we come crashing to the somewhat surprise ending. If any part of the film could use a bit more work, perhaps it is the ending. But the truth is, the way he ended it does allow you a lot of wiggle room to come up with your own meaning to it all. I liked this film, and was glad to see that it exceeded it’s budget so it wasn’t a loss for the producers. Go see it if you like smart horror films, rather than the brainless ones.
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Author: EdG
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