The Forest

Disturbingly manipulative and yet totally conventional, The Forest is more memorable for being opportunistic than for being truly frightening.

The indiscriminate apathy with which it was made sheds off the screen like a contagion.

We are packed onto a poorly designed ghost train and hurtled past a randomly arranged array of stuff that would fail to frighten even the frai...

The Forest boasts a promising premise but squanders most of its goodwill as a result of narrative shortcuts and contrivances, horror film clic...

There’s not a lot of filmmaking energy in "The Forest," and roughly 40 minutes of story surrounded by 45 more minutes of...

The film’s biggest problem is its over-reliance on familiar genre tropes - a succession of cheap jump scares releases the dramatic tensi...

The tourist’s eye view of Japan grates (all live sushi and sidelined indigenous characters) as much as the absence of originality.

Japan’s loony suicide culture seems like an adequately scary backdrop for a horror movie, but the routine horror flick "The Forest...

The clichs are so thick, sometimes you can’t see "The Forest" for the cheese.

The movie seems to be conceived as a slow burn, but it’s more like a faucet dripping lukewarm water.

By the time the screenwriters unpack the inevitable third-act reversals and twists, it’s too little, too late, especially since those revelat...

The only thing good to say for "The Forest" is that Dormer is interesting, that she creates a different vibe and essence for each sister...

Unearned jump-scares abound – handily, Japan is full of toothless OAPs who randomly leap at young women during the night – as do the kind...

Whatever difference Zada’s relatively minimalist approach to scenes might make, it does not outweigh the overarching feeling that the movie f...

The supernatural thriller "The Forest" begins with an intriguing premise and fun, ghost story-type potential but quickly devolves into convolu...

The so-called suicide forest’s cultural value is trivialized in the bum-rush to liberate the main characters from their agonies.

"The Forest" is one of those horror movies that starts with an intriguing idea but has no idea what to do with it.

Any compelling sense of unease is ultimately undone as the film gradually settles for tedious schlock.

These woods are intrinsically terrifying. In filtering those unique qualities through an overly familiar genre sensibility, the filmmakers have ren...

The film feels more like an expertly crafted missed opportunity, a suspense opus filled with some solidly intriguing ideas that for some reason it...

The snap of a twig, the rustle of a branch – that’s about as scary as it gets in The Forest, a supernatural horror movie afrai...

Ambiguity is good in a horror movie, but with this many plot elements elbowing each other for room, none of them achieve enough clarity to be...

It’s OK to go into these woods because there’s not much to get spooked by in The Forest, unless you’re creeped out by the occasio...

At least Dormer can now tick "scream queen" off her list of thankless jobs aspiring young actresses often have to do to establish themselves.

It’s a very by-the-numbers movie, and Aokigahara becomes just another generic creepy forest that might as well be fictional.

The Forest is a dumb and dreary horror movie that’s notable only for its racial insensitivities, lack of horror, and for making Natalie...

The movie gets completely lost, unsure if it wants to be a serious exploration of repressed memories or a work of giddy, spooky trash.

Zada gets credible performances from Dormer and Kinney, but their characters undergo such unlikely psychological contortions that these efforts are...

Zada can’t manage to build tension or sustain a consistent air of dread.

With no compelling characters, scares, or plot points to redeem The Forest, the best option for those ​curious about Aokigahara is probably to watc...

The storytelling is very perfunctory. Some of the shock tactics are moderately effective but, as the film-makers attempt to combine traditional hor...

Not a total misfire, but this first feature from Jason Zada fails to capitalize on its fine setup, its competent cast, and its exquisite locat...