Synopsis
Set in the Aokigahara Forest, a real-life place in Japan where people go to end their lives. Against this backdrop, a young American woman comes in search of her twin sister, who has mysteriously disappeared.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Natalie DormerSara / Jess Price
- Eoin MackenRob
- Stephanie VogtValerie
- Osamu TanpopoHomeless Man
- Yasuo TobishimaSushi Chef
- Ibuki KanedaMei (Schoolgirl)
- Akiko IwaseHead Teacher
- Kikuo IchikawaBusinessman
- Noriko SakuraMayumi
- Jozef AokiVisitor Center Morgue Man
Recommendations
- 50
Chicago Tribune
For the record, Gus Van Sant recently made "The Sea of Trees," set in the same infamous suicide forest, starring Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe. In its contrived sentimentality that film is twice as frightening as this one. - 50
Boston Globe
Zada gets credible performances from Dormer and Kinney, but their characters undergo such unlikely psychological contortions that these efforts are to no avail. - 50
USA Today
Much more concerned with the emotional ties between twin sisters — both played by Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer — than scaring the pants off audiences. - 50
The New York Times
A decently executed creeper built around a convincing performance by Natalie Dormer. - 50
Variety
First-time director Jason Zada does generate an intermittently spooky sense of mystery that not even the muddled scripting can fully demolish. - 40
Arizona Republic
The Forest is one of those horror movies that starts with an intriguing idea but has no idea what to do with it. - 38
Slant Magazine
The so-called suicide forest's cultural value is trivialized in the bum-rush to liberate the main characters from their agonies. - 30
The Hollywood Reporter
Although he can’t quite get a grip on guiding the lightweight narrative, Zada demonstrates a fluid visual style, particularly in the complex sequences filmed in the forest settings.
