Whit AlexanderHaunted Forest Review (LINK)
August 10th 2008 18:03
This movie takes the worst of J-horror conventions, slaps them on a Native American storyline, and comes off much the worse for it.
The movie is about a group of kids lost in the woods. There's some attempt to rationalize WHY they're in the woods, supposedly looking for a missing camper or something, but I missed it and really couldn't care. It didn't hold any weight in the story.
There are, technically, two separate parties in the beginning. Three guys, and two gals who seem to be looking for flowers. I'm still trying to figure why they'd bring a full tea set with them.
Er, anyway, it's sort of a standaradized fair after that. The two stoners go missing first (one from each group). The guys and gal run into each other whilst looking for friends, and then weird things REALLY start happening. This ghost, called Satinka, is haunting the forest and captures all who come into her grasp. She's 'cursed by the tree' or... well, whatever. She's crazy and kills people via twigs and stuff.
It's really a poor attempt at the whole thing. I can only imagine that using a Native American character was so the director could do J-horror without using Japanese convention, but... it didn't work. The jump-go-boo moments were really poorly done. My boyfriend watched this movie with me and, although he's easily scared by horror, he was bored half-way through and started doing the dishes.
The attempts at anything other than jump-go-boo scares were supposed to be (I think) eerie buildups of she's there-she's gone kind of stuff. She appears in the background of the shot and then is gone sort of thing- that's WAY too overdone to have any cumulative effect. You just think 'oh, there she is AGAIN.' There was also a severe overuse of that weird, jerky, almost in reverse camera movement. The CG work is incredibly poor, and almost everything done in CG could have been done practically anyway.
There was also a bizarre woodsman character that didn't really seem to further the story- at least, not any more than any one of the existing characters did. But he was good for a bit of really unnecessary information, so...
Over all the movie comes off as a poorly executed movie attempting, sadly, to be J-horror and failing. There was no creepy atmosphere, and the horror parts were overdone in such a way that they almost reached the glorious self-parody mark. Almost.
The movie is about a group of kids lost in the woods. There's some attempt to rationalize WHY they're in the woods, supposedly looking for a missing camper or something, but I missed it and really couldn't care. It didn't hold any weight in the story.
There are, technically, two separate parties in the beginning. Three guys, and two gals who seem to be looking for flowers. I'm still trying to figure why they'd bring a full tea set with them.
It's really a poor attempt at the whole thing. I can only imagine that using a Native American character was so the director could do J-horror without using Japanese convention, but... it didn't work. The jump-go-boo moments were really poorly done. My boyfriend watched this movie with me and, although he's easily scared by horror, he was bored half-way through and started doing the dishes.
The attempts at anything other than jump-go-boo scares were supposed to be (I think) eerie buildups of she's there-she's gone kind of stuff. She appears in the background of the shot and then is gone sort of thing- that's WAY too overdone to have any cumulative effect. You just think 'oh, there she is AGAIN.' There was also a severe overuse of that weird, jerky, almost in reverse camera movement. The CG work is incredibly poor, and almost everything done in CG could have been done practically anyway.
There was also a bizarre woodsman character that didn't really seem to further the story- at least, not any more than any one of the existing characters did. But he was good for a bit of really unnecessary information, so...
Over all the movie comes off as a poorly executed movie attempting, sadly, to be J-horror and failing. There was no creepy atmosphere, and the horror parts were overdone in such a way that they almost reached the glorious self-parody mark. Almost.
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Comment by Cibbuano
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Comment by Bethany
They can be used effectively paired with dread, but sparingly. The scare tactics in this movie were very heavy-handed and that just leads into parody.