Another slasher
Bartok Kinski | Prague | 05/19/2008
(3 out of 5 stars)
"Two couples are planning camping trips, the wives planning one together, and the husbands one together. (Odd marriages, I see.) Earlier, we see another couple on a hike, and after the husband is killed, the wife is chased around for a bit and killed off as well. (Evidently, someone's out there, killing--as if we didn't figure that out already). Anyhow, the couples plan to meet up that night after the hike starts. But, as figured, someone is out there. Sharon and Teddie, the wives, are plagued by specters of some sort, until Teddie is killed, and Sharon is sent running. Then the husbands (whose names I forgot) meet up with someone in a cave, hoping to escape the rain, and they are offered some meat cooking over the fire. (Take a wild guess at what--or rather, who--it is) The man tells them a story about himself and his wife, and their children (which pretty much explains the ghosts) and soon the men are plagued by terror. Things go on as expected from there, as Sharon fights to survive in the woods, and the evil surviving man searches for her and Teddie, until the it's-been-done-before climax.
Not a terrible movie. The music is absolutely awful, and the acting is nothing to rave about, but it's still an okay film. A couple of good chase scenes, but the first one of the evil surviving man going after Sharon after he kills Teddie was just too dark. I couldn't see a thing. Now, maybe it was my TV but I don't know, it was still pretty dark. I preferred the day scenes. There were a couple of mild scares, but in the end, this is just another dull slasher with a few new twists. But, if you find it anywhere, check it out. It's barely entertaining, at best."
The borefest
M. Ryan Fairbanks | Cleveland, Ohio | 05/14/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Yep, here we go again with ANOTHER 80's slasher. Seriously, did every wacko in the country with a camcorder and a tube of stage blood make one of these things? This one, The Forest, is another no-budget clunker that offers nothing that hasn't already been done countless times in countless other movies.
The Forest tells the tale of two couples that head out for a weekend camping trip in, you guessed it, the forest. Naturally they have a run in with some weird hermit fella, who as another reviewer mentioned bears an eerie resemblence to George Lucas, that murders a couple of them for food. The couples also have an encounter with the ghosts of the hermit's children, who killed themselves after learning that they would have to live in a cave with their dad.
Watch in awe as the characters stare up at a sunny blue sky and say "It looks like it's going to rain!". Marvel at the scene where the hermit describes how he ended up living in a cave, (it's because his wife wouldn't stop cheating on him with cable guys and refridgerator repair men). Look on in amazement at the top notch gore effects for the cannibal scenes (A hunk of meat on a rotisserie over a fire). Immerse yourself in the smooth sounds of 80's pop rock put to montages of characters romping through the woods!
This is a bad one folks, a really bad one. Might have been good for some unintentional humor if it had been paced a little better, but it's too much of a chore to sit through as it is. Recommended only for the most hardcore slasher completists, everyone else can rest easy. Been there, seen that."
Stay Away from The Forest
walter ruether | Tempe az | 08/04/2009
(2 out of 5 stars)
"Im only giving this 2 stars cause i was able to get thru it, this is definitly not something that any slasher fan would wanna watch twice, like Dont go in the woods or Just before dawn, the forest is the worst woods slasher of the bunch, no real gore , no good death scenes, and a ridiculous plot about a man who kills his cheating wife and takes his children to go live in a cave in the woods, eventually the kids kill themselves and the lonely man kills campers for food we see no real canniblism except what appears to be a pot roast on a spick thats supposed to be human, the campers are guided to safety by the ghosts of the mans children its pretty lame, slasher fans pass whoever said this was classic is just hype dont believe the hype this movie is bad in a bad way."