Plot
Sara Price receives notice from Japanese authorities that her twin sister Jess is presumed dead, after entering Aokigahara forest, a place frequently chosen for suicide. Despite her fiancé Rob's concern, Sara travels to Japan and checks into the hotel where Jess was last staying.
At the hotel, she meets Aiden, a travel journalist, and they quickly bond with each other. Sara confides that her parents died in a car crash right outside the family home; Jess saw the bodies while Sara did not. Sara attributes her sister's mental health issues to this episode and regrets not "sharing the burden" by looking at the bodies as well. Aiden reveals a similar relationship, as his brother lost hearing in one ear as the result of a fight Aiden did not join. He now feels obligated to always help his brother in a manner similar to Sara with Jess.
Aiden then offers to accompany Sara into the forest along with a local guide, Michi. In exchange, Sara permits Aiden to write an article about her search for Jess. Michi warns that people who enter Aokigahara often carry emotional pain and may be vulnerable to supernatural forces. However, he also says that these forces can create illusions, in order to cause victims to hurt themselves.
While searching the forest, the group finds a yellow tent that Sara recognizes as Jess's. As night falls, Michi advises them to leave a note and return in the morning, but Sara insists on staying. Aiden stays with her. That night, Sara hears noises and follows them, encountering a mysterious girl named Hoshiko, who warns her not to trust Aiden and implies he is lying about Jess. Hoshiko flees and Sara falls over trying to follow, severely cutting her hand.
The next day, Aiden insists on escorting Sara out of the forest to receive medical attention. Sara is now suspicious of Aiden, and when he seems to be acting deceptive about their route, she confronts him. Aiden maintains that he never met Jess, but Sara forces him to admit that he lies about having a brother in order to get close to her. Sara revokes permission to be used in his story and demands his phone so she can delete audio recordings of her. Sara sees a photo of Jess on the phone and starts to believe Aiden is involved in her disappearance.
Sara runs from Aiden but falls into a cave, where she encounters Hoshiko again who reveals herself to be a yūrei, a malevolent spirit. Sara narrowly escapes Hoshiko, but finds a flip camera in the cave that shows images of her father's murder-suicide of her mother, revealing that Sara lied to Aiden about her parent's death. Aiden soon finds her and helps her out of the cave, with Sara telling Aiden she realises the mountain made her see a photo that did not really exist. Meanwhile, Rob arrives in Japan and joins Michi and a search party to locate the sisters.
Aiden leads Sara to a ranger station he claims to have suddenly found. While Aiden tries to fix the radio set, Sara notices a locked door from behind which she hears Jess's voice, and they pass several notes that implicate Aiden as her kidnapper. Sara stabs and kills him, only to realize that Aiden was innocent: the voice and note were more malevolent illusions. Sara then sees a vision of her father's ghost, it grabs her wrist and she escaped only by severing his fingers. She runs through the forest and sees Jess approaching the search party in the distance. Sara calls out but is not heard. It is then revealed she has fatally injured herself attacking the illusion of her father, and she never escaped the basement where she dies and yūrei drag her into the ground.
Jess, still alive, is found by the search party and expresses that she no longer feels her sister's presence - suggesting she senses Sara's death. As the group departs the forest, Michi notices a dark figure watching them from the trees, revealing Sara has become a yūrei herself.
Production
The concept for The Forest originated with producer David S. Goyer, who was inspired after reading a Wikipedia article about Aokigahara, a forest in Japan associated with a high rate of suicides. Surprised that a horror film had not yet been set there, Goyer developed a rough outline for the story. [4] Director Jason Zada became immediately interested in the project, particularly due to the real-life setting of Aokigahara. [5] He described becoming "obsessed" with the location, conducting extensive research, including watching a Vice documentary. [5] Prior to filming, Zada visited Aokigahara, stating, "There's no way I felt that I could make a movie about a real place, and not go visit it," later describing the forest as "a very frightening place" and "not a place where I wanted to spend the night." [5]
In October 2014, Natalie Dormer joined the cast in the dual roles of Sara and Jess Price. [6] Dormer was drawn to the project by the challenge of portraying twin sisters, calling the experience "surreal" and noting the difficulty of making character choices without having another actor to play off of. [7] In April 2015, Taylor Kinney was cast in a supporting role. [8] He cited his interest in the story's psychological elements, the opportunity to shape his character, and the chance to work with Dormer. Kinney described the film as "more cerebral than gory slasher films", comparing its tone to that of The Shining (1980).
Filming
Principal photography began on May 17, 2015, in Tokyo, Japan. [9] However, due to restrictions on filming within Aokigahara itself, the production used a forest near Tara Mountain in Serbia to stand in for the Japanese location. [10] Additional scenes were filmed in Belgrade and at PFI Studios for interiors. The shoot in Serbia was impacted by persistent bad weather, which forced the crew to relocate several scenes to a repurposed warehouse. [11]
Release
In May 2014, Focus Features acquired domestic distribution rights to the film. [12] On May 20, 2015, Focus Features relaunched their Gramercy Pictures label for action, horror, and science-fiction movies, with the film being one of its releases. [13] The film was released in the United States on January 8, 2016. [14]
In May 2014, Focus Features acquired the domestic distribution rights to The Forest. [12] On May 20, 2015, Focus relaunched its Gramercy Pictures label to distribute genre films, including action, horror, and science fiction titles, with The Forest announced as one of its initial releases under the revived banner. [13] The film was theatrically released in the United States on January 8, 2016, and was later released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 12, 2016. [14]
Reception
Box office
The Forest grossed $26.6 million in the United States and Canada and $12.2 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $38.8 million against a production budget of $10 million. [3]
The film was released on January 8, 2016, alongside the wide release of The Revenant , and was projected to earn between $8 million and $10 million from 2,451 theaters in its opening weekend. [15] It earned $515,000 from Thursday night previews and $5 million on its opening day, including those early screenings. [16] The film went on to debut with $12.7 million over the weekend, finishing fourth at the box office behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($41.6 million), The Revenant ($38 million), and Daddy's Home ($15 million). [17]
Critical response
The Forest received generally negative reviews from critics.
On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 10% based on 138 reviews, with an average rating of 4.1/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Forest offers Natalie Dormer more than a few chances to showcase her range in a dual role, but they aren't enough to offset the fact that the movie's simply not all that scary." [18] On Metacritic, it has a weighted score of 34 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". [19] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C" on an A+ to F scale. [17]
Brian Truitt of USA Today gave the film two out of four stars, describing it as a "mostly scare-free zone" that fails to capitalize on its intriguing premise. [20] Peter Keough of The Boston Globe criticized the film's writing but praised the performances, stating that the characters' psychological shifts felt unconvincing despite the actors' efforts. [21]
Alonso Duralde of TheWrap faulted the script for lacking emotional investment and called Taylor Kinney's performance "wooden", though he credited Dormer with delivering a committed dual performance. [22] Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times offered a more favorable view, calling the film a "decently executed creeper" anchored by Dormer's convincing work. [23] Justin Chang of Variety echoed this sentiment, noting Dormer's sympathetic portrayal and praising Zada's occasional effectiveness in crafting suspense through sound and framing. [24]
David Ehrlich of Slate criticized the film's release strategy and quality, citing it as part of a January trend of underwhelming horror films. He compared the practice to the Japanese myth of ubasute , calling the film's release a cinematic abandonment. [25]
