THE FOREST
Cert 15
93 mins
BBFC advice: Contains strong threat, infrequent strong injury detail
Social media is awash with acclaim from contributors who claim how intensely scary The Forest is.
I can only think most of these people are 15 years old and have never been allowed to watch a horror film before this one.
There have been so many versions of creepy dark woods stories before, The Hallow being most recent only a couple of months ago.
Therefore, originality was in short supply in Jason Zada's movie which stars Natalie Dormer as twin trying to track down her sister at a notorious suicide spot in Japan.
To be fair, because deaths and consequent fear around the spot known as Aokigahara are true, The Forest does have a strand which sets it slightly apart.
However, the chance of making a movie which brings something different to the genre is lost. Instead there are the same old bumps and contorted faces.
Dormer brings the requisite desperation to her performance as the sister who is told to keep out of the forest in hours of darkness but ignores the warnings because of her desire to find her twin.
In fact, the main reason that Zada's film wound me up was that Dormer's character ignores sound advice over and over again.
She is aided in her endeavour by a shifty journalist (Taylor Kinney) who is not as selfless as he first seems.
And she runs, screams, hallucinates in different order for more than an hour,
Did The Fotrest scare me? Well, I jumped three times but overall I found it dull.
Reasons to watch: for some cheap scares
Reasons to avoid: it is largely very dull
Laughs: none
Jumps: three
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 3/10
Star tweet
Lady Gaga Out now THIS WEEKEND! Based on true events #TheForest @theforestisreal Starring Natalie Dormer + @TaylorKinney111