A Floresta das Almas Perdidas

The Forest of the Lost Souls is a Portuguese psychological thriller that mixes arthouse cinema with slaughterhouse passages. Shot in black and white and featuring few dialogues, the movie revolves around a young woman and an elderly man who meet in a forest that is known for its elevated number of suicide cases. The film focuses on the consequence of their fateful chance meeting.

On the positive side, the film oozes with atmosphere. The images in black and white, the lack of dialogues and the isolated natural landscapes complement one another very well. The acting performances are strong enough to get you interested in the main characters and their background stories. The movie gets more violent in the second half but the transition is coherent, precise and tense as it never feels rushed. The numerous allusions to different works of literature give the film a somewhat intellectual touch that suits its overall style very well.

On the negative side, this movie is particularly short with a running time of only seventy-three minutes. The fact that this movie is sold for nearly forty bucks in Canada is quite outrageous. In addition to this, the film has numerous lengths. The opening ten minutes offer an exposition consisting of shots introducing the natural landscapes and the main characters before any noteworthy action unfolds. The final ten minutes offer a resolution consisting of shots from a music festival and a short conversation on a cell phone that don't add anything to the film. If the director had gotten rid of the unnecessary exposition and resolution as well as of lengthy shots portraying natural landscapes, then the whole story could have been told in less than forty minutes without leaving anything out or rushing any elements. The script should have been much more elaborate as the promising premise isn't exploited to its entire potential.

In the end, The Forest of the Lost Souls is a psychological thriller with mild horror elements that convinces with its strong atmosphere, sinister cinematic elements and promising premise. However, the movie is very short and nevertheless includes numerous lengths. The Blu-ray of the movie includes some very short looks behind the scenes, one minute of deleted scenes and a short film entitled St. John that has a length of one minute and a half. Apparently, director and writer José Pedro Lopes likes to keep things short. If that's your kind of thing as well, don't hesitate to give this independent flick from Portugal a chance.

The film's premise focuses on the dark nature of people who contemplate and act upon thoughta of suicide. Lopes explores these "lost souls" in a well-paced, arthouse style. Shown in black-n-white "The Forest Of The Lost Souls" places the macabre nature of his subject material upfront, while maintaining a sensitive heartfelt approach. The film never meanders into exploitative ground.

The film isn't a thriller in the mainstream sense. There is no shock or gore and the pace never really hits the high octave levels of horror, but Lopes' film never intended to be that kind of movie. Instead it is a chilling, slow-burn character study which develops into a psychological overture of sorts. The dialog is minimal but when present, very substantial and compelling. The cast bring these characters to life and worthy of investment. And the twist that happens midway through is brilliant.

Overall "The Forest Of The Souls" is a well thought out slice of expressiveness. Created solely from the point of view of arthouse, the film is intended for a select audience. Mainstream, non-adventurous, horror fans will not enjoy this one. For the rest, especially those who are into exploring different storytelling mediums, this is a masterfully, dark and captivating slice of macabre.

"La tristesse durera toujours." (The sadness will live forever) Van Gogh

The woods of The Forest of Lost Souls is a mythical place where many have gone to be alone in the moments before suicide ends all. Writer-director Jose Pedro Lopes's debut horror film is an excellent, intense, brief narrative about an outsider and a family, the former enigmatic but powerful and the latter clearly dysfunctional, with one suicide and one on the way.

The forest is emblematic of the lost souls who are alone and on an entangled path to the end. Outsider Carolina (Daniela Love) meets a father, Ricardo (Jorge Mota), who is entering the grey and forbidding forest after the suicide of one daughter. Carolina, ostensibly on the same path, engages Ricardo in debate about the act and helps him prepare for it.

Like the forest trails, no trip for the characters is straight, and as the rest of Ricardo's family enters the story, motivations and guilt are not easily understood. To say more would be to spoil the almost poetic minimalism of the plot and dialogue-"taut" would be the standard critical word for this commanding plot.

Little over an hour, The Forest of Lost Souls is a new kind of horror film that eschews jump starts and cheap thrills, with only a modicum of blood for reality's sake. It is all about how off balance we can be, especially those "souls" who contemplate suicide. It provides few answers but thrills that satisfy the mind.

Because the act is ultimately unknowable, even with a proper note to accompany it, Lopes does not clarify all of the occurrences. What he does do is to make us sympathetic to the mystery of self destruction and wary of family entanglements that can lead to who knows where.

Perhaps Van Gogh had it right: "Sadness" is the instigator and the legacy.

The film is an underwhelming, underachieved Portuguese horror film about (without giving away spoilers) two people who meet each other at a popular suicide spot after going there on the decision to commit suicide. I really wanted to give this film a higher rating because it (again, without giving away spoilers) had a great idea but it was just clumsily done falling into cliché horror tropes that really didn't serve it any good. It feels like exposition that initially has good premise but just can't argue to save itself. The black and white cinematography serves the polar motives and overall mood nicely with emptiness and shallowness but the film disappointingly fell apart when it could have taken a great idea so much further with greater meaning and better execution.

I wonder if a non-portuguese viewer has the notion of how bad the acting was in this movie. People do not talk like this in Portugal and the actors were comical to say the least, the dialogues unrealistic and the emotion just wasn't there. Predictable story, done 2 times before already in a supposedly suicidal forest that doesn't exist at all in the country (make no mistake, the forest is real, just doesn't have a suicidal history attached to it). Suicidal people tend to not lock their cars before committing suicide, wear make-up as if they were going to a night club and talk like they were reading the ingredients of a chocolate-milk package. There are way better movies out there regarding suicide, spirits and stalkers, this is not one of them. Even the black and white does not save this comical effort... next!