A Floresta das Almas Perdidas

Meeting in a strange forest, a disparate couple comes to a sacred spot in the forest looking to end their lives in a location chosen for the same feat only for their troubles to start once she takes matters into her own hands and forces far more pain and suffering on him than he expected.

For the most part, this was an exceptionally engaging and enjoyable effort. One of the film's better qualities is the fact that there's a rather profound and chilling nature of the material present throughout here. Being filmed in black-and-white gives this a far more evocative and poignant feel to coincide with the subject matter, for this one is so deeply rooted in Catholic guilt that the two are blended together in absolutely stellar quantities where they grow closer together due to his past moves this along nicely. From the guilt he experiences over failing his family and not preventing his daughters' death to the general callousness regarded for life is allowed to come together in the way they show this being filmed as there's very few wasted shots or potential throughout here with everything intertwined throughout here. The woods are haunting and disturbing, the desolate nature is truly felt and the entire segment has a realistic tone that is quite engaging as it's a brief section of the film that doesn't feel anywhere near as long as it does which makes it stand out extremely well. While nowhere near as potent, the film's second half is a strikingly fun and enjoyable stalker effort with the grieving family completely unaware of the actions that have taken place in the forest. This stellar home-invasion effort features some absolutely fun moments, from the initial scenes featuring them being followed home that is quite creepy, her early prowling around the house which gives this a rather eerie feel to the actual attack on the family members themselves that hold this section together, there are some rather interesting and enjoyable ideas throughout here. This is perhaps the kind of strangely art- house take on the setup which is unique and gives this a different enough take on the style by itself which gives this the kind of appeal anyway.While these here work for the film, it does have a rather problematic feature about it. The film's main problem is that there's quite a differing tone present throughout here that doesn't really do this much favors. Going from the first half which is a solid and introspective take on the nature of suicidal guilt and what's going through a person's mind, this naturalistic take vanishes in the second half which just screams to belong in a different movie. It's all way too scattershot and varied in what's going on and doesn't make any sense what's going on which is a far cry from what happened previously, never offers up anything about what's going on and just makes for a baffling series of actions that don't connect at all to what happened since the entire sequence feels so different from what came previously. It's the main topic holding this one down.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Language, Violence and intense themes of suicide.

"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.

Really beautiful idea, black and white is cool, gives a sense of tension.. The plot work, I think has been just done in a very clumsy way

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 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.