The Forest

I've been collecting 80's slasher films recently and I got my hand on a copy of the Code Red DVD release of The Forest, a little known and not very liked 80's supernatural slasher film. The Forest is pretty interesting for your typical slasher fare, it revolves around a group of hikers, adults mind you are hunted by a cannibal hermit in the woods who is haunted by the spirits of his dead wife and kids. It gets a poor 3.5 on here which is the same of Don't Go in the Woods...Alone! and I will say The Forest is a better film.

Now, let's get down to the usual criticisms here. The acting is atrocious, the best acting in the film is by Gary Kent who plays the cannibal hermit and he's really not that good either but he's given somewhat solid character development for his character and he is not annoying which is more than I can say for a lot of slashers. The directing is about average for slashers, nothing special but I do like the setting and I think it's captured decently here. The body count is low, but this film is not about the body count, more about the story instead. The score I actually didn't mind, there's song which is horrendously funny but the score itself, isn't that bad, in fact, I liked the score they used for the opening kills. My two favorite scenes are the opening with the two kills and the flashback sequence though poorly acted by everybody but Kent, gives us decent character development and while cheesy, actually makes us sympathize with the killer.

The Forest is not a good film by any means and I paid quite a bit for the DVD but it's a solid DVD and I liked the film more than I thought I would. Recommended to slasher fans who want something a little different than just the killer in the woods formula.

I first saw this in the late 80s on a vhs.

Revisited it recently on a ff mode.

The director tried his level best to make a genre mash up but failed miserably maybe due to the budget.

The movie also failed to cash in on the atmospheric feel of that a forest set up.

They even failed to make it a poignant story regarding the two kids' harassment by the mother n their death due to starvation n illness.

The wife's lover is attacked n chased by the husband but to my surprise the lover keeps throwing different objects n the husband keeps getting different weapons.

Later the lover dies on a circular saw which ain't even switched on.

A grown up woman while being chased by a killer meets two small kids n she tells them "pls dont kill me, pls dont hurt me". Whoa man!

Shudnt she be worried about the killer n not the helpless kids.

A friend and I went through a phase some (alot of) years ago of selecting the crappest horror films in the video shop for an evening's entertainment. For some reason, I ended up buying this one (probably v. v. cheap).

The cheap synth soundtrack is a classic of its time and genre. There's also a few very amusing scenes. Among them is a scene where a man's being attacked and defends himself with a number of unlikely objects, it made me laugh at the time (doesn't seem quite so funny in retrospect but there you go).

Apart from that it's total crap, mind you. But probably worth a watch if you like films like "Chopping Mall". Yes, I've seen that too.

The Forest starts off in standard backwoods horror fashion, with the murder of a couple hiking in the mountains, stabbed with a hunter's knife by an unseen assailant. The action then cuts to two friends, Steve (Dean Russell) and Charlie (John Batis), as they discuss getting away from the daily grind -- including their wives Sharon (Tomi Barrett) and Teddi (Ann Wilkinson) -- by going on a lad's camping trip. When their spouses hear of the men's plans and also decide to go camping, the men scoff, making the women even more determined to assert their independence. The wives head out first, hiking to a remote spot, although they fully expect to be joined by their concerned husbands before nightfall - but will either of the women live that long with a crazed killer on the prowl?

While this all looks set to be a whole lot of brutal fun, the men and women fighting for their lives against the killer cannibal (as he is later revealed to be), writer/director Don Jones soon pulls the rug from under his viewer's feet with the introduction of three rather unconventional characters: a ghost woman and her two spectral children. The woman is the cannibal man's dead wife, who he murdered for her philandering ways, while his kids killed themselves after falling ill. All three spirits now wander the woods, the children helping the living to escape their flesh-eating father.

With corny echoing voices, pasty faces and twee outfits, the ghostly kids really detract from the horror, making the whole movie a rather laughable experience, even as the hikers are killed and cooked by the cannibal. The film is also lacking in gore, with only a fairly decent compound fracture and a slit throat looking as though any effort was made in this department. Light on scares, light on splatter, and heavy on the cheesy schmaltz (the ghostly moppets finding peace with their father after he is finally killed), The Forest is a disappointing oddity that, rather unsurprisingly, now wallows in obscurity.

No, this movie is not one of the best horror movies to come out of the eighties but it does have some great qualities. I found the storyline rather refreshing, it was different from any "in the forest" horror movie I've ever seen. And as cheesy as the soundtrack was, it still was interesting... but hey, I even like the cheese factor! I admit the beginning of the movie was pointless, but still, it was great to laugh at. I'd recommend this movie to any horror fan but you must also not expect too much from it, I mean, it's no Halloween or Friday the 13th, but it is enjoyable. There were times I felt spooked and times I just wanted to laugh. A great combination!