Evil Forest

Knocking is an interesting addition to the Finnish horror film. It's really atmospheric and haunting. There are a lot of forests in Finland and this is interesting to me. What lies in those woods? The film doesn't rely so much on fast scares, but creates the atmosphere slowly. I often see long films for which I would like an earlier ending, but for this film I would have liked a little more length. The cinematography of the film is really beautiful and there is a feeling of autumn everywhere. However, I am satisfied with this as well. The final scene is also quite ingenious in my opinion. I Recommend!

I mean - with a title like that ... do I even have to say no pun intended or is it obvious? I wanted to watch this in cinemas, but was not able to. Quite the quick turn around and release on disc in Germany at least. They finish(ed) it early ... is that a pun, because it is a movie from Finland? I reckon it is, right? Anyway, the movie is good is what counts.

And while it does take a while to get going ... it holds quite a lot of punches for everyone who has the patience. The make up and the effects are really good, the acting is top notch too. And if you watch it through - the ending will be so rewarding! If that does not knock ... you off your feat ... I don't know what would be able to. Nature may have the last word ... as it always does I reckon ...

Saw this at the Leeuwarden (NL) film festival 2023. It took a lot of time before tension kicked in, growing slowly, adding plot elements one at a time. The underlying building blocks cover ten years at least, involving two generations, thus requiring flashbacks to explain the circumstances. Those flashbacks are sometimes confusing, particularly at first, while not immediately making clear that we are watching a flashback. It took some time to recognize the faces, thus allowing us indirectly to date the scene at hand.

A nice touch is the ecological component and the unusual year ring patterns in the trees around the house. It is all much more important than it appears upfront. A more common plot element is the unwanted (according to the parents) baby being aborted some 10 years ago. All three main protagonists carry similar past issues along with them. The threesome has a harmonic relationship at the surface, but every now and then there boils up something unspoken, for example "why didn't you tell me you are divorced?", leading to a hefty explanation that did not clear the situation but rather drove them apart.

There were only a few jump scares, luckily not the main course on the menu and not really important for the tense atmosphere either. Of course, an isolated house takes care of plenty atmosphere by itself. There were no neighbors, it was located in the middle of vast forest area, and it was even more isolated while needing a ferry to get there. It is amazing that there was electricity in working order, although the first light that was switched on, died very soon after for no obvious reason.

All in all, though no groundbreaking masterpiece, it works on me after the time I needed to let the plot grow on me. The ecological elements offer a novel approach to the Horror genre, the importance of which escaped me in the beginning, letting me think that the old derelict house and its buried family secrets were the main course on the menu.

It needs some adjustment to realize that there are more dangers outside, in any case other than mad neighbors or wild animals. Here it is something more sinister even (no details, no spoilers). I was immediately aware when seeing that trees can count. Far from a traditional jump scare, but it nevertheless worked on me that way. And it fully explains the film title. I scored 4 out of 5 for the audience award when leaving the venue.

This kind of feels like someone with a poor memory telling you a scary story (they have a basic outline of a legend/myth but they keep going off on tangents that don't affect the story in any way).

The concept has potential but they keep adding irrelevant subplots (family issues that don't seem to amount to anything or contribute to the film plot in any shape or form) & details that don't follow through. Then at the end, they don't really give enough explanation to the main plot or the things they have found out because it seems like they have wasted all of their time telling you about the family's side stories.

This little Scandinavian horror movie was a pleasant surprise. I went to the cinema not knowing anything and enjoyed the dark and creepy atmosphere a lot. Some nice twists and turns I didn't see coming. Not perfect by any means but much more interesting and creative than most Hollywood movies that hit the cinemas nowadays. Nice to see Scandinavian countries producing horror movies with heart since they have a lot of folklore and myths to get inspiration from. The German dubbing was not really impressive and as a result the acting felt a bit cheap sometimes - which is not the filmmakers fault but a regular problem with foreign movies. Overall a much better movie than the rating suggests.