The Singing Forest

An experience of utter torture. I'm glad that I got it as part of a two-for-one special at the video store. Horrible story, bad acting, bad lighting, bad soundtrack: bad, bad, bad. It has to be one of the 10 worst films ever made. After 10 minutes, I played most of it at 2x speed on the DVD player, and it was still awful. If it were submitted as a project in a film class, it would not even receive an F. The student would be tossed out of the class. Low-budget video films have better production values. Why was the microphone in another room during the filming? Didn't anyone bother to check the focus? Did anyone actually READ the script? This film should come with a warning label: it can be dangerous to your cinematic consciousness.

I had fun reading the varied comments here, about "The Singing Forest". I thought the film had an interesting story idea, but it was not developed in the movie, at all. I agree with most all the negative comments about the directing, lousy sound, poor lighting, no action, etc. But, worst of all, our intelligence was insulted by an ignorant script which completely failed to deal with the basic story idea. It was so contrived that it should be named "The Groaning Forest". The actors did the best that could be expected with such a miserable script. I'm giving my copy to the local gay rights organization, with a warning "See it with friends who can make bad jokes about this taaackkkky flick, then you may get some chuckles."

There is nothing good to say about this. It is simply the worst movie I have ever seen. It simply feels like a project that was dreamed up, written, and shot in 10 days with the director's friends cast uncomfortably as actors.

This isn't a "love to hate it" film like Ed Wood's wild weirdness. This is more on the level of a high school driver training safety film. It is a car wreck.

Poor sound makes the dialogue almost unintelligible, poor lighting makes characters almost invisible. The 15 minutes worth of story in this hour-long film is a ghastly mess, and the ending is absolutely the most tasteless, stupid, and absurd I've seen in any movie, period.

Schlock like this gives gay cinema a bad name.

This film is about a man meeting his lover of his previous life, who happens to be his daughter's fiancé.

I could not believe how bad this film is! There is a very big problem with every single aspect of this film, be it the plot, the acting, the lighting, sound, cinematography, wardrobe or directing. Each of these are described below! The plot is bad to start with and it is very poorly told. The acting is non existent. The actors barely stand there reciting the lines. The sets are not made or decorated in any way, it seems as if the director just shot the film inside his house. The wardrobe is very old fashioned and plain, as if the actors wore the cheapest item they have in their own wardrobe. There is no costume adviser or even any budget for clothes, I can bet.

The lighting is very bad. Most of the time the film is not adequately lit. In the scene where Christopher drinks beer in the living room, the only source of light is the lamp beside Christopher. This makes the beer bottles and even the coffee table dark and indiscernible because they are against the light.

In addition, the soundtrack is a big problem as well. There is a high level of ambient noise, and sometimes we even hear traffic outside the house and hear dogs barking! In the scene where the two men talk on the seaside, the waves are so loud that the sound of waves literally drown out the conversation.

However, the worst is yet to be described! The cinematography is shocking. 90% of the time, the camera sits on a tripod for two or three minutes. This means that most of the time, the camera does not move, and the shot length is very long. This means that most of the conversations are filmed with two people sitting and talking. We do not have any camera shots of their facial expressions or reactions. For example, in the scene where Christopher lies in bed talking to the standing daughter, the camera is positioned behind Christopher, so that during the long conversation we could not see his face at all. There are also many times that the cameraman decides that the characters are in fact not in the centre of the visual field, and shifts the camera to the side a bit. Oh, why does it take you so long to realise the camera is off centre? It is almost comical for the film to have a black storyboard to serve as the narrator. It looks like someone holding a black cardboard in front of the camera. Because of the high level of ambient noise, when the black storyboard comes in, there is total silence. Then the ambient noise starts again when the film resumes.

Believe me, this film is really very bad. Avoid!

The premise is fascinating, and if the director/producer/writer had spent five more dollars he might have half-way decent sound and barely acceptable actors. As it is, the actors are absurdly amateurish and the sound is so horrible half the dialogue is lost completely. I've seen high school films with better talent and production values. The lighting is practically non-existent. Though the story and premise had some very interesting angles that should have been explored, this film never goes beyond agonizingly simplistic and boring. The actors almost seem retarded. And the deceptive cover of the DVD shows actors and scenes that never appear in the movie. Let's hope this man never produces another film, ever.