The Forest

A man takes his family on a camping trip and becomes convinced they are being stalked by the legendary monster of the New Jersey Pine Barrens: the Jersey Devil.

The film opens with a cameo by Shawn Ashmore ("Frozen"). Mysteriously, IMDb is not aware that he appears in this movie, despite his being in the opening credits. (I am sure this will be corrected and this review will look stupid because of it now.) I love how one person on the message board summed this up as "British people should not camp". That is probably very, very true. In fact, everyone's problems would have been solved had this been strictly adhered to.

I am a fan of Darren Lynn Bousman's work, both with "Saw" and after. He has a great style. And, heck, the style here is also pretty darn good. But the film just sort of drags and there is not nearly the level of action this kind of film requires.

Before I watch a film, I tend to check IMDb. Sadly,the negatives always prove right. Especially with 'The Barrens'.

This film had a positive review, but I struggle to see why.

OK, I like a good low-budget film (e.g. Carriers), but this was too much. The director did try to create tension - a teenage daughter, protecting a young child, a possibly errant wife, etc., but it all amounted to nothing.

I found myself second-guessing the dialogue, and the story. After an hour of suffering, I gave up.

A nice try, but try harder.

"The deer, his antlers, it wasn't the fence that tore them off...it was the Leed's Devil...Jersey Devil." Richard (Moyer) is a father who can feel his family slipping away. They don't do anything together anymore so he decides to pack them all up and drive them out to the woods where he went as a kid for a weekend camping trip. When they get there the hear of a missing person. Richard begins to wonder if the stories he heard about the Jersey Devil are true. This is a movie for true horror fans only. The movie is pretty slow and not very original but on the other hand it is a very neat idea. The biggest problem with this is that once again the idea of the movie is better then the movie itself. The idea of the Jersey Devil is something that is made for a horror movie, but to me this one was just to slow and not really scary enough to fully expand on the "legend" of the devil. This movie really just boiled down to a family going crazy in the woods, which has been done over and over. Fans of the "Hunters" or even "Wrong Turn" may like this but to me it was just too slow and un-original to fully enjoy. Overall, another movie that had a really good idea but ended up being a cookie cutter horror movie. I give it a C+.

Darren Lynn Bousman took a step down from the SAW sequels and the MOTHER'S DAY remake to deliver this cheap-looking, shot on the quick piece of horror trash. It's a largely uninteresting film, shot in the woods and following a family on a camping holiday from hell. What's most apparent is the almost singular lack of atmosphere building which I had expected given the Jersey Pine Barrens setting.

Ostensibly this is a film about the Jersey Devil, with various no-name cast members getting munched on by the mythical beast, but it turns out to be a family drama for the most part instead. That's not good, given that the female characters are annoying and the male characters dull. Stephen Moyer seems to have some cult following after his role in the vampire TV series TRUE BLOOD but I found his jaded role here to be tiring and depressing for the most part. A shame Shawn Ashmore (THE DAY) couldn't have been around for more than the opening cameo.

There's a big twist in the story here which is about the only thing the film has going for it; something entirely unconnected to the Jersey Devil or the setting. I liked it, but even this twist isn't handled very well and it all ends in a disappointingly low key way. A disappointment all round, in fact.

First off, this is NOT just a horror film but more of a Hitchcock type suspense film. It's based on the Jersey Devil Legend and involves a troubled man who takes his family on a remote camping trip into the jersey pine barrens in which he begins to believe they're being hunted by The Jersey Devil. Now his own sanity is being questioned not by just himself but by his family as well. Is it the real Jersey Devil or the delusions of a psychopath? The climax is not a certain one as it isn't with most horror type films but this wasn't just a horror film as the director uses suspense more as a tool rather than a plug. As a fan of True Blood, I think this is Stephen Moyer's best performance outside of Bill Compton, and Mia Kirshner who I love in just about anything, always delivers. I saw this in a theater and I did "jump" on a few parts as did others. The director, Darren Lynn Bousman, (SAW II-IV Franchise) who Godfathered "Repo: The Genetic Opera" and my much-anticipated must-see "The Devil's Carnival", brought to life a story that will leave you questioning...does the Jersey Devil exist? Watch it and see...(btw, I'm never going camping again)