The Forest (1982)

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Let me begin by letting you know I am a fan of "B" Horror of the 60's/70's/early 80's. I love the bad acting, unintentional humor and low budgets of this genre.I am surprised I only recently found out about this film, I have now watched it 5 times in the past 2 weeks, I love it so much. The cannibal is so calm and laid-back, it's almost relaxing watching this movie. The flashback/fight scene is legendary. I also love it when the husband weeps like a baby. The theme song, "Dark Side of The Forest" is a gem! There is so much entertainment packed into this movie...I recommend it HIGHLY to my fellow fans of "bad" horror classics! ENJOY!

"The Forest" is a decent enough entry, if only for a few really interesting moments.**SPOILERS**Trying to relax, Steve, (Dean Russell) and Charlie, (John Batis) suggest a camping trip in the woods, which their wives Sharon, (Tomi Barrett) and Teddi, (Ann Wilkinson) want to get in on. When they get their first, they quickly begin to realize that something is wrong with the situation and try to leave. As the men arrive, they find the camping area completely abandoned and the women nowhere around. Stumbling upon loner John, (Gary Kent) who reveals that he has been living in the area for years after witnessing his wife cheating on him, it quickly dawns on them that he has been terrorizing the area and is responsible for their disappearance. Along with his two ghost children, he chases after them while they attempt to get out of the woods with the survivors of his attacks.The Good News: This one does have a few pretty good moments in it to keep it afloat. One of the best is it's complete eschewing of slasher conventions to make something similar without really distancing itself from it's target. The victims, not the typical horny teenagers, are not relentlessly stalked by a remorseless killer whose reason for killing is a total mystery. Here, we have a murderer whose reasons are clearly laid out and understandable, even if it doesn't make sense to anyone else. Additionally, he only kills out of necessity, not because he's deriving some type of pleasure. Those are two really surprising features that are quite unexpected. There's even no spring-loaded cats or other false scares. In fact, there really are no sudden jump scares in the entire film. There are some fun segments to be had from the chasing, which do get somewhat fun. The chase by the river that soon includes a dip through the icy water. The later chase at the end isn't half bad, and it opens with a really nice one through the woods that includes a few really nice moments and ends with a big bang. The last big positive is that this one has an incredible story to it. This one has a very logical reason for staying in such a dangerous situation while most would've left the area long before being put into danger. First, the two women arrive in the woods long before the others on their own camping trip and manage to become lost as the men arrive, delayed with car problems. Finally making it to the campsite, they discover their wives are missing and thus must stick around to investigate. This splitting up allows them all to be menaced by the killer but still provide a reason why they don't all immediately take off back to civilization. The lack of a single teenager in here, especially from the time period, is also nice. That helps this one be more believable and terrifying. One would expect a group of inexperienced teens to get themselves in trouble by lacking the experience or wisdom to make the best decisions under the circumstances, whereas adults would be expected to extricate themselves from bad situations with little or no help. Seeing them at the mercy of the land, as well as the killer, reminds viewers that they might find themselves in just such a situation. These more believable reasons for the characters to willingly remain in a dangerous area is a welcome change of pace, and are part of the reason why this one is at worse watchable.The Bad News: This one here does have a couple of really big flaws that are kinda hard to get over. The fact that this one really doesn't offer up much in the way of blood or gore is a big factor, especially once the cannibal overtones get thrown around. Seeing a victim strung up ready to be consumed doesn't do that, and some off-color blood splotches is little better. The gore here isn't convincing, when it gets around to showing it as nearly all of the kills are done more through implication rather than actively doing anything that might suggest a violent, brutal end. That very few are done on-screen is a big one, especially when it gets around to showing them. The very low body-count here is what really hurts that factor, since there isn't much of an opportunity to really let loose, even though the ones that are shown could've been much more brutal or even shown on-screen at the very least. There's also a problem with the back-story. A member mentions early on that the camping area to which they are going is so secluded that very few people even know about it, that they can expect to be all alone out there. If the area is that far off the beaten track and that few people frequent the area, how is the killer even staying alive? There shouldn't be enough passers-by to require sole sustenance on human flesh, yet there's enough kills each year to do so, requiring that others should know about it and meaning that there should've been more to keep visitors safe, since it's mentioned in passing about the disappearances yet nothing else is done. There's a couple of other weird little flaws in here, but none will matter as much as those.The Final Verdict: While not a complete waste, this one doesn't offer up much and really only has a couple of good points for it. This is really only for those who enjoy the backwoods slasher genre, while those who expect more high-brow horror or figure that the flaws are too much won't have a fun time with this one.Rated R: Violence and Language

The title of this obscure and (almost righteously) forgotten 80's slasher inevitably reminds me of The Cure's mega-smash-monster hit song with the same title, hence a piece of the lyrics in the title-section of this user comment. Also, I didn't have anything else to say that was useful, anyway. But hey, "The Forest" isn't totally hopeless and not even *that* bad, actually. If nothing else, at least it obeys the, admittedly unwritten, first rule of 80's slasher: kill someone within the first 10 minutes of playtime. Sure you've heard about the basic premise of this film a dozen times before, but don't let that discourage you from watching it, as "The Forest" has a couple of things more to offer than just an appealingly sinister cover image. It's actually a bit of an atypical 80's slasher! The main characters aren't ordinary brainless teenagers and the script has solid ambitions towards supernaturalism. The concept isn't always successful, let alone plausible, but it's more than interesting enough to hold your attention and there are even are a couple of surprisingly strong moments of tension and plot twists to enjoy. Two married couples decide to go camping in the most isolated woods of California, but due to a stupid bet the wives travel separately from their husbands. Barely set up for the night, they receive uncanny visits from a mother looking for her two children, the children themselves and finally the father who's out hunting for human flesh. The demented family may be real or imaginary, but the women are definitely in danger and by the time their husbands arrive, they have already vanished. The men too encounter the family, and they find out more about the slightly dysfunction background. "The Forest" is a weird and unusual film, to say the least. It's not exactly a masterpiece of plotting, but the thoroughly strange atmosphere will certainly appeal to open-minded fans of 80's horror. The murders are fairly gruesome and will-filmed, including a slit throat and a painful saw-massacre, and the filming locations are stunningly beautiful. The more you contemplate about the story and its abrupt twists, the less it makes any sense, so my advice would just be to enjoy this odd viewing experience for as long as it lasts and not a minute longer. The acting performances are just above average, the music is okay and at least director Donald Jones (also responsible for the 70's exploitation-sickie "Schoolgirls in Chains") tried to be a little more creative that the majority of 80's horror films. Too bad it ultimately fails.

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.