On the 8th of January, theatergoers can anticipate their first wide-release of a horror film in 2015: The Forest
Story
The story is set in the Aokigahara Forest (won't lie and say I could spell that without Google), which is other-wise known as the Suicide Forest. What is it? Well, sure enough, as you'd expect, it's a forest in Japan where people off themselves. In this film, it's about a young American woman is search of her twin sister, who disappeared. The woman enters the forest and is confronted by the depraved and restless souls of the dead.
Info
The film is directed by Jason Zada and stars Natalie Dormer (Tyrell in Game of Thrones, Jamie Moriarty in Elementary) and Taylor Kinney. The film is being released by recently relaunched Gramercy Pictures. This is the director's feature film debut.
Box-Office
January's known as the dead-zone month by most box-office enthusiasts. But it's a terrific month for horror films. January has brought modest successes like Devil's Due and Texas Chainsaw, as well as the hugely successful Mama and The Devil Inside films. I believe The Forest will benefit off the flooded marketplace and be a considerable box-office success.
Thoughts
The Forest has my attention as a fan of horror films, but I have little excitement based on the trailers. They depict something neither bad nor good, but carry a sameness we've seen all too many times prior from the genre. Fingers crossed the film offers some unique imagery and doesn't depend too much on archaic horror tropes, but I've been fooled before. The cast is capable as well, but an actor's only as good as what they have to work with. If nothing else, I believe it will be an enjoyable experience at the theater for genre fans, but likely not be a stand-out film.
The story is set in the Aokigahara Forest (won't lie and say I could spell that without Google), which is other-wise known as the Suicide Forest. What is it? Well, sure enough, as you'd expect, it's a forest in Japan where people off themselves. In this film, it's about a young American woman is search of her twin sister, who disappeared. The woman enters the forest and is confronted by the depraved and restless souls of the dead.
Info
The film is directed by Jason Zada and stars Natalie Dormer (Tyrell in Game of Thrones, Jamie Moriarty in Elementary) and Taylor Kinney. The film is being released by recently relaunched Gramercy Pictures. This is the director's feature film debut.
Box-Office
January's known as the dead-zone month by most box-office enthusiasts. But it's a terrific month for horror films. January has brought modest successes like Devil's Due and Texas Chainsaw, as well as the hugely successful Mama and The Devil Inside films. I believe The Forest will benefit off the flooded marketplace and be a considerable box-office success.
Thoughts
The Forest has my attention as a fan of horror films, but I have little excitement based on the trailers. They depict something neither bad nor good, but carry a sameness we've seen all too many times prior from the genre. Fingers crossed the film offers some unique imagery and doesn't depend too much on archaic horror tropes, but I've been fooled before. The cast is capable as well, but an actor's only as good as what they have to work with. If nothing else, I believe it will be an enjoyable experience at the theater for genre fans, but likely not be a stand-out film.
Tomatometer Prediction: Rotten (25-30%) – Horror films never perform well with critics, no worries. I do think it will be an “Okay” film, albeit very formulaic.
Box Office Prediction: 35-40 million (Assuming the budget's small, this will be a considerable success, about on-par with Woman in Black 2 and Devil's Due)