Playing identical twins is, actress-wise, often a good sign that you’re in over your head. Ask Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me or Sean Young in A Kiss before Dying. Today Natalie Dormer gets the call to mangle two roles, although I didn’t recognize her for a while in this film, ‘cuz she showed up with a full head of hair. Twins Dormer and Dormer can be distinguished her because while their collective acting won’t do it, Sara Price is a blonde and Jess Price is, currently, not.
Sara gets a call from “Japan” that her sister is missing. Japan always knows, doesn’t it? Whenever my socks go missing, that’s who I call. A language teacher across the Pacific, Jess went into the spooky Aokigahara Forest and never emerged. This particular forest, no lie, is a notable suicide destination. Hence, Japanese authorities were worried that Jess was gone with the intention of not returning. But Sara knows she’s alive. Your twin always knows! So Sara gets on the next plane to Mt. Fuji, intent on retrieving Jess.
Not too intent, mind you. Sara spends an odd amount of time actually not looking for Jess. This includes hitting a bar where she finds journalist Aiden (Taylor Kinney), which is great, because otherwise, she might have to talk to more locals. The Forest dares ask the key question: how do you make a creepy Japanese horror film without any Japanese people? It’s harder than you think, apparently.
Finally getting to The Forest, Sara, Aiden and park guide Michi (Yukiyoshi Ozawa) – see how hard it is?– locate Jess’ tent. Night is falling and Michi and Aiden urge the leaving, because, you know, haunted forest. Wait a minute. Why is there a tent there? Didn’t Jess travel with school children? Clearly, they all weren’t camping there. This was a day trip. Nobody encourages camping in the haunted forest. So why did she bring a tent? Sara insists on staying. Aiden stays to protect Sara. Michi leaves. Oh good, the screenplay was indeed able get rid of the Japanese guy and leave only white people on screen.
Aokigahara Forest screws with your mind. To be honest, there were multiple occasions of “ok, you got me; that’s creepy …” like when Sara sees a body flowing down the river, summons Aiden to confirm, and all he 
confirms is that Sara is going the wrong way – a pan to the now body-free stream shows it flowing to the right instead of the left. Obviously, it hits a little harder than that as the movie progresses, but you get the idea. Show enough things out of whack and you might make some very poor choices, too. I did enjoy when Sara finds a schoolgirl (Rina Takasaki) alone in the dark and when Sara presses for answers on her sister, gets this cryptic warning in broken English: “Don’t trust him.” Aiden is the only guy you know on this continent, and ghost girl says he’s an enemy. And it’s night in suicide forest. Ok, yeah, that could give you a chill or two.
Nobody expects anything from the non-Oscar contenders released in January and The Forest is no exception, but honestly, it could have been a lot worse. Interesting to see if Natalie Dormer can use this to vault her career to Sean Young level. Her bar can’t be that high, can it?
♪Go now,
Grab a plane and head Far East
Move it
Before you find out her life has ceased
You need to find that other girl like you
She’s in the forest of seppuku
Her tent? How nice. Or is that dream, too?
Sara, Sara
Ghosts have come out to say, “hi”
Sara, Sara
Impossible is a sequel if you die♫
Rated PG-13, 95 Minutes
D: Jason Zada
W: Nick Antosca, Sarah Cornwell, and Ben Ketai
Genre: Mock Japanese horror
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Ummm, identical twins, maybe?
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Tree huggers
♪ Parody inspired by “Sara”
