Its that time of year again. No, not yet time for Egg Nog, but time for candy corn and spooky scary skelet-…er, Halloween! This is typically a time of year that I enjoy. The weather in Texas is less murderous, the holiday is unabashedly commercialized so unlike Christmas, people appreciate that they aren’t being guilt tripped into spending more money. Yup, no need to feel guilty on ten pounds of Halloween for the uhhhh….children…..
But actually what I appreciate most is the atmosphere. Decorations, scary stories, murder and gore. Making light of things that could/should be terrifying. And my favorite part of all are the horror movies! Scary, suspenseful, paranormal, comedic, gory, and just plain shlocky-shock, they come in all types! Every year for the past 4 years I believe my significant other and I try to make it a point to watch one horror movie every day during the month of October. This year I am shaking it up a bit by attempting to article each attempt/experience with a mini-review of the material or just general discussion over it.
Don’t expect a piece every day. As much as I wish I could promise that I can’t hold myself to it. That said, I’ll still cover every horror related thing I’ve seen between each article. Also, as much as I truly wish I could watch a horror movie every day the timing won’t work so some days might be an X-Files or Twilight Zone episode, or maybe an episode of a short-form horror anime I’m drawing a blank on the name right now. Regardless, my fiance and I will be doing our best to stick to this goal!
To begin this month (yup today is September 30th but I won’t have time to watch anything tomorrow so we started a day early to make up for it), we watched The Forest starring Natalie Dormer of Game of Thrones fame. This movie is about a woman who has a bad feeling about her twin sister who last was seen entering Japan’s suicide forest. I rented this on Redbox after looking through and it was the only thing I hadn’t seen that also didn’t look like complete generic mockbuster garbage. The decision was as simple as could be.
The highlights of The Forest are seeing rural places in Japan even though they didn’t show much. And the atmosphere of being in a creepy old forest. Sadly, that’s about it for pros. Mostly the movie tries to scare you with constant dream sequences and cardboard scares that you can predict from a mile away. A big portion of this movie is suspense regarding a certain character’s actions and how Sarah, the lead character, is descending into madness while lost in a creepy forest. Expect the typical flashback to a dark past, lies, deceit, betrayal, yadda yadda. The ending at least was fun if not a bit predictable and reminiscent to me of the so bad its good but still bad Drag Me to Hell.
Ultimately I give The Forest the rating of Better to Watch for the First Time Than Simply Staring at Firewood if That is Your Only Other Option.
On that note, I’ll likely be back with another article on Sunday or Monday night. If anyone has any suggestions for movies to watch, preferably ones I can get off of Amazon Prime or Netflix streaming, let me know in the comments! I’ll probably also rewatch a couple of my favorite movies like The Conjuring 1/2 and Cabin in the Woods. (Seriously give me decent recommendations, the worst part of this challenge is there’s nothing but shit to watch at the end.)