Sarah Price (Natalie Dormer) travels to Japan’s Aokigahara Forest (often referred to as the suicide forest) to find her missing twin sister (Jess). Along the way she experiences Japan like she never expected. She also finds herself facing supernatural phenomenons that she struggles to understand. These phenomenons will test her resolve and will determine whether or not her--or her sister--will survive.
Nick Antosca, Sarah Cornwell and Ben Ketai appeared to base the horror aspect of their script on jump scares. Little about the story lent itself to making audiences feel eerie or uneasy, and it was disappointing to feel comfortable throughout a film that was based on the premise of a forest where people go to commit suicide. There should have been an overwhelming sense of death and uncomfortability surrounding the characters, and, in turn, the audience. At no point did the idea of suicide create a sense of fear as the general tone of the first half of the film was light and breezy. Director Jason Zada allowed audiences to get too comfortable throughout the first portion of the film leaving them underwhelmed and with low expectations of the remainder. Having these expectations lowered any potential anxiety that audiences may have had going into the film and left Dormer and Taylor Kinney (Aiden) in a veritable pickle as they tried to keep their head above water and draw in audiences using a script that fell flat.
Around the fifty minute mark, things started to pick up and a story developed that, without the dull and unappealing intro, would have done wonderfully on its own. It prodded the minds of the viewers and caused them to rethink every moment in an attempt to decipher fantasy from reality. Had Antosca, Cornwell, Ketai and Zada led with what came at this point, the film would have found much more success and audiences would have found more satisfaction in the series of unfortunate events taking place. The dreary introduction led to audiences already being uninterested and begging for the end to come. Dormer, all in all, is a talented actor, yet, she, in times of great despair, allowed her British accent to shine through and ruin what little interest fans had left. The combination of a boring script, underwhelming build up and cracks in the actors’ delivery forced audiences to quickly feel disconnected and struggle heartily to find substance.
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