34
Metascore
30 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 50Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFor the record, Gus Van Sant recently made "The Sea of Trees," set in the same infamous suicide forest, starring Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe. In its contrived sentimentality that film is twice as frightening as this one.
- 50Boston GlobePeter KeoughBoston GlobePeter KeoughZada gets credible performances from Dormer and Kinney, but their characters undergo such unlikely psychological contortions that these efforts are to no avail.
- 50USA TodayBrian TruittUSA TodayBrian TruittMuch more concerned with the emotional ties between twin sisters — both played by Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer — than scaring the pants off audiences.
- 50The New York TimesNeil GenzlingerThe New York TimesNeil GenzlingerA decently executed creeper built around a convincing performance by Natalie Dormer.
- 50VarietyJustin ChangVarietyJustin ChangFirst-time director Jason Zada does generate an intermittently spooky sense of mystery that not even the muddled scripting can fully demolish.
- 40Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzArizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzThe Forest is one of those horror movies that starts with an intriguing idea but has no idea what to do with it.
- 38Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSlant MagazineEd GonzalezThe so-called suicide forest's cultural value is trivialized in the bum-rush to liberate the main characters from their agonies.
- 30The Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweThe Hollywood ReporterJustin LoweAlthough he can’t quite get a grip on guiding the lightweight narrative, Zada demonstrates a fluid visual style, particularly in the complex sequences filmed in the forest settings.
- 25St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonSt. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonThe Forest is flawed on so many levels. It’s a tiresome bore, and the story is filtered through white characters when an Asian lead could have carried the movie just fine.
- 10TheWrapAlonso DuraldeTheWrapAlonso DuraldeThe accusations of cultural tone-deafness wind up being fairly moot, since The Forest turns out to be so generally inept and non-scary that to boycott it would give the film more attention than it deserves.