The Forest is a 2016 American supernatural horror film directed by Jason Zada and written by Ben Ketai, Nick Antosca, and Sarah Cornwell. Starring Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney, it follows a young woman who travels to Aokigahara (the suicide forest) to find her sister.
The film was released on January 8, 2016 in the United States by Gramercy Pictures and was negatively received by critics, but was a box office success, grossing $37.6 million against a reported budget of $10 million.
Plot
The majority of the story is set in and around the Aokigahara Forest, a forest at the northwest base of Mount Fuji in Japan known as a popular destination for those wanting to commit suicide.
Sara Price (Natalie Dormer), an American woman, receives a phone call from the Japanese police telling her that they think her troubled twin sister, Jess Price (also Dormer) is dead, as she was seen going into Aokigahara forest. Despite the concerns of her fiancé, Rob, she journeys to Japan and arrives at the hotel where her sister was staying.
At the hotel, Sara meets a reporter named Aiden. They drink together, and she tells him of her parents’ death. In reality, her father killed her mother, then committed suicide, but she tells him they were killed by a drunk driver. Her sister saw the bodies, but Sara didn’t look. Aiden invites her to go into the forest with him and a park guide, Michi, so she can look for her sister.
As the three enter Aokigahara, Michi tells Sara that Jess has most likely killed herself. Sara refuses to believe this, explaining how, being a twin, she can “feel” that Jess is still alive. Deep in the woods, the group discovers a yellow tent that Sara recognizes as belonging to Jess. With nightfall approaching, Michi suggests they leave a note for Jess and leave. Sara refuses, and Aiden volunteers to stay with her through the night.
That night, Sara hears rustling in the bushes and, believing it may be Jess, rushes into the woods after her. Sara finds a Japanese girl, Hoshiko, who claims to know Jess. The girl warns Sara not to trust Aiden and flees at the sound of his voice. Sara attempts to chase after her but falls and loses her.
The next day, Aiden and Sara become lost and begin to walk around the forest. As they walk, Sara’s suspicions are raised and she demands Aiden to give her his phone and finds a picture of Jess on it. Aiden denies any involvement with Jess, but Sara runs into the forest alone. While running she begins to hear voices telling her to turn around. She appears to be unfazed by this until she hears the voice directly behind her. She turns around to see a hanging body and continues to run away. She then falls through a hole into a cave and, later she wakes up and discovers that she is in the cave with Hoshiko, who turns out to be a yūrei. Hoshiko then turns into what appears to be a “demonic figure.” Sara then runs back towards the cave’s opening, where Aiden finds her and helps her out of the cave. After some convincing, they continue to walk together. Rob arrives at the Aokigahara forest with a search party and Michi, determined to find Sara.
Aiden takes Sara to an old ranger station he claims he discovered while looking for her. Sara hears her sister’s voice coming from a locked basement and finds a note which implies that Aiden is holding Jess captive there. Convinced that he is a threat, Sara attacks and kills Aiden with a small kitchen knife. As he dies, Sara realizes that Aiden was telling the truth and that the picture on his phone, the voice at the basement door, and the note had all been hallucinations.
In the basement of the ranger station, Sara sees a vision of the night her parents died. The ghost of her father suddenly appears and lunges toward her, grabbing her wrist. She cuts his fingers away from her wrist and escapes the station. Running into the forest, she sees Jess running toward the lights of the search party. Sara calls her sister, who is unable to hear her. She realizes that her escape from the ranger station was another hallucination. When she cut at her father’s fingers she actually cut deep into her own wrists and is now dying from blood loss in the basement. As she succumbs to her wounds, the hands of a group of yūrei pull Sara beneath the forest floor. Jess, very much alive, is rescued by the search party and explains that the “feeling” of her sister is gone, and it is assumed that Jess knows Sara is dead. As the search party leaves, Michi suddenly sees a dark figure at the edge of the forest and realizes that it’s Sara who has turned into a yūrei.
Cast
Natalie Dormer as Sara Price/Jess Price
Taylor Kinney as Aiden
Eoin Macken as Rob
Stephanie Vogt as Valerie
Yukiyoshi Ozawa as Michi
Rina Takasaki as Hoshiko
Noriko Sakura as Mayumi
Yûho Yamashita as Sakura
Akiko Iwase as Head Teacher
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