{"id":25075,"date":"2018-03-19T07:06:06","date_gmt":"2018-03-19T13:06:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=25075"},"modified":"2018-03-19T07:06:06","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T13:06:06","slug":"dark-forest-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?p=25075","title":{"rendered":"Dark Forest – Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nEmily is in a abusive relationship with her boyfriend Peter. Her best friends Michelle, Jolene, and Francine plan a camping trip and she sneaks off with them for the weekend. Peter is furious and searches the woods for his girlfriend, killing anyone who stands in his way.<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Written and Directed by<\/strong>: Roger Boyer<\/span>
\nStarring:<\/strong> <\/span>
\nLaurel McArther – Emily<\/span>
\nVeronica Ternopolski – Michelle<\/span>
\nJalin Desloges – Francine<\/span>
\nWeronika Sokalska – Jolene<\/span>
\nGraham Silver – Henry<\/span>
\nJesse Laing – Franky<\/span>
\nAlyssa Wyspianski – Sally<\/span>
\nGenevieve DeGraves – Kim<\/span>
\nStefanie Austin – Alice<\/span>
\nCorey Chadwick Malone – Anthony<\/span>
\nMatthew Stefanson – Roy<\/span>
\nTrevor Kristjanson – Jake<\/span>
\nDennis Scullard – Peter<\/span>
\n
\n<\/span>Flat out have to say that <\/span>Dark Forest<\/span><\/i> is a very enjoyable slasher film. \u00a0Why? It went back to the basics of classic 80\u2019s slashers that are still popular to this day. The 80\u2019s style is complimented by James Hofer\u2019s synthesizer music. The film didn\u2019t focus on twists and turns, or making the slasher\u2019s effects scary to give you nightmares, or over the top characters that you hate and want to be killed. \u00a0It was rather a simple story with characters that were all likeable and without any true main characters, you don\u2019t know who will survive if anyone. The scariest part is the kills came across realistic, almost too realistic! <\/span>
\nFrom the beginning, the tone is playful and goofy especially between Jolene (Weronika Sokalska) and Francine (Jalin Desloges). \u00a0The only non fun character is Emily\u2019s (Laurel McArthur) abusive, controlling, psychotic boyfriend Peter (Dennis Scullard).<\/span><\/p>\n

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When the girls plan their getaway weekend, Emily has to decline due to Peter not allowing her to go. \u00a0Her friends are furious with Peter, especially Michelle (Veronica Ternopolski). The day before the trip Michelle has it out with Peter and they drop nasty insults and name calling at each other. \u00a0After that run in, Peter gives Emily a stern warning about going on the trip. Once he\u2019s passed out she sneaks out and goes on the trip despite his threats. The trip is going well as the girls share fun stories around the campfire. \u00a0Oh, and there’s two other couples camping in the vicinity\u2026.you know a slasher film can always use more victims. While hanging out at the campfire, the girls conversations are real life and they usually disclose some personal information about one of them and done with intriguing dialogue. \u00a0It\u2019s just one of the many indications of a well written script. At this point, even if it wasn\u2019t a slasher film, it\u2019s a fun college girls on a bonding camping trip. The slasher addition just makes it much more entertaining. <\/span>
\nMeanwhile, Peter and two of his friends Jake (Trevor Kristjanson) and Roy (Matthew Stefanson) are doing what they do best, hang out drinking and ripping on girls. Jake and Roy\u2019s slacker lifestyle does make for some comedic moments though. As the three sit there, it\u2019s obvious that Peter\u2019s anger is growing due to Emily disobeying him. \u00a0He can\u2019t take it and wants Jake and Roy to join his mission to take all of Emily\u2019s friends and anyone that gets in their way out. We then see how ruthless Peter is when Jake doesn\u2019t want to be part of his plan. <\/span><\/p>\n

Peter with his not much of a choice sidekick Roy head out to find the girls. \u00a0For the remainder of the film it\u2019s a continuation of the girls bonding and having fun, but now with Peter in the vicinity and taking out his first victims, the tension quickly builds. \u00a0One by one he starts killing everyone and in one case two at the same time. Peter occasionally mentally toys with his victims before killing them. Peter\u2019s a slasher with his butcher knife, but also a hammerer, ax murderer, strangler, and even a tree limb whacker. His kills are brutal and several times the victims are shown suffering which adds to the cringing moments and of course you have to appreciate a blood splatter on the camera lens moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The length of the film was perfect, too many times films will drag it out to get to 90 minutes, but <\/span>Dark Forest<\/span><\/i> did what it had to and ended, so there\u2019s no drawn out scenes. Plus, there was a bit of a cliffhanger at the end, a reminisce of the ending of Friday the 13th Part 4. <\/span><\/p>\n

Tons of credit goes to the entire crew, Roger Boyer the writer and director, and especially the cast who all did an excellent job in each of their roles and coming across as regular people, no overacting, and their actions toward the killer come across realistic and there\u2019s some quality fights. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lastly, and interesting enough, here are some highlights regarding the filming process from concept to distribution. <\/span>Dark Forest<\/span><\/i> was made by a very determined team and they were constantly making changes and over several years proved many wrong. \u00a0Initially the film was made for a filmmaking competition in Canada and would be premiered in cinemas across Canada. <\/span>Dark Forest<\/span><\/i> originally was a \u201cfood footage\u201d type film, but when it didn\u2019t get past the first round the producers were more determined than ever to make the film successful. \u00a0After much discussion and debating, it was decided to make it into a 80\u2019s style slasher film. With nearly no budget the film was made over several weekends, but needed a little more. \u00a0After a successful crowdfunding campaign they were able to shoot additional scenes and complete the film, so they thought. At that point the film was less than an hour and additional film time was needed. \u00a0In many cases when filmmakers need to extend the run time there\u2019s obvious drawn out scenes, but to extend <\/span>Dark Forest<\/span><\/i> they did so by adding more quality kills and action. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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The producers took the new version of <\/span>Dark Forest <\/span><\/i>to the 2014 AFM, but unfortunately went home without any buyers or distributors. \u00a0It was time to take matters in their own hands knowing they had a great film, so they self-distributed and premiered the film at Landmark Cinemas in Canada. \u00a0With a highly successful month, beating out some top Hollywood movies, the producers struck up a deal with the Los Angeles based distributor Indie Rights and Dark Films then became available on VOD including Amazon Prime and is due out soon on DVD and Blu-Ray. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dark Forest<\/span><\/i> is currently available on Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play, Canadian Screens, and the Microsoft Store. \u00a0Keep an eye out for it to be released soon on DVD and Blu-Ray.<\/span><\/p>\n

Connect with Dark Forest and the team on their social sites:<\/span>
\nINSTAGRAM: instagram.com\/darkforestfilm2015<\/span>
\nTWITTER: @darkforestfilm @zellcopro<\/span>
\nFACEBOOK: facebook.com\/darkforestmovie facebook.com\/ZellcoProductions<\/span>
\nWEBSITE: zellcoproductions.com<\/span><\/p>\n

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Emily is in a abusive relationship with her boyfriend Peter. Her best friends Michelle, Jolene, and Francine plan a camping trip and she sneaks off with them for the weekend. Peter is furious and searches the woods for his girlfriend, killing anyone who stands in his way. Written and Directed by: Roger Boyer Starring: Laurel…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":25084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","mf2_syndication":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movie-news","wpcat-1-id"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2-145x145.png",145,145,true],"medium":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2-204x300.png",204,300,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"large":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"gridflex-1422w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"gridflex-1074w-autoh-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",344,507,false],"gridflex-360w-300h-image":["http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/darkforest2.png",204,300,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/?author=33"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Emily is in a abusive relationship with her boyfriend Peter. Her best friends Michelle, Jolene, and Francine plan a camping trip and she sneaks off with them for the weekend. Peter is furious and searches the woods for his girlfriend, killing anyone who stands in his way. Written and Directed by: Roger Boyer Starring: Laurel...","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bmovienation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}