The Forest Tomi Barrett

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. Your generosity touches me deeply. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance has become essential.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter sent to your Inbox every Monday morning!
2) Patron-only Silent Auctions - so far over 30 Out-of-Print titles have moved to deserved, appreciative, hands!
3) Access to over 20,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. Thank you very much.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Terror in the Forest " )

directed by Don Jones
USA 1982

This DVD of The Forest is compared to the 2021 Blu-ray HERE

Two couples decide to get away from the congestion of L.A. and go camping (not having been privy to the opening sequence in which another hiking couple are knifed by an unseen killer). Having had a battle-of-the-sexes argument about women in the wilderness, the wives drive up first with the expectation that there bickering husbands will join them in a few days (they are actually following close behind). Taking shelter from the rain, the women first encounter a ghostly apparition of a woman looking for her equally ghostly children (allegedly cute child actors who have been secretly observing the pair who first alert their knife-wielding, flesh-craving father to the presence of campers and then decide to warn the soon-to-be-victims).

From then on, we're in slasher territory with a bit of supernatural novelty and not-so-special special effects. Sadly, the film has little else going for it. Shot on location, the lighting is what you would expect of a low budget horror film shot on film while the sound design is ridiculously upstaged by overuse of bobcat roars. The killer (Gary Kent billed as Michael Brody due to SAG rules) does not stay an unseen menace for long (he doesn't even get that impressive of a reveal). An early nonsensical spin on the "let's split up" convention of slasher films has a couple hiking in the middle of the woods. The woman is sure they are being followed and is nervous. Despite the fact that the husband wants to get going before nightfall, the wife says "I know the way too, why don't I go ahead of you" and he lets her go ahead solely to hang back and be murdered. The electronic main theme starts out effectively before taking a Disney-fied turn and the rest of the score is keyboard stalking and some bad early eighties vocals (especially "The Dark Side of the Forest" which will have you fast forwarding).

Eric Cotenas

Posters

Theatrical Release: 1982 (USA)

Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Code Red DVD - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Eric Cotenas for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Code Red DVD Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:25:57
Video	1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 7.64 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	English (Dolby Digital 2.0 mono)
Subtitles	none
Features	Release Information: Studio: Code Red DVD Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.78:1 Edition Details: • Audio Commentary with Don Jones and Stuart Asbjornsen • Audio Commentary with Don Jones and Gary Kent • Promo Trailer (1:06) • Photo Gallery (1:50) • Cast & Crew Interviews (13:01) • DON'T GO IN THE WOODS trailer (4:3; 1:07) • JULES VERNE'S FABULOUS JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH trailer (16:9; 3:24) • SCHOOLGIRLS IN CHAINS trailer (4:3; 2:03) • DEVIL TIMES FIVE trailer (16:9; 2:15) • SWEET SIXTEEN trailer (4:3; 2:03) • SECRETS OF SWEET SIXTEEN trailer (4:3; 2:15) • BEYOND THE DOOR trailer (4:3; 0:27) DVD Release Date: 7 November 2006 Amaray Chapters 12

Comments

This DVD of The Forest is compared to the 2021 Blu-ray HERE

Although shown theatrically, this film was shot for the home video market (on film) but the widescreen compositions seem okay. The dual-layer anamorphic widescreen transfer probably looks as good as the film can (the softness of some shots is the result of the lenses which also exhibit flare during some bright shots). Despite this film's shortcomings, Code Red has given the film the special edition treatment even if the back cover undersells the extras. Although the back cover only lists the commentary with director Don Jones and actor Gary Kent, the disc actually features a second commentary as well (listed first in the menu) with Jones and cinematographer Stuart Asbjornsen (the cover also does not mention the promo trailer, cast & crew interview segment, and other Code Red trailers including FOREST director Jones' SCHOOLGIRLS IN CHAINS).

Strangely, an actual trailer for THE FOREST (seen at the start of some other films distributed by Prism Entertainment who released THE FOREST on videocassette in the eighties) is not present. The cast and crew interviews are actually two interviews: the first with Jones and Absjornsen (with very poor quality video and audio) and an interview with Kent (better video, okay audio). The short Promo Trailer on the disc is a poorly edited highlight reel of a sort but is of value since it was probably what was used to interest potential distributors. The audio commentary with Jones and Kent is entertaining and informative (several actors used pseudonyms because of SAG rules except for Stafford Morgan who apparently got into trouble for appearing in the production).

- Eric Cotenas

DVD Menus