Forest of the Dead 2007 Elite Entertainment   Buy It Now

For a moment, imagine yourself smack dab in the middle of a forest at the stroke of midnight, the only light you have is from the moon. Its pitch black outside and worst of all you are lost. A great sense of fear and panic sometimes comes over us when we are in this situation; many of us have been in that very spot at one point of our lives. So for film makers this is an easy scare to play on this fear which makes a great broth when cooking a campy horror movie.

Forest movies are usually kept for slashers or escaped murdering psychotics. In Forest of the Dead this is not the case. The undead as you may have guessed play the bad guys in the latest film that uses the ever so popular “(insert word, person, or object here) of the Dead” title. Originally shot in 2002 the film suffered some technical difficulties and was revised in 2005 with 5 new scenes that were added into the movie then finally released by Elite Entertainment in 2007.

At the title menu, when you select that good old “play movie” option and start it up, the first scene is a guy boozing up at a lake and giving you a brief drunken intro to the film you are about to see, which looks as if it was part of a home movie. To my horror I discover the whole movie is shot like this. It took me a bit getting used to as the student-like low-budget project of a film started rolling, it slowly matured into a decent eighties throwback movie complete with token creepy pervert old man gas station attendant at an abandoned gas station of course (which had a very Texas Chainsaw Massacre feel to it), greeting the collage group as they are on their way to the destination to eventually meet up with some friends.

The group is very typical; you have Johnny Rebel (Chris Anderson) who portrays the leader/guy who thinks he is tough. Roger (Mark Singleton) and Marcel (Kevin Norris) who are given the role of comic relief in the film and act like a bickering old couple. Then three other girls whom two of which have minor roles and the other Amy (Brandi Boulet) who is dating Roger ends up with a pivotal role as the movie progresses.

The majority of the story just rehashes what most collage kids do out in a forest in the summer, drinking, horsing around, and trying to get laid. Once you pass through that we reach the point at which it goes into full gear, Amy (Brandi Boulet) catches her boyfriend Roger (Mark Singleton) with Marcel (Kevin Norris) in a compromising position, this drives her to run off and break away from the group. The scene also brewed a bit of controversy at the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec for the portrayal of the French-Canadian homosexuals, Roger and Marcel. This was not meant to be offensive but unappreciated by some at it.

Amy runs off to a small playground near the campsite where she is attacked by an unseen force and drug away. After her friends notice she has been gone for a while, each one tries to go searching for her but one by one they disappear and end up turning into a cannibalistic fiend that craves blood. Once the night comes to a close and no one is left as human, the group of friends they were to meet up with arrives to a deserted camp site where they search for their friends only to share the same fate as them once the night returns.

The bonus feature area of the DVD offers a treasure trove of extras. You get about 45 minutes of documentaries that take you behind the scenes in ways that almost make you feel like you are watching the film being made, letting you visually see the secrets on how they pulled off some of their low-budget special effects and what items and techniques they used to create some of the sound effects from eating human flesh to chopping off limbs. Then you get treated to an additional short film titled Return of the Dastardly Zombie Vampire Mummy from Planet X. It gives you an early glimpse of the work from director Brian Singleton and has a rich 50s B-Movie feel to it.

At first glance I was a little put off by the format in which the film was shot but thinking back to Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead this movie captures the spirit and nostalgia of movies similar to that and ends up accomplishing an impressive feat of being released on Elite Entertainment which has put out classics such as I Spit On Your Grave, Popcorn, and even Night of the Living Dead. If you are a horror connoisseur you will find a few things that will please you or if you simply just want to get boozed up like the fellow in the films introductory and have a movie to simply laugh and indulge in the sheer cheese factor the film boasts by all means I recommend it. 

-derek-