DVD Release
Knowing how trends in horror work, it was only a matter of time before we started seeing American horror (outside of remakes) sporting Asian horror influences. We were bound to start seeing low budget and indie horror filmmakers creating Asian/America hybrid horror that incorporate aspects from both schools of horror. There really aren’t many yet but they’re starting to slowly creep out onto DVD. One such film is Haunted Forest (aka Satinka); it’s obvious from start to finish what type of horror cinema influenced writer/director Mauro Borrelli.
Haunted Forest plays out like Ju-on meets The Blair Witch Project with a bit of Argento thrown in for good measure. The film actually works better than one might expect and was interesting enough to hold my attention throughout the entire runtime. Ya know, don’t get me wrong there were some small “issues” with the film including a lame subplot involving a nutty hunter charged with fetching prey for the forest spirit Satinka but all in all it really was a commendable attempt at combining Asian supernatural elements with American slasher convention.
I gotta give it to Borrelli, I honestly didn’t think he’d be able to pull off the prerequisite jump scares in broad daylight in the middle of the forest but he succeeded quite well. A few times…too well. Thankfully the camera work and editing didn’t get too outrageous…unfortunately…some of the plot was iffy. You win some, you lose some.
Three strapping young men have come out to a reportedly haunted forest in order to locate an ancient tree said to be the entrance to a secret underground burial chamber. Sean, a Native American, has brought his Grandfather’s diary with which tells the trio all about the tree, burial chamber and the spirit of the forest, Satinka.
Legend has it Satinka and her lover would go to the forest to look at stars and enjoy nature until one fateful night a group of Injun hatin’ White men wander into the forest looking to trouble. They kill Satinka’s man and set the forest ablaze but Satinka finds shelter in the hollow of a curious tree. Once inside the hollow, the tree closes up trapping Satinka for all eternity to be the forest’s spirit protector. All those who enter her domain are marked by a poisonous thorn which leaves the marked man or woman disoriented and eventually paralyzed. Once you’re incapacitated, she drags you down into the burial chamber. Once below, you become one with the forest.
Anyhow, the three guys decide to camp out and the group’s resident bowl tokin’ stoner Flipp and his sissy-man doggie wander into the forest at night and he’s marked with a deadly thorn. Early the next day he disappears and the other two set about looking for the doofus.
Meanwhile in another part of the forest, Jennifer and her friend Kiyomi throw caution to the wind and whip up some tea using bits of a rare flower with hallucinogenic properties that only blooms once every six years. Naturally, Kiyomi begins seeing things, gets marked by a thorn and wanders away into the forest.
After Jennifer accidentally kicks Josh (from the group) in the face, Sean and Josh decide to work with Jennifer in an attempt to find both Kiyomi and Flipp but it may be too late. There’s somebody else in the forest with them…hunting them…waiting.
Haunted Forest was a surprisingly decent flick considering the massive amounts of indie garbage put out by Lionsgate with new titles and misleading artwork. Hell, the minute Lionsgate slaps a new title on something I automatically get suspicious! I’d been reading about this film for awhile now under its original title, Satinka, so I started wondering if this was just another ploy by Lionsgate to hide a shitty movie under a low I.Q. title for the horror-lite fans of Blockbuster. Luckily for me that wasn’t the case. Apparently they just felt the general horror viewing audiences are dumbasses, as usual, and would run screaming from anything that sounded “foreign.”
Sad thing is…they probably would have.
Borrelli has some amazing concept and design skills and this film is proof of that. Everything from Satinka herself to the underground burial chamber all show major talent and an eye for fantastic horror. Haunted Forest reminded me a bit of Argento’s Suspiria and McKee’s The Woods and that’s a damn good thing in my book! I can see Mauro Borrelli creating some wild, scary shit with a bigger budget so hopefully we see him again real soon.
Obviously this is low budget so some of the acting was occasionally spotty and I wasn’t thrilled with Satinka looking like an Asian ghost but the positives definitely outweighed the negatives in my opinion.
Viewers hoping for any worthwhile extras on this disc are going to be sadly mistaken…c’mon people…this is Lionsgate. They won’t waste time with extras if they don’t have to so just give the flick a shot and if you really need something to do after the film finishes might I suggest a Brazilian wax or gerbiling?
