I don’t usually get into horror movies. It’s not that I’m some sort of scaredy-cat or anything, it’s just that horror has never really clicked for me as a genre. I wasn’t into Nightmare on Elm Street or other series that were coming out when I was younger and certainly wasn’t into Saw and that wave of horror revival. My preference has always been for frightening psychological dramas more than anything. So give me a good Hitchcock or a movie like Dead Again and I’m good in terms of thrills and chills.
So the new movie The Forest looks at least a bit intriguing. Natalie Dormer plays Sara, who one day gets a call that her twin sister Jess (obviously also played by Dormer) has gone into the “Suicide Forest” next to Mount Fiji in Japan. Sara is determined to find her and bring her home so she goes, with her guides, into the forest. But things turn dark quickly as Sara begins to fall victim to the psychological tricks of the forest and she starts to question what is and isn’t real.
The Posters
The first poster is suitably creepy. The top half of Dormer’s face dissolves into the outline of a forest of trees that have nooses and other ropes hanging down from them. The stark white color and bleached out look of Dormer’s face really accentuate the visuals, which pop off the page. Just below the title treatment we’re told “Everyone comes here looking for a way out,” which speaks to not only the forest’s connection to suicide but also how Sara is trying to get out after searching for her sister.
There was a motion poster released later that essentially serves as a mini trailer. Close-ups of eyeballs, spooky scarecrow-like figures and Dormer walking through the forest all give way eventually to a the same poster image above. It teases the film’s visuals effectively and has a little bit of sound effects and works alright, but I have issues with motion posters that I won’t get into here.
The Trailers
The first trailer begins by explaining the relationship between Sara and Jess, especially the bond between them where they can tell when something happens to the other one. Sara is then informed Jess went into the Suicide Forest, so Sara immediately gets on a plane to go find her but is told it’s impossible and dangerous to go in there. When she finds someone who can take her in she jumps at it, but then we see this doesn’t turn out well for Sara. After a montage of clips showing Sara fighting through all kinds of monsters in the forest the trailer ends with what looks like a web search box about “suicide forest,” with all the suggested searches making it clear the titular forest is a real thing.
It’s a good trailer but, again, just because of my own inclinations I feel the first half plays more strongly than the second. Still, horror fans are likely to be pulled at least to some extent to this depiction of a descent into madness in a supernatural forest.
The second trailer skips much of the setup of the Sara/Jess connection and skips right to Sara entering the forest and soon falling victim to its spirits.
There’s not a whole that’s different about this version, but it’s a bit tighter since it’s more than a minute shorter. That’s why so much of the setup is skimmed over in favor of getting to the action as quickly as possible.
Online and Social
The movie’s official website opens with a video montage of scenes from the trailers that you can skip if you want to get to the site without the intro. Once you’re there there’s a prompt on the left to Watch the Trailer again along with a link to a Google search for “suicide forest” in case anyone was still doubting this was a real place that’s depicted in the movie. There’s also a link to the Twitter hashtag “#theforestisreal,” which the movie has been using and which again is meant to reinforce that this location isn’t something the filmmakers made up.
if you scroll down the page the next section is called “Enter the Suicide Forest.” That’s a “360 experience” that takes you into Aokigahara, the actual forest, that we’re told is best viewed either on mobile devices or using Google Cardboard for a fully immersive experience. There’s a warning that this uses real images from the forest for those faint of heart. I did not dive into this since I *am* faint of heart and opted not to never sleep again.
The site is built on Tumblr so if you scroll further down you’re taken to a collection of posts featuring GIFs, images from the movie and more. Some feature quotes of dialogue from the film, some feature the rules for surviving the forest.
The movie also had profiles on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They also did some exclusive content on Snapchat and Kik to reach the audiences there.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
A ton of TV spots were created and run. Most of them played like condensed versions of the trailers and mostly featured footage pulled from those trailers but some had some new scenes as well. Most all of them take time to explain what the forest is and what the dangers of going in there are but most also don’t worry about explaining the Sara/Jess relationship, opting to cut straight to the chills.
There was also a fair amount of online advertising that I saw, much of it using either the key art or some kind of video montage as a site takeover. There was also this Buzzfeed sponsored posts that used real facts about the forest as a hook to promote the movie.
Media and Publicity
There was a fair amount of publicity for the movie. Natalie Dormer got the cover of Fashion Magazine to promote the film as well as continue talking about “Game of Thrones.” Both she and Kinney would talk frequently in interviews like this about the spooky things that happened while filming, their own affinity for horror and shooting in Japan. The real-life creepiness of Aokigahara was also a central component of the publicity, with countless stories focused around the movie and explaining to people that no, this is a real place.
The two stars also made the rounds of the late night and daytime talk shows, engaged in Reddit and IMDB chats with fans and more to get people talking about the film.
Overall
It’s hard to judge this kind of movie, where I’m so far outside the target audience the movie only marginally makes it on my radar at all. So I have a hard time getting a sense of how well the campaign is or isn’t going to work because, quite frankly, it’s not designed for me. Based on the conversations I’ve seen on Twitter and elsewhere about the trailers and other materials, though, there seems to be a decent amount of anticipation for the film and the reaction to those marketing materials has been generally positive.
I will say, though, that the marketing certainly has a couple things going for it. For one, Dormer looks like she delivers a strong performance in a role that may just ask her to react to scary things after the initial setup of the story. The campaign certainly wants to make it clear this is based not on a true story but that yes, the forest of the story really exists, but that’s not going to impact people’s enjoyment of the film itself at all. It *could* drive more people to go see it – which is the point – but my guess is the audience will mostly be made up of a combination of general horror fans and those who are big fans of Dormer.
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