The Forest appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie came with a positive presentation.
Sharpness was solid. Only a smidgen of softness ever occurred, so the majority of the flick offered strong delineation. No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred, and the presentation lacked edge haloes. In terms of source defects, I witnessed no specks, marks or other issues; the Blu-ray gave us a clean transfer.
In terms of palette, Forest went with Hollywood Standard teal and orange, with an emphasis on the blue/green. That seemed like an uninspired choice, but I couldn’t complain about the execution of the tones, as they seemed fine. Blacks appeared dark and dense, while shadows showed decent clarity. No notable issues occurred here.
As for the DTS-HD MA 5.1 audio, it offered a fairly typical horror movie soundscape. This meant a lot of creepy atmosphere and occasional “jolt moments”. Along with good stereo music, the soundfield was able to open things up in a satisfying manner that embellished the story; the mix didn’t dazzle, but it worked fine.
Audio quality was always good. Music appeared full and rich, while effects demonstrated nice clarity and accuracy. Speech was natural and distinctive throughout the film. Again, this wasn’t a heavily active track, but it made sense for the story.
A smattering of extras fill out the set, and we launch with an audio commentary from director Jason Zada. He presents a running, screen-specific look at story/character areas, cast and performances, editing, sets and locations, music, effects and related topics.
Overall, Zada brings us a pretty interesting chat. Occasional lulls occur, and the piece lacks a certain zing that’d elevate it. Nonetheless, Zada covers the movie in a satisfying manner.
A featurette called Exploring The Forest runs eight minutes, five seconds and offers info from Zada, producers David S. Goyer and Tory Metzger, costume designer Bojana Nikitovic, key makeup artist Martina Dodocic Subic, production designer Kevin Phipps, and actors Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney.
We learn how Zada came to the project and what he brought to it, research in Japan, story/characters, cast and performances, makeup and effects, sets and locations, and movie themes. Despite its brevity, “Exploring” offers a decent overview of the production.
Galleries breaks down into five subdomains. We see “Behind the Scenes Photos” (5 stills), “Set Illustrations” (8), “Visual Effects/Makeup Concept Art” (14), “Model Cave Photos” (4) and “Storyboards” (229 across 4 scenes). Some good elements appear here, though the interface makes it slow to access them.
The disc opens with ads for London Has Fallen, Race, Krampus, Mr. Robot, The Boy and Kubo and the Two Strings. Previews adds promos for Self/Less, Sinister 2, Black Sea, The American, Closed Circuit and Hanna. No trailer for The Forest appears here.
Aspects of The Forest show promise, but the film as executed fails to exploit these. Instead, it creates a slow, sluggish effort without much drama to be found. The Blu-ray presents pretty good picture and audio along with supplements led by a mostly positive commentary. I’ve seen worse horror movies, but The Forest remains mediocre at best.