Common Sense Media Age: 14+ Violence 3/5
My Age Recommendation: 13+ (Due to thematic scenes throughout and brief strong violence).
After watching Argylle and The VVitch, I wanted something similar to those movies. This film is known for it's crazy plot twist towards the end, and after Argylle I kind of wanted more plot twists so I gave this one a watch! The story follows a village that is entirely surrounded by a forest, and the villagers know not to enter the forest otherwise unknown monsters will strike. The entire village has a system of keeping the monsters in the forest by not wearing red, a color associated with the monsters, and by wearing yellow to protect themselves. One day, a man named Lucious is attacked, and the only chance for his survival is if his lover Ivy travels through the forest to a nearby town for medicine, something the council of the town is extremely skeptical of due to the dangers. Can Ivy save Lucious and survive the forest? This film gave me similar vibes to The VVitch, however this one was more morally based than the other movie. This movie, similar to The VVitch, had this unexplainable eerie feeling to it as if you are watching something play out that you can't understand. The entire movie has a steady pace until the end (which was a little rushed), and the twist is amazing. This movie received hate when it originally came out due to the twist and how some said it was 'a stretch', however it was jaw-dropping to me and it stuck with me well after. I will say this movie had very little violence and was more focused on characters, which were developed really well. This movie also built up suspense pretty well, and the dialogue between the characters helped with the growing feeling of ambiguity throughout. Usually movies like this are slow in the beginning and then pick up towards the end, but I like how the pacing was even throughout this film and it helped reduce the 'slow burn' feeling as if a movie is dragging on for too long. I recommend this movie to anyone, even people who don't like horror, because the twist is amazing and the story is equally as enjoyable!
