What seemed to be a dream job in a haunting attraction, quickly becomes a nightmare in “The Haunted Forest”, the new film directed and written by Keith Boynton. The film has just been screened at Frightfest 2025, and we had the chance to see it (remotely, mind you).
Let’s have the official synopsis!
“Zach is a horror-movie obsessive who’d rather draw gruesome comic books in class than concentrate on his studies – so when his cousin Mark invites him to work at the legendary Haunted Forest, Zach is thrilled beyond belief. On his first night, he meets Sarah, a beautiful and intriguing makeup artist, as well as Jacko, a veteran employee who takes Zach under his wing. Zach is living his best life, indulging his passion for all things morbid – but when Jacko is found dead, the magical world of the Forest begins to seem sinister, and Zach can’t help but wonder where the killer will strike next…”
Overall, I enjoyed the film. I liked most of the characters, and I found their interactions very organic. The film did a very good job at grabbing my attention with the haunt and how all the staff works together to keep the customers scared.
Our main character Zach is very charming and easy to relate to (I mean, the guy draws horror comics in class! How can you not love the dude?), we see him struggle at first as a scare actor, and little by little paying his dues, earning his place at the haunt. Heck, he even gets a mysterious cute girlfriend!
(insert the «IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!: meme here)
So naturally, when things start to go awry, we worry for him and the rest of the staff, and we start to wonder who is behind these killings and accidents.
Who the hell is ruining the best gig in the world? Is it the Haunt’s competitors across the street? A disgruntled ex-worker? Or maybe, JUST MAYBE… The spirits of the native Americans slaughtered centuries ago in the same land where the Haunt was built?
Keep your totems handy and place your bets…
I was really engaged in the film, but while I liked the characters and the setting, about in the middle of the story, I felt that it was losing its tension. So much that after a while, it hardly felt like a horror movie anymore, and became more of a mystery-thriller at best.
We see Jacko’s death very early in the film, and afterwards, we get pretty much nothing scary or tense going on for a long time. In the third act, things get finally a little bit more intense, and we get a decent body count with some good gore effects. Still with all this, I felt that “The Haunted Forest” would work better as a TV film.
The film has a lot of heart, and it might be a good start for those who want to start watching horror movies but don’t like to see a lot of gore. For the regular gore hound, or even the casual slasher fan, this could be considered very tame. Still, I had fun with it, and the ending of the film felt very fitting.
“The Haunted Forest” was directed by Keith Boynton (who also portrays “Jacko” in the film). In the cast we have Grayson Gwaze, Cedric Gegel, Kaitlyn Lunardi, Meghan Reed, Keith Boynton, Jamie Bernadette, Myles Hamilton, Dave Harding, Mashka Wolfe, EJ Roeder, Victor Zheng, Josie Martin-Knowles, Samantha Waldrup, Elizabeth Keith, Nathan Lassman, Grant Scherini and Tristen Raughton.
FrightFest is currently running in London, from August 21 until the 25th.
