First of all, although the movie was named after a forest, most of the movie focuses on events outside the forest and what happens to people because of a cursed box known as Kotoribako. The film's photography is beautiful and very green and sunny, reminiscent of a forest, which doesn't contribute much to the atmosphere of suspense. The cuts between scenes are strange and there isn't much dialog between the characters about what's going on, which makes the pace strange. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to the rhythm of Japanese cinema, but Ox-head village (by the same director) had a much more engaging rhythm of intrigue and mystery than this movie. Even so, the movie is never so boring that it takes my attention away, with some creative scenes such as when a character takes photos of some drawings and receives flashbacks in her mind, or the people on the branches of the trees. It's not very scary and the monsters could use better make-up, but it's still a fun and exciting movie. Because I loved the ending, I'll give it an 8! But Ox-head is still the best of the trilogy!

I watched it through to give it a chance, but I just found myself looking at the time stamp to see how much longer I had left. Just not as good as I hoped. There were some good ideas but they weren't built strong enough and the whole thing fell flat.

This Japanese folk horror is a messy mixture of family drama, ghosts, mental illness, and cursed object that slowly draws you in with its haunting folktale and atmosphere. It's all over the place but I had a great time watching it. In fact, I prefer this one over last year's _Howling Village_ My main gripe with both films is that there's too much backstory to dip into and since they're all so predictable, it unnecessarily slows down the film. That said, there's a decent number of frightening scenes in here and some fun performances and effects as well. Some silly and some nonsensical things in the third act almost lost me but there's a few unexpected bits that keep me going.