Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

nikka-40227 Really beautiful idea, black and white is cool, gives a sense of tension.. The plot work, I think has been just done in a very clumsy way

jdesando "La tristesse durera toujours." (The sadness will live forever) Van GoghThe woods of The Forest of Lost Souls is a mythical place where many have gone to be alone in the moments before suicide ends all. Writer-director Jose Pedro Lopes's debut horror film is an excellent, intense, brief narrative about an outsider and a family, the former enigmatic but powerful and the latter clearly dysfunctional, with one suicide and one on the way.The forest is emblematic of the lost souls who are alone and on an entangled path to the end. Outsider Carolina (Daniela Love) meets a father, Ricardo (Jorge Mota), who is entering the grey and forbidding forest after the suicide of one daughter. Carolina, ostensibly on the same path, engages Ricardo in debate about the act and helps him prepare for it.Like the forest trails, no trip for the characters is straight, and as the rest of Ricardo's family enters the story, motivations and guilt are not easily understood. To say more would be to spoil the almost poetic minimalism of the plot and dialogue-"taut" would be the standard critical word for this commanding plot.Little over an hour, The Forest of Lost Souls is a new kind of horror film that eschews jump starts and cheap thrills, with only a modicum of blood for reality's sake. It is all about how off balance we can be, especially those "souls" who contemplate suicide. It provides few answers but thrills that satisfy the mind. Because the act is ultimately unknowable, even with a proper note to accompany it, Lopes does not clarify all of the occurrences. What he does do is to make us sympathetic to the mystery of self destruction and wary of family entanglements that can lead to who knows where. Perhaps Van Gogh had it right: "Sadness" is the instigator and the legacy.

Malcolm Johnson If you are looking for a fast paced gore fest...don't watch this one. Just move along. Nothing for you to see here. :::grin::: This film takes it's time to tell a story and gives you visually stunning images to go along with it's deep, philosophical discussions as things build and build. This is the first feature film for writer/director José Pedro Lopes and it's a fantastic effort bringing in three awards to date from the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, Fant, Bilbao Fantasy Film Festival, and Triple Six Horror Film Festival and the awards are well deserved.It tells it's story and lets you figure things out. And, it gives you everything you need to do so. As I said, the film is shot beautifully. The black and white is perfect for the subject matter. It plays off like a modern day Bergman film - moody and dark and full of things lurking in the corners. There's a richness to the visuals that I found to be very pleasing. The cinematography was stunning.The film is a foreign language film...unless you're from Portugal, of course. However, the film isn't heavy on dialogue, so those who fear subtitles need not be too scared. It's a drama with horrific moments that hits every point it makes an effort to hit. The acting is fantastic and all the characters seem real and well rounded. I highly recommend this...I'm going to say it again... "thinking person's horror film". I believe film lovers, horror lovers, and mystery lovers will enjoy this immensely. Well worth a viddy!

Will Jeffery The film is an underwhelming, underachieved Portuguese horror film about (without giving away spoilers) two people who meet each other at a popular suicide spot after going there on the decision to commit suicide. I really wanted to give this film a higher rating because it (again, without giving away spoilers) had a great idea but it was just clumsily done falling into cliché horror tropes that really didn't serve it any good. It feels like exposition that initially has good premise but just can't argue to save itself. The black and white cinematography serves the polar motives and overall mood nicely with emptiness and shallowness but the film disappointingly fell apart when it could have taken a great idea so much further with greater meaning and better execution.