FrightFest review – The Haunted Forest
Every year, FrightFest manages to program a horror film set in one of those American Halloween attractions which are kind of like a ghost train that has spilled over and filled an entire fairground. Writer-director Keith Boynton obviously got access to a real attraction, a Haunted Forest in Maryland, and built his fun slasher-mystery picture about the place. Zach (Grayson Gwaze), a smart (black) kid who’s at a posh academy on a scholarship but would rather draw horror comics than think much about Jane Austen, takes a weekend gig at the Markoff Haunted Forest, which is run by his (white) cousin Mark (Cedric Gegel), who is a real enthusiast for this particularly American form of entertainment. Zach is befriended by Sarah (Kaitlyn Lunardi), a make-up woman who runs a chanting circle to appease the spirits of the indiginous people who were once massacred to clear the land where the attraction now stands. This film illustrates a smart observation I once overheard that it’s no wonder the US is perpetually in so much trouble – they built their country on an Indian burial ground. But there’s also a rival, knockoff attraction in the mix and a series of nasty accidents with the zipline and chainsaws suggest malign forces at work.
The death of one veteran employee (Boynton in a fun cameo) forces Mark to consider shutting the show, but in the old Circus of Horrors twist some real-life death draws in punters in record numbers. Zach starts to wonder whether this was the plan all along … and things come to a head on Halloween as a gaggle of small-time celebs — and Zach’s schoolfriend Carly (Meghan Reed) – go on a special tour, with a robed, masked slasher (or slashers) running amok. The Haunted Forest is a pleasingly regular horror picture, sort of family friendly even as it ventures into gruesome or satirical areas. It’s also refreshing that the charismatic Gwaze’s Zach is a hero whose defining feature is that he’s a nice guy, which is also what makes him attractive to women.
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