As we age we deepen our understanding of our mortality. It is as if we become (hopefully) more grateful and reflective in our later years so we can reconcile the mark we’ve left on the world. Not everyone’s mark is equal, and it is no secret that the more famous you are, the more likely you are to be remembered, for better or worse. This raises the question of legacy; what is it that we want to be known for and how should that define our time alive? For actors, filmmakers, musicians, artists, and similar creatives works can outlast lifetimes, but their reach may be limited. For the most well-known among us, bodies of work can persist past generations and in some cases be defining templates for a new style or innovation. When we think of legacies in genre work, it is impossible not to think of Shelley Duvall and her contribution as Wendy in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” as well as a larger body of work in and out of genre film. Her final starring role is in Scott Goldberg’s “The Forest Hills,” a psychological thriller/horror film about mental health and werewolves, but will it make us howl for more?

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Haunted by nightmares and dark secrets, Rico descends into madness in the Catskill Mountains. Fueled by fear and isolation, as well as struggling with a strained relationship with Mama, Rico attempts to find solace in his friendship with Billy in an attempt to fight his demons.

HOW IS IT?

The biggest challenge faced in film discourse is being as objective as possible while recognizing that we all carry with us preferences and biases. Regardless of whether a film costs $5 million or $5,000, what we look for is entertainment and engagement, something that doesn’t correlate to budgets and is still highly subjective. To make matters more difficult, and please don’t cry for us Argentina, we love to see our favorite genre actors working even if some of the films they are in aren’t destined for iconic status because we like to support their work and those that provide it to them. On that merit, “The Forest Hills” has a lot going for it. Being billed as Shelley Duvall’s last film and featuring long-standing genre actor Edward Furlong in a werewolf film sounds like the beginning of something great. Unfortunately, “The Forest Hills” comes off as a series of rambling, incoherent ideas strung together by minor cameo appearances to lure in interested audiences.

There isn’t much of a plot to “The Forest Hills” as most of the film is spent with Rico (Chiko Mendez) as he frantically loses his mind for 80 minutes. What there is, is an unexplored backstory about Rico and his mama (Shelley Duvall) who attempted to kill him and his sister when they were young and failed to kill Rico. It’s dark stuff, but it is barely touched on here despite being the most coherent and interesting part of the story. Where most of the time is spent, is watching Rico have manic episodes where he thinks he either thinks he is a werewolf, is hunting werewolves, or is a serial killer who is using werewolves as his guilt absolution in his head. There are some decent practical effects here and not a bad werewolf suit, but it’s clear that these ideas were tacked on and not part of the original narrative because they don’t lead anywhere. It’s just horror filler to brand this as a horror film. Credit to Chiko Mendez for what is a very intense performance consisting mostly of him, with maybe 15 minutes or less including other characters like Mama or Furlong’s Billy. The whole thing feels like a montage of ideas spliced together with no real focus, but isn’t an avant-garde art house piece either making it hard to classify and even harder to understand

What we would’ve liked to see more of, aside from exploring the backstory in more detail, is a clearer connection between the werewolf lore and Rico’s psychosis, or if there is none, take it out altogether. The use of mental health in horror isn’t novel anymore, which requires a more innovative approach to the material so it doesn’t feel redundant and stale. Rico clearly suffered trauma, and if his coping mechanism is pretending to be a werewolf to kill people well that’s a damn good story, but that’s not the story being told in “The Forest Hills.” Given how much emphasis was placed on the inclusion of Duvall and Furlong, they are sadly and woefully under-served here. Duvall is playing a sick older woman, but she is in fact a sick older woman which makes her scenes that much more heartbreaking to watch. This isn’t some triumphant career bookend, but rather a handle of cameos featuring a woman who is not well. Furlong does fare better as Billy and does a great job playing off of Rico’s eccentricity, but he is just so secondary here that his role doesn’t really register anything memorable. Much like how Ed Wood rolled out the aging and ailing Bela Lugosi, or the voluminous roles John Carradine played mostly drunk and almost destitute, finding former stars later in their career can be great to draw in interest, but you have to give those performers something worthwhile to work with.

HOW DOES IT LOOK?

“The Forest Hills” comes to Blu-ray in 1080p HD with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. It’s a rather recent production, having taken place over the last couple of years, so the shot on digital look is crisp and clean which helps to make the lush, forest scenery stand out. As an independent film, access to better quality materials grows increasingly easier and it is nice to see that Director Scott Goldberg put those tools to good use here along with the help of Scott B. Hansen’s cinematography. Images from this release are used throughout this review.

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

The encoding on the sound source isn’t clear, but it’s a suitable and robust audio track that does a good job of balancing both the scenes of heightened action with some of the more subdued moments. The dialogue is easy to understand, but the lack of subtitles of any kind is a bit of a miss.

ANYTHING SPECIAL?

Despite the appearance on various sites, there are special features included in this release and there are many! For fans of the film, there are a lot of behind-the-scenes featurettes to relish in, and we checked out “Beyond Smodcastle: Fixing The Forest Hills” which is a 14-minute series of interviews with Director Scott Goldberg and actors from the film as well as Smodcastle owner and filmmaker, Kevin Smith. As we figured in our review, “The Forest Hills” did not start as a horror film, even if Goldberg had thought it would be taken as one. It isn’t explained why Goldberg needed this to be a horror film, and some clips from the “Smodcastle cut” are shown, but don’t offer a lot of clarity around their context. We had hoped this would be a bit more of an exploration of how they arrived at these changes, and how they support the narrative which we think shows up in how scatterbrained the final product is. There are some scenes of the crew filming additional scenes on the last day of shooting which don’t add much to the point of this feature, and you can see a full list of special features included below.

Bonus Materials

“Beyond Smodcastle: Fixing The Forest Hills” - A Look at the changed elements from Drama to Horror (featuring filmmaker, Kevin Smith)
“Jordana’s Death: Marianne Hagan” - A behind-the-scenes look at Jordana’s death scene and the process behind it
“The Forest Hills: Deleted Scenes” - A look at the scenes cut from the film’s final version
“Angela’s Death: Dee Wallace” - A raw footage clip of the final confrontation between Rico and Angela
“Rico’s Tumor” - A behind-the-scenes look
“Special Effects” - A raw footage behind-the-scenes look at some of the bloody sequences in the film
“A Werewolf in Rico’s Room” - An extended look at a deleted werewolf sequence
Audio Commentary with Scott Goldberg (Director)
Audio Commentary with Chiko Mendez (Rico) and Scott Goldberg
Super 8mm short film, “Cartridges” - Directed by Scott Goldberg
The Forest Hills Trailers

LAST RITES

“The Forest Hills” is a disappointing film because it doesn’t seem to have an identity, and the use of some aging character actors (RIP, Shelley Duvall) here feels like more of a marketing ploy than a sound casting decision since they are seldom used and only in minor supporting roles.

THE GORY DETAILS

Thank you to the fine fiends at MVD Entertainment for providing a review copy for the crypt! The Forest Hills is available now and can be purchased via MVD DIRECT!

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Nov 4, 2020

Matthew Orozco