Wonderful character development!

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Before this film is even ten minutes into its running time, we have had naked vampires, sex, gore and two 'You've got to be f****** kidding me's'. I'm surprised how much I like it. The initially dreaded 'group of friends go on a road-trip' is as unpromising as these things often are: 'crazy' kids tearing up the countryside to the soundtrack of rock music never fills me with a desire for anything other than to skip forward. The characters are given the first names of characters from the John Hughes teen flick 'The Breakfast Club (1985)'. The results are oddly American names for a very British collective, this decision hardly adding to their already scant credibility. Outwitting and out-glaring each other at every opportunity, it isn't long before they are accosted by a raving man at a petrol station – this brief scene actually explains the main thrust of the story: angels have been rejected from Heaven because of extreme sexual desires and apparently frequent the nearby woodlands. Problem is, this is all relayed so briefly and in the form of such extreme ranting, that the details are very easy to overlook."There's something in the forest," whispers Emilio (Richard Cambridge), and really, that's all we need to know. The nymphs in the forest, the Rottweiler-toothed seductresses ensnare, arouse, overpower and gorily cut down the body-count with impressive ease.'Forest of the Damned' won't please everyone (what can?). The acting is variable, the characters take some while to make any impression. But there are some good effects and some pleasing gore. Above all, though, is the stifling atmosphere of unease that, if anything, grows as the film goes on. The beautiful, wide open woodlands become a place of seduction and death.A wild-eyed Tom Savini makes a surprise appearance (not really a surprise since he's often top-billed, but I am pleasantly surprised he should appear in a low-budget British film like this). Horror writer Shaun Hutson (who has adapted at least three Hammer films) also appears as himself briefly.This is a meandering, occasionally erotic horror in which the dislikeable aspects of the usual group are quickly side-lined in favour of a genuinely sensual/deadly ambiance. Director Johannes Roberts is at pains not to create a 'soft porn picture' which, given the story material, is 'tricky' – for what it's worth, I think he succeeds in directing something that transcends that, much like Jean Rollin did, and delivers a sultry evil that thrives on its tiny budget.

"Forest of the Damned" is a thoroughly disappointing and dull effort.**SPOILERS**Going on a trip, friends Molly, (Nicole Petty) Judd, (Daniel Maclagan) Ally, (Sophie Holland) Emilio, (Richard Cambridge) and Andrew, (David Hood) manage to get lost along the way, and upon stopping for directions, are warned away from entering the woods nearby. As that's their destination, they dismiss the warnings and proceed onward. When an accident strands them in the forest, they split up to go find out, only to realize that the warnings were accurate and are being haunted by a trio of wood nymphs who live in the woods feeding on those who in the woods. Determined not to fall victim to the deadly creatures, they try to find a way of getting out of the woods alive.The Good News: There wasn't a whole lot really right with this one. One of it's few pluses is that the setting is effectively done, making good use of atmosphere here to make for a thrilling location. With the giant trees and the rather suffocating effect they have, it's quite nice to be able to really great setting here that really allows for a lot of fantastic atmospheric shots to occur. The opening shots of them driving into the forest as well as the treks to find help offer a lot of great atmospheric moments as well, making it a really enjoyable and certainly allows an interesting set of events. There's also the way it makes the night-time scenes even better with the creepy surroundings being hidden by the time they take place, allowing for even more fun to be had from these segments. They also allow the film's few action scenes, such as the attacks on the campground and the stalking in the woods after the breakout meaning a lot to the film and how it overall works. Other action scenes, such as the attack in the farmhouse, where they are tied up and forced to let the creatures come to them while trapped allows for some really tense moments. The kills lead to some gore, not all that much but still some and that's a nice accomplishment, letting some of the decapitations and dismemberments to come across as really graphic. The last plus here is the film's nudity, which does deliver here nicely in spades even if not all of it is appealing. These here are the film's pluses.The Bad News: There was a couple of pretty big problems to this one. One of the biggest flaws to this is the fact that there's absolutely no action at all during the majority of the film. This is an incredibly slow-going film that really offers up hardly anything at all during it's running time that constitutes anything remotely resembling action, as it's barely-there pace, dreary action moments and complete inability to actually move forward with anything at all. The film tends to revolve around either the victims being knocked out and subjected to torture from those involved with the proceedings. It's a relatively dull affair that really doesn't offer much of any action scenes that move the film forward, instead offering up so many different scenes that are quite boring and just lack anything that move this one along and it suffers heavily for this one. It's so dreary at times that it barely makes any sort of impact and just trundles along, hoping the nudity will keep it alive. A prime example is the scenes set inside the house, which have absolutely no point being there. The scenes serve no purpose to put them there, the scenes are confusing as to why they're there and they offer up no answers at all to anything since the holder puts them in league with the creatures and holds them without any reason. That's a rather big flaw on it's own, since it offers up a series of confusing scenes after another with absolutely no answer at all to anything. The first attack during the pre-credits sequence, the reasoning behind the capture, the back-story to the creatures, the twist ending, are just part of the problems here, offering nothing as to what's going on. Not even a conjecture is offered, none of the issues are presented and it's all just quite aggravating having to wait around hoping something will come along that ultimately doesn't. The last flaw to this one is perhaps the least-important but the most detrimental overall, the setting of the music and noises in here. When watching a movie, it shouldn't be an exercise of setting the volume high to be able to hear what's being said then immediately racing to turn it down when the music hits due to it just suddenly blaring out of the speakers. The entire movie is mixed in such a way that a remote has to be kept on hand during the entire film, which detracts significantly from the experience. These here are the film's flaws.The Final Verdict: Not all that great, with too many detrimental flaws to this one that it can't really use whatever good parts it has. This one's really only there for those who find these kinds of films interesting, though those who prefer a little more quality out of their films should heed caution with this one.Rated R: Nudity, Graphic Violence and Language

In England, when the naive Emilio (Richard Cambridge) buys an old van, he invites his friends Judd (Daniel Maclagan), Molly (Nicole Petty) and Andrew (David Hood) and his sister Ally (Sophie Holland) to travel to a lake in the woods. They get lost and while trying to get directions in a bar in the road to follow the trip, they are scared by a crazy old man, who tells that there are missing persons on the spot. Then, Emilio runs over a woman and she faints. The group sees a mailbox in the roadside and Judd, Molly and Andrew enter in the forest trying to get some help. Along the night, they are chased by naked fallen angels thirsty of blood and their keeper.I bought "Forest of the Damned" on DVD with the lowest expectation based on the IMDb rating and bad reviews. However, in spite of being a flawed story, I liked this movie and it is totally underrated. The camera style imitates "The Blair Witch Project"; of course it is stupid and senseless the guys look for a telephone in the middle of nowhere or traveling to a distant place in an old van; the character of Ally is an unpleasant bitch, but Sophie Holland is very good in her role; Judd and Nicole do not have meal or drink water along two days; further there is a total lack of explanation about the evil creatures and their need of a human keeper, but anyway the story entertains. I saw that this is the first and unique movie of the gorgeous Nicole Petty, and I expect to see her again since I liked her performance. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Floresta dos Condenados" ("Forest of the Condemned")

I couldn't watch more than 14 minutes of it. It's a GREAT combination of really bad acting and really bad directing. The shots used are disgusting, they broke the 180 degrees angle all the time. My head hurts try to watch that load of "you know what". Dirt on the "mystery machine" window make you see light from the lighting on the windows...annoying. What else... it's so badly framed all the time it's just make you want to scream at that lady directing there. I only directed short films, but I'm pretty sure I'd be way better than that directing a feature film.... the story is unbelievable, just the long french kissing scene at the beginning tell you that it's gonna be pretty awful. So pretty much, try to avoid this really bad movies at all cost, it'll save you the 5 bucks or so for the rental, and that 1h30 hour of your life you'll never get back...