The Forest Hills Blu Ray Review (My Way Pictures)

The Forest Hills is a 2023 independent horror film written, edited, produced, and directed by Scott Goldberg (Dead End Massacre, My Valentine, and Dying for Change). It was produced by 72 different people. Shelley Duvall’s return to cinema after two decades and it’s unfortunately her last performance. It had an estimated budget of $250,000. Rico (played by: Chiko Mendez from Saturday Night Live, Game 6, The Sopranos, Burn Notice, War Dogs, and Luke Cage) is haunted by nightmares, he starts to descend into madness in the isolated Catskill Mountains. Traumatized by his past relationship with his overbearing Mama (played by: Shelley Duvall from The Shining, Popeye, 3 Women, Annie Hall, Time Bandits, Frankenweenie, Suburban Commando, Brewster McCloud, and Thieves like Us). Rico bonds with his new friend Billy (played by: Edward Furlong from Terminator 2, American History X, Detroit Rock City, Brainscan, Little Odessa, Pet Sematary II, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, Animal Factory, Night of the Demons, and Pecker) over his recent changes, he tries to control the beast inside the him before it becomes a nasty problem for this whole community!!!! The Forest Hills is the latest addition to the popular werewolf sub-genre. There’s a good balance of horror, suspense, and drama for this low budget production. The script deals with a man trying to adjust his life after experiencing new alterations. It’s something unique when it comes to familiar horror territory. Unfortunately, Chiko Mendez is just okay as the lead Rico and his character dominates the screen time in this. I wish someone else got this huge role in The Forest Hills. Shelley Duvall is fantastic as Mama. She really elevates The Forest Hills with her presence and performance. She’s one of the main reasons to give this a shot. It’s her first role since 2002 and sadly it’s her last one because she passed away after doing this smaller horror feature. Edward Furlong as Billy is solid here. He’s the one that’s really pushing Rico to experiment with his new supernatural powers. He’s been more involved in the independent scene since 2000, he was a huge star back in the day. This is one of his better roles in recent years. Scream Queens Dee Wallace (The Howling), Stacey Nelkin (Halloween III), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp franchise), and Marianne Hagan (Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers) show up in smaller cameos. The Forest Hills is loaded with talent and familiar faces. The rest of the supporting cast includes Caitlyn Classey (Smile 2), Jamie Galen (Brainscan), Nick Graystone (Bite School 2), Andrew Gordon (Shingles: The Movie), Laurie Hamfeldt Mahoney (Retrospect), Anita Durst (Dune), and Sondra Wymar (Law and Order: Criminal Intent). It has some solid practical special fx and some decent gore but I was kinda hoping for more when it came to that department. Unfortunately, there’s no crazy full blown transformation werewolf scene when the character fully turns into the monster. This is more of a character study than an actual werewolf film to be honest. It had it’s moments but it had potential to be so much more. It’s worth checking out for it’s cast especially if you are a fan of the genre. Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from My Way Pictures! This 1080p unrated (2.39:1) transfer looks solid especially for being a small independent production. The rural and secluded locations shine here. It has a English: Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The audio has it’s moments in The Forest Hills but don’t expect an all out explosive feature for this. All of the dialogue is very clean, the suspense is elevated, and the music has a nice boost to it. It has English SDH subtitles. It has an “Audio Commentary” with director Scott Goldberg. The film maker does a very detailed chat about the entire process, breaks down the scenes,band his experiences on it. He goes over the cast, crew, locations, and so much more. He brings up some additional actors that he wanted to work with on here. It has an additional “Audio Commentary” with director Scott Goldberg and lead actor Chiko Mendez. This is a fun collaboration. It’s an easy going session going through their personal moments on the low budget production. They bring up that the director actually worked with Shelley Duvall on zoom. Some of the scenes were put together without some of the actual cast working together at the same time. Between these two tracks, you’ll get to learn about everything that you want know about The Forest Hills. It has the almost 15 minute “Beyond Smodcastle”. It shows an early premier with various members of the cast and crew. They have an question and answer with cult director Kevin Smith moderating the panel. It has additional interviews with the cast and crew about the project. There’s some behind the scenes footage here. It has the little over 2 minute “Jordan’s Death”. It takes you behind the scenes for a known scream queen getting killed in The Forest Hills. It has some footage from the set in this. It has a little over 8 minutes of “Forest Hills: Deleted Scenes”. There’s some interesting stuff that got left on the cutting room floor. It has the almost 2 minute “Angela’s Death”. This is another behind the scenes look at a famous scream queen getting slaughtered in The Forest Hills. There’s some additional footage shot by doing this kill here. It has the under a minute “Rico’s Tumor”. It’s an inside look for the scene and situation from the movie. It has the almost 5 minute “Special Effects”. You get an exclusive inside look into some of the nasty mayhem from The Forest Hills in this. It has the little over 2 minute “Werewolf”. Just an additional scene getting a detailed behind the scenes view. It has the almost 8 minute super 8MM short film “Cartridges” directed by Scott Goldberg. It has the “Trailer” for The Forest Hills. This is how you do a low budget home video release, this disc is loaded with so many extras. This is a professional M.O.D (BD-R) home video release. It comes with an Hanukkah uncut AD inside. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!