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The Forest ending explained – Which twin sister escapes the horrifying Aokigahara jungle of Japan?
The Forest ending explained – Starring Natalie Dormer in the role of twin sisters Jess and Sara Price, the plot revolves around Sara setting off on a journey to Japan to search for her lost sister.
May 20, 2024
The Forest
The Forest is one of the twisted supernatural horror movies on Netflix that keeps you guessing through the end. Starring Natalie Dormer in the role of twin sisters Jess and Sara Price, the plot revolves around Sara setting off on a journey to Japan to search for her lost sister. When she gets a frantic call that her twin sister Jess has been missing for days in Japan, she embarks on a deadly quest to save her twin.
Set in the haunted and eerie jungles of Japan called Aokigahara Forest, the movie explains how people who are stressed and suicidal go to the dark forest to end their lives, but when Sara learns that Jess went to the same jungle as she was silently fighting her loneliness, she is adamant to believe that she is dead because of their special telepathy and instead treads to the forest to get her back. Who escapes and who succumbs forms the climax of this horror mystery movie.
The Forest ending reflects upon fears, hallucinations, and guilt
The Forest movie takes you inside the popular Japanese folklore revolving around traumatic deaths and the supernatural entity called yūrei. According to the explanation, the Aokigahara forest remains one of the most eerie places because of the high negative energy residing in the forest that derives stressed people to suicides and madness. Since no one is able to find them or cremate them, their spirits become a part of the yūrei, or ruined spirits, who prey upon their victim’s fears.
In the end of The Forest, we witness Sara being attacked by one of the yūrei, who identifies her traumatic past and guilt-ridden fears. When she came to the jungle with the help of the foreign guide Aiden, she was warned multiple times to remember the happy memories and not believe anything she saw because of the chilling hallucinations she might get from the supernatural forces. However, despite the warnings, Sara falls prey to her own traumatic and dark past, which leads her to kill Aiden after losing trust due to some evil force trap. She also accidentally kills herself after attacking her with the sharp knife, imagining she is saving herself from her dead father.
The ending of the Forest also traces back to the traumatic deaths of Sara and Jess’ parents. What appeared before as an accidental death on Christmas Eve is shown to be a heinous murder by the twin’s father after he first shot his wife and then shot himself. Although the scene was witnessed by Jess, traumatizing her entire personality, Sara chose to close her eyes, which ultimately led her to the guilt that just kept on piling up when they grew up, as she blamed herself for leaving her sister with the traumatic memory that she had passed on by ignoring it.
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When the police and Sara’s husband arrive to search for both twin sisters, they only find Jess coming out of the woods but are not able to track Sara.
The Forest has a poignant ending that showcases Jess’ sadness after she realizes that her sister is no more after feeling their broken telepathic connection. The last scene showcases Sara screaming in fear as the soil grabs her inside the darkness, while Jess says that “it is silent.”
How does Jess escape the dark Aokigahara forest?
The Forest’s multi-layered narrative showcases the escape of the two sisters from different perspectives. While Sara is grappling with the loss of her twin sister and her traumatic past, she becomes an easy target for the evil supernatural entities. Despite her efforts to look out for her sister Jess, she is seen trapped by her hallucinations and eventually dies by suicide. However, Jess, on the other hand, is shown as the stronger sister with her mind control, which helped her survive the tough circumstances for several days. When the search party comes to rescue Sara, they ironically find Jess, who experiences mixed emotions about her freedom. Although she finds a second chance at a bright life after her dark nights in the forest, she blames herself for the sudden death of her sister as she came to the forest to take her back and stood beside her when everyone literally gave up trying to find her.
The Forest is streaming on Netflix.
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