825 Forest Road (2025) Movie Review - Paranormal Bore
Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today we are reviewing brand new horror movie 825 Forest Road. I probably shouldn’t spend any amount of time elaborating on just how much I hate that title but I really do hate that title. Seeing the cover of the film flanked by those words made me think this was one of those no budget Tubi abominations we have talked so much about in the past.
You can imagine my surprise when I realised that this film was, actually, directed by Stephen Cognetti, the man who brought us the very well loved Hell House LLC. I should clear things up for a second. I am not a huge fan of Hell House LLC but it is a pretty effective horror movie and one of the most well regarded from the Found Footage genre in quite awhile. I figured that 825 Forest Road had, at least, a fighting chance to be good.
I Was Wrong!
The story follows a family moving into a new house in a remote town. Brother and sister Chuck (Joe Falcone) and Isabelle recently lost their mother to a car accident. Blaming herself, Isabelle (Kathryn Miller) is trying to move on with her life by joining a university. Deciding to move to the university’s town to take care of his sister. Chuck purchases a house with his partner. Little realising that the house has a resident of the more spiritual variety.
Full disclosure, I am not the world’s biggest fan of haunted house horror. Every now and then, a watchable movie arrives, such as The Presence, and I quite enjoy it. The majority of the time, however, they are boring, repetitive, predictable affairs that have little to offer. Haunted house and possession movies are my horror Achilles heels, so to speak. Still, I am here to review horror so I thought I would give this one a try.
The truth of the matter is, however. 825 Forest Road is the most run of the mill, boring, yawn-worthy haunted house movie I have seen in quite awhile. There is absolutely nothing new here, the acting is pretty awful with the exception of one or two cast members, the story is ruthlessly predictable and the ending is incredibly unsatisfying. This is a formula that needs a lot to go right for it to be interesting and very little goes right, here.
A Slightly Different Approach
Cognetti tries to flip things up, a little, by presenting the story in the form of chapters. First we have Chuck’s chapter where we see things from his point of view. Then comes his sister Isabelle’s chapter and, finally, his wife Maria’s chapter. The three separate stories are then brought together at the end. Acting as something of a “My First Tarantino” style of film.
Naturally, each character experiences their own series of events and the shared experiences differ a little depending on the specific person’s point of view. It sounds interesting but it really isn’t. What this serves to do is to make the already taxing 101 minute runtime feel infinitely longer. Chuck’s segment feels like it goes on forever only for Isabelle’s to top the length of that one by some margin. I remember checking the remaining time left and almost throwing up in my mouth when I realised it had only been on for 50 minutes.
These segments are horrendously dull. Outside of Maria, the characters are not very interesting. The dynamics between them add little to the movie and the overly formulaic scares leave you wanting from the very start. There isn’t a single new idea here outside of the presentation and that turns out to be a net negative.
Playing Devil’s Advocate
Trying to be fair to the movie, I suppose you could argue that scares aren’t really the intention, here. Well, I wouldn’t necessarily agree with that given the frequent use of old tropey paranormal horror crap the likes of which you would expect to see in a movie like The Conjuring. But you get my point. A slow burn mystery is supposed to be key to becoming invested in the story while the tense atmosphere eats you alive.
It just doesn’t work like that, though. The mystery is incredibly familiar and very lacking in intrigue. On top of that, the poorly formulated script makes much of the story telling and dialogue laughable. Making it very hard to buy into what is taking place. A whole bunch of the plot points make no sense. Characters make stupid decisions and they take an absolute age to come to conclusions that, otherwise, seem very obvious.
Awkward exposition rears its ugly head at every turn. Every character feels like they only exist to further the story by blurting out some nonsensical horror rhetoric. Interactions between characters range from bad to genuinely laughable and their is a distinct sense of lacking direction when it comes to character motivations. That’s without mentioning how unnatural the relationships are, here.
Worth Mentioning
The ending of 825 Forest Road is going to really annoy some people. It’s one of those endings that just puts a full stop in the middle of the sentence with no elaboration and no follow up. It’s rather strange considering the entire movie goes out of its way to exposition dump at every possible opportunity. I was expecting some post credits stuff but there is nothing. It’s quite unsatisfying and reeks of a writer who didn’t know how to wrap things up.
Acting is, generally, pretty bad. Side characters particularly. Joe Falcone is very wooden and poorly fitting as a horror movie lead. He seems like he is having to think hard before every line. I thought Kathryn Miller was fine, as Isabelle, in a generic teen way. She looked too old to be playing someone fresh out of high school, though. As did her friend Luke (Darin F. Earl II) who looks like he has been towing 30 for the past few years, at least.
On the plus side, this is a fairly nice looking film. Some of the shots work well. I thought Elizabeth Vermilyea was fantastic, as Maria. She really blew everyone else away and felt like the most real character in the film. There was very minimal violence, gore, and swearing so this may serve as a horror movie for younger people. There is very little to be offended by, here.
Should You Watch 825 Forest Road?
Some people are going to enjoy this movie purely due to the fact that it is a very generic paranormal, haunted house, horror. It’s inoffensive in that respect and easily pleased supernatural fans might enjoy it. Everyone else is going to be disappointed by the lack of atmosphere, the poor acting, the overly long story, stilted presentation and formulaic story. There is just very little to recommend and far better paranormal horror out there.
Our Scoring Philosophy: A Fair Fight
Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.
A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.
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