Shudder’s latest scary offering, “825 Forest Road,” feels like a hangover from a heavy cocktail of every haunted house horror movie. Starting from the classics like “The Woman in Black” to modern horror sensibilities involving manifestations of past trauma, director Stephen Cognetti (Hell House LLC franchise) dips into almost every horror trope. The result is a mish-mash of a few genuinely frightening jump-scares (especially the ones involving a creepy mannequin) and a story going nowhere, where repetition of the same event becomes necessary as a stalling technique.
825 Forest Road (2024) Movie Synopsis and Plot Summary:
Chuck’s Discovery – The Haunting Begins
The film starts as most horror movies do. An unsuspecting family relocates to a suburban house after a traumatic event. Married couple Chuck (Joe Falcone) and Maria (Elizabeth Vermilyea) are convinced by their clueless realtor into buying the suspiciously cheap house. Chuck and Maria are accompanied by Chuck’s younger sister, Isabel (Kathryn Miller). Isabel and Chuck’s mother died in a car accident a couple of months ago. As Isabel was driving the car, she developed survivor’s guilt. Chuck, who was distant from his family up until that time, has invited Isabel to stay with him for a few months.
The story moves in four chapters. Three of them are told from the perspective of these three leading characters. The first part, establishing the mystery, unwraps itself through Chuck’s eyes. It is the first morning at the house; Chuck finds Maria’s creepy mannequin outside the house. Maria and Chuck pass it off as a prank by Isabel, though Isabel vehemently denies this. Chuck befriends Larry, the neighbor. Larry gives him some hints about the town being haunted by a vengeful entity. But he does not reveal much. Instead, he asks Chuck to read about local history and invites him to a group meeting.
Can the Curse of Helen Foster Be Broken?
Chuck encounters more mysterious events at the library. A stack of books appears out of nowhere, and an overwrought girl asks him to leave the town. Now, it should be mentioned that this girl, Ashley, was seen in the opening scene. Ashley is shown to be haunted by a ghostly figure. Later, Chuck learns from the group meeting that Ashley has killed herself. Larry and other members of the society tell Chuck the story of Helen Foster. Decades ago, Helen’s young daughter was bullied and killed. Helen took revenge on the bullies, but she was not satisfied. Helen felt betrayed by the entire town as nobody listened to her complaints. As a result, Helen becomes a vengeful ghost and haunts the town ever since.
In the second chapter, Isabel is shown to befriend a local boy named Luke. Isabel’s share of supernatural encounters has the terrifying form of Helen Foster paying her a visit in the middle of the night. Isabel is convinced about the town’s ghostly reputation. Luke tells her the same story about Helen with one additional piece of information. Isabel learns that the only way to rid the town of Helen is to find the old Foster house and burn it. The house is at the titular address, 825 Forest Road. However, no recent map of the town shows the same place. People attempting to find that have been forced to kill themselves, like Ashley.
825 Forest Road (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
What Happens to Maria?
Some of the film’s most terrifying moments are reserved for Maria. Maria, a seamstress and a social media influencer, has a horrid-looking mannequin named Martha. The vapid-looking mannequin is no less spooky than the gnawed face of Helen Foster. After making her presence felt in front of Isabel, Helen targets Maria. For this, she chooses Martha. During one of the live sessions of Maria, Martha’s left hand starts to move, thoroughly terrifying Maria’s viewers. When Maria becomes aware of the sinister plot, Martha vanishes for a bit. A few minutes pass, and Maria is terrified to find Martha alive.
Maria is then tormented by the ghost of Chuck and Isabel’s mother. Or so it appears. Helen is known to be a mischievous little thing, after all. So, she takes the classic tormenting daughter-in-law route. However, Isabel comes at that moment, and Helen cannot decide whom to frighten more. Both Maria and Isabel run upstairs. But instead of staying together, they shut themselves in their separate rooms. Helen chooses to go after Maria. We do not see what happens to Maria. Later, she appears in Isabel’s room and rescues her. Maria looks dishevelled and beaten, with a nose bleed. As we will later see, Maria is probably possessed by Helen.
How Did Isabel and Chuck Find the Forest Road?
Seeing Maria’s condition, Chuck and Isabel decide to find 825 Forest Road. They get a helping hand from Luke, who figures out where the house could be by looking at old maps of electric grids. However, before Chuck and Isabel can leave, the realtor surprises them with a videographer. She is here to take a video testimonial. Despite all the traumatic actions by Helen, the realtor takes the cake in being outrageously frustrating to deal with. The chutzpah of the woman to ask for a glowing testimonial after selling a haunted house is hilariously funny.
Anyway, a seemingly recovered Maria comes downstairs and declares herself fit to give a video testimonial. Isabel asks Luke to stay back, just in case Maria needs help. Then, the brother-sister duo leaves for Forest Road. While giving the testimonial, Maria looks weirdly at Luke. She starts talking about her daughter being bullied at school. The realtor and the cameraman are stumped. But Luke realizes it is Helen who is giving the interview, not Maria.
The Truth Unmasked – Burning the Wrong House Won’t End the Nightmare
All hell breaks loose as the interviewing camera shows Helen sitting on the sofa instead of Maria. Helen attacks the realtor and the videographer, seemingly killing them. Luke tries to hide. But Helen finds him anyway. It is not clear what happens to Luke and Maria. Maria may survive. It is also possible that Maria is already dead, and Helen simply took her appearance. Luke, in all probability, is killed.
Parallelly, Chuck and Isabel find the 825 Forest Road house. However, Chuck finds the old letters written by Helen. It shows that the bully’s family lived in 825 Forest Road, not Helen. From the letters, it is also revealed that Helen used to live in Chuck’s house. Chuck realizes that there is no point in burning 825 Forest Road, as it never was Helen’s house. He tries to find Isabel so that they can leave immediately.
Has Helen Foster Claimed Her Last Victims?
As Chuck goes upstairs, he finds Isabel standing in a narrow corridor. In front of a door. This is just like a picture drawn by Isabel. It is shown that Isabel has the gift of premonition. However, this particular feature does not add anything to the story. Neither does the existence of the anti-Helen Foster vigilante support group. A lot of the things seem to have been added at random. Unsurprisingly, a hand appears from behind the door and tries to take Isabel inside. Chuck runs and tries to stop this. The cliffhanger ending hints at Helen taking both the brother and the sister.
It is a weird choice by Cognetti to show the ghost of Helen transcending the space-time paradigm. In most horror stories, the supernatural entities are not shown to be in two places at the same time. It is not entirely illogical since they are not exactly bound by natural laws like humans. However, most stories do not make this choice. But, in this story, Helen Foster’s ghost has to be in two places at the same time. The attacks on Luke and the attacks on Isabel appear to be happening at the same time. Anyway, unless we get a sequel telling us otherwise, my guess is Helen Foster has wiped out all three of our set of protagonists.
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