Writer/director/star Garrett Schulte’s feature debut is a labor of love called The Sky’s Forest. It is a science fiction/horror film with a creature and a message. Jasmine (Omalolu Fiki) is an ambitious astronomer, but she gets iced out of the official team studying a new meteor shower she discovered. She travels to a friend’s cabin, where there is less light pollution, to observe the celestial phenomenon. When a meteorite crashes in the forest, Jasmine wants to go examine it. As the group prepares to accompany her, Dax(Schulte) and Chuck (David Price) bring AR-15 style rifles, ostensibly for defense against bears. Jasmine comments that it’s overkill, and she is not wrong.
Once underway, Jasmine’s group stumbles across her original team, also out looking for the meteorite. The two yokels with assault rifles open fire when they are startled by the other people. Nobody is killed, and they all keep moving. When they find the meteorite, there’s a War of the Worlds-esque sequence where it opens with glowing lights. Something emerges, but they don’t see it before it flees. Jasmine and her team retrieve an artifact from the meteorite, which is a bad move, as it is a device the creature needs. It follows them as a result.
Several of them begin hearing voices in their heads as they are tracked and then attacked by an unseen force that picks them off one by one. They catch a glimpse of it in one of the attacks, and they tag it a few times with rifle shots before it disappears in a glowing energy field. It looks like a tall gorilla standing upright, but more wookie-ish. The face of the beast is the least convincing effect, reminiscent of Star Trek TOS’s Mugato monster in a rubber mask.
“Jasmine and her team retrieve an artifact from the meteorite, which is a bad move, as it is a device the creature needs.”
Perhaps they are in shock, but instead of running full speed the opposite direction, they stop to have a debate about whether anyone will believe them if they report the creature, or if they should just keep it to themselves. As the sun rises, they are still being tracked, and Jasmine must figure out how to save them.
The cinematography is top-notch, and not just for an indie film. The cast delivers solid performances, including the men in the suit (Schulte and Frank Kramer). The low-light scenes in the forest are creepy and effective. Schulte’s special effects are passable, given the low budget. The creature is a cross between Bigfoot and the Predator. It’s sentient, intelligent, pissed off, and has good tech, not something you should tangle with. There’s a hint of Attack the Block in the vibe as well.
On the downside, there are dynamic range issues with the sound. The dialogue is quiet, with the music and sound effects much louder, forcing the viewer to turn the volume up for dialogue and down for other sounds. A note for indie filmmakers deciding where to focus their budget: you can get away with lower-grade visuals, but the audience has to clearly hear the dialogue. The soundtrack, on the other hand, works perfectly.
Schulte keeps the suspense tight and the gory attacks coming. The Sky’s Forest isn’t just action; it also presents conjecture about whether there are large life forms stomping around the woods with oversized feet, and if so, where they might come from. Alternatively, this could explain the origin of conspiracy theories and those who embrace them.
Learn more at the official The Sky’s Forest website.
"…keeps the suspense tight and the gory attacks coming."
