by Karl Madsen, Media Editor-Horror
Remember all your friends from school? Can you remember all the schoolmates you dated, partied with, cruised and hung out with? Or have you forgotten a few acquaintances? I’ll look at a yearbook and my sister will have to remind me “You dated her in your sophomore year”, or “You were best friends’ senior year”. But what if your friends start to disappear, time is altering, and no one remembers them except you. Strange, right?
That’s what Sandy (Carly Schroeder – Lizzie McGuire) thinks in Forget Me Not, when her friends Jake (Micah Alberti – All My Children), Hannah (Brie Gabrielle – Hannah Montana), Lex (Jillian Murray – The Graves), Chad (Zachary Abel – The Secret Life of the American Teenager), TJ (Sean Wing – You Again), and Layla (Chloe Bridges – Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam) begin disappearing, one at a time.
Some friendships never die
It all begins when the group of friends, in a post graduation celebratory game of cemetery tag, includes a strange, nameless young lady, who, at the end of the game stands on the edge of a cliff and asks Sandy “Do you remember me?” before jumping. Soon after, her friends start to disappear and the timeline changes with nobody remembering the missing friends. Cue the flashbacks with a young Sandy (Courtney Briggs – The Gold Retrievers), and her friend from the orphanage Angela (Bella Thorne – Big Love) playing in the graveyard and picking flowers; forget-me-nots’. (I didn’t see that one coming) Two events happen in the past that shape the events of the future. First Sandy brings her friends to play in the cemetery and Angela becomes jealous; and the friends play a prank on Angela in the graveyard one night that puts her in a coma six years before. Jump to the present, Angela is still in a coma, the friends are still missing, and Sandy is the only one who remembers them but the remaining friends think she’s losing her mind.
The main cast is relatively young, and don’t have a large resume to lean on, but they carry the range of emotions from not-a-care-in-the-world high school graduates, to confusion and fear with at least a horror movie believability. There are small roles for names like Barbara Bain (Mission Impossible, Space 1999), Christopher Atkins (Blue Lagoon), and Dan Gauthier (Son in Law) give credibility to the film, but in no way take away from the performances of this young cast.
Special Features:
Deleted Scenes
Alternate Endings
Photo Gallery
Trailer
Karl’s Scores:
Acting – B+
Setting – A
Special Effects – B+
Creep Factor – A
Tension – A
What the Heck Moments – More than I can count on one hand
Overall – A+
Smaller budget and “B” horror films seem to be more unique and have more passion then their big budget counterparts, and Forget Me Not is one of these. With a lesser known cast that is trying to make a name for themselves, and without a big effects budget, this film relies on a good script and passionate actors. Carly Schroeder turned in an amazing performance as the haunted Sandy, with the remaining cast assisting her voyage to insanity with the supportive disbelief you would expect from high school friends. Coupled with an exceptional plot twist, Forget Me Not is an unforgettable thrill ride, if you remember it.
ComicsOnline give Forget Me Not 5, I remember 4, wait 3, I recall 2, I forget, maybe 1, no, it’s definitely 5 memory lost friends out of 5.
Pick up your copy of Forget Me Not on DVD at Amazon.com.
Keep ComicsOnline.com at the top of your favorite for more horror reviews and news.
