The Haunted forest (2026) | Review

At the Haunted Forest, DEATH SELLS! The Haunted Forest is a 2026 horror-slasher whodunit from screenwriter and director Keith Boynton. The film marks Boynton’s first venture into the horror genre, with his previous screen efforts being the 2020 and 2021 dramas The Scottish Play and The Winter House, respectively.

Poster for The Haunted Forest

The Haunted Forest follows academic standout student Zach (Grayson Gwaze), who spends his nights and weekends working as a scare actor at his cousin’s haunted attraction. There, Zach befriends a potential love interest, Sarah (Kaitlyn Lunardi), a makeup artist at the haunt. As sparks fly, so too does the body count, as members of the attraction begin getting picked off one by one by a mysterious killer…or killers?

Filmed on location at Markoff’s Haunted Forest in Dickerson, Maryland, the set design—and how Boynton and cinematographer Aitor Mendilibar capture the actual haunt—is the standout aspect of the film. The attraction features massive building facades, fire effects, and even a zipline. All of these elements add to the film’s overall production value, amplified by the large number of extras and haunt roamers populating the park. The scale of the haunt feels genuinely big, which in turn makes the actions—and consequences—of the characters feel larger as well.

Grayson Gwaze is perfectly cast as leading man Zach. He’s an outsider: a punk, a rebel, and a devoted horror hound. Given that the target audience is clearly horror fans, making the protagonist obsessed with the macabre allows viewers to instantly connect with him. Throughout The Haunted Forest, Zach’s horror comic book sketches come to life in brief vignette sequences, including a strong homage to a 1950s lovers’ lane horror legend that opens the film. While the rest of the cast is well acted, none reach the same emotional depth Gwaze brings to Zach. That said, the film spends nearly its entire 90-minute runtime with him, so it makes sense that his character carries the most depth and motivation.

Where The Haunted Forest falls short is in several key components that define effective horror filmmaking: sound, suspense, and scares. There are moments where scenes play out with only dialogue and no background noise or score, making it difficult to stay engaged—especially since the dialogue itself can feel clunky without audio support. Additionally, nearly every kill occurs off-screen, with most of the body count concentrated in the third act. Even when kills are implied rather than shown, tension can still be built between them, but there isn’t much of that here. The film’s only truly gory moment arrives as a surprise and delivers an effective visceral reaction; unfortunately, it’s also the exception. The movie simply needed more sequences like that.

Grayson Gwaze as Zach

Despite its shortcomings, The Haunted Forest does a lot right—especially for a low-budget film from a first-time horror director. The location and set design are top-notch, and the film maximizes its production value on screen without feeling cheap. I’d love to see more from Boynton as a director, particularly in the horror genre, and to see what he could do with a stronger focus on either scares or kills. The Haunted Forest would have benefited from leaning harder into one of those elements, using its real-life haunted attraction setting to either build sustained tension or deliver more memorable kill sequences. Ultimately, this is a film I’d recommend to anyone looking for an indie horror title that makes the most of its budget and delivers the autumnal, Halloween-season vibe that horror fans crave.

The Haunted Forest is available on Digital and VOD February 13.