825 Forest Road (2025) is written & directed by Stephen Cognetti. It stars Elizabeth Vermilyea, Kathryn Miller, Joe Falcone, Diomira Keane, Darin F. Earl II, Monica Fleurette, Lorenzo Beronilla, Joe Bandelli, Leyah Rose, and Brian Anthony Wilson. The film follows Chuck Wilson (Falcone), his wife Maria (Vermilyea), and his little sister Isabelle (Miller) as they relocate to the quiet town of Ashland Falls. They soon discover that its residents are being terrorized by the ghost of Helen Foster (Keane), a woman seeking vengeance for the death of her daughter nearly eighty years prior. To stop her before she sends them to an early grave, the Wilsons set out to find the elusive 825 Forest Rd, Helen’s past home, which contains the source of her dark powers.

The C-list cast is passable if you don’t expect a lot. Elizabeth Vermilyea gives the strongest performance of the bunch, but it’s nothing special; it’s simply that the character provides her with a lot of opportunities to display her range. Kathryn Miller’s performance is fine, but essentially the definition of forgettable. The only person who stands out for their wooden performance is Joe Falcone as Chuck. His delivery is often unconvincing and awkward, but it also doesn’t help that he’s written to be a bit of a meathead. This would be fine if we were meant to dislike the character, but we’re consistently asked to root for him moments after he says or does something unappealing. 

These mediocre performances are further highlighted by the fact that the film is often extremely slow, driven mostly by heavy exposition dumps and a steadily increasing sense of unease. This reliance on the less flashy elements of the genre makes sense considering the tiny budget, and it does lead to some cool ideas; it just isn’t able to develop them in any satisfying ways. The special effects are crappy, but the script spends a good chunk of time lacing its premise and lore with a level of nuance that sets it apart from films with similar ideas. 

It’s clear that this film takes a lot of inspiration from Zach Cregger’s script for Weapons (2025), but so much so that it feels like the writers read that script (which was the talk of Hollywood as it was being shopped), quickly wrote one of their own that uses a lot of the same ideas, and rushed to shoot and release it first. Once it becomes clear what the movie is about, it’s best described as a film about a witch who terrorizes the citizens of a small town, showing the same events from various intertwined perspectives. This unconventional story structure gives the experience a unique flavor, but it doesn’t do anything to improve the film’s overall effect. Seeing events from a different perspective doesn’t add new information and doesn’t reframe what we’ve already learned, so what’s the point? It’s pretty much the epitome of ‘pretentious,” and proves that just because an idea is unique or extraordinary, that doesn’t mean it fits the story being told. 

Overall, this is a mostly amateurish film, but slightly charming in a ‘budget film school project’ kind of way. The performances are wooden, the pace is slow, and the special effects look incredibly cheap. Other than a handful of creepy ideas and an occasionally creeping sense of dread, there’s not a ton that the film does right. I can definitely recommend that you skip this one. D