The Forest (1982)

Title: The Forest

Release Date: 1982

Genre: Horror-Slasher-Supernatural

Tagline: 'If you go down to the woods today... You might never get out alive.'

The Forest (1982) is an obscure low-budget Slasher Film. It was filmed in the Sequoia National Park in California in 1981. The movie follows hikers being hunted by a cannabilistic cave dwelling Hermit in the Forest.

Plot
In the opening scene, a middle aged  couple hiking in the forest get hacked up by an unseen killer in a cut-away death scene.

Meanwhile, Two men in a nearby city are planning a camping trip and leaving their girlfriends behind. Once the women hear about the trip they arent invited to, they decide togo camping on their own in the same woods. The women leave a half -a-day before the men. that night they set up a camp fire, where they encounter and talk to a ghost. The men show up in the woods walking the trails in search of surprising the women.

The Hermit 'John' (Gary Kent) shows up wielding a buck knife attacking and killing Teddi, explaining he doesnt wanna kill her, but he must eat something to survive. Sharon is able to escape jumping down a cascade. John takes the body back to his cave home where Steve (Dean Russell) and Charlie (John Batis) happen to be hanging out stillin search of there girlfriends. John cooks up the meat of the dead women and offers the guys some, telling them its a deer. the guys enjoy the meat. The Hermit than begins to tell the story of how he became a woodsman. His wife cheated on him with mltiple men for years, eventually he came home early fromhis doctor's job to find her in bed with another man. he snaps and murders his wife and then immeadiately flees into the woods with his kids, and has been living feral in the forest ever since. The guys spend the night nervously in the hermits cave.

The next morning, the guys are awaken by the hermit hovering over them. They leave early in search of their wives. They find the campsite and the womens belongings abandoned. They split up in search of them. Meanwhile sharon runs into the hermits kids, who confide to her that they are ghosts after killing themselves because they were sick and unhappy from living in the cave. They have been evading their mothers evil spirit in the afterlife. John The Hermit became depressed and a crazy madman after the loss of his kid's. Steve is seen injuring his leg in a rocky section of the woods.

At night, the ghost of the hermit's wife appears before Charlie to ask where the children are. after her spirit dissolves, John creeps up to attack him. He explains he needs meat for the winter as they slug it out in the river. John is able to dround charlie and hang up his meat. Sharon walks upon mayhem and is overpowere to the ground by John. The kids stick up for Sharon and threaten to leave their father if he doesnt let her go. He lets her escape, the kids tell her where to find the injured steve. John attacks steve with a huge sharpened stick, but Sharon stabs John in the heart with a wooden stake before he's able to strike her husband.

The ghostly kids say goodbye and disappear into thin air. The mother ghost appears asking for her children, Sharon tells them they have gone, she then vanishes. The camera shows the cave with John and his kids sitting around a fire as ghosts until they fade away as the credits roll.

Credits

 * Dean Russell as Steve
 * Gary Kent as John
 * Tomi Barrett as Sharon
 * John Batis as Charlie
 * Ann Wilkinson as Teddi
 * Jeanette Kelly as Mother
 * Corky Pigeon as John Jr.
 * Becki Burke as Jennifer
 * Tony Gee as Plumber
 * Stafford Morgan as Man
 * Marilyn Anderson as Woman
 * Jean Clark as Mechanic
 * Donald M. Jones as Forest Ranger