Forget Me Not Movie Review

Runtime: 103 minutes
Rating: R
Release Date: October 22, 2009
Director: Tyler Oliver

Forget Me Not opens with a little girl running home from a cemetery in tears, only to reach her parents with no memory of what happened. The film then jumps to the present day as a group of teenagers prepare to celebrate their recent graduation. Sandy (Carly Schroeder, Mean Creek) and her little brother Eli (Cody Linley, Cheaper by the Dozen) recently scored full scholarships to Stanford while their friends all have plans of their own.

Their friend TJ (Sean Wing) invites the group over for a party at his house. Later, they head to the cemetery seen at the beginning of the film and start playing a game they did as kids. A young woman comes out of nowhere and asks if she can play. After heading deeper into the cemetery, Sandy sees the young woman standing on the edge of the cliff. When the girl realizes that she doesn’t remember her, she says that she will soon and jumps over the edge. The police investigate but find no sign of the girl.

While it takes awhile for the film to reach this part, it quickly becomes a little more interesting. Sandy’s friends slowly begin disappearing, dying in new and unusual ways. One girl gets dumped by her boyfriend who slept with another woman the night before. After tossing his class ring in the lake, he leaves her there and she begins swimming across the lake, only to find the body of the same girl from the night before floating. It’s the last thing she sees before drowning. Another man disappears after the same girl crawls into the backseat of his car and forces him off the road.

The creepiest parts of the movie come when the audience learns that only Sandy remembers those friends. The others have no memories of the people who died. She realizes this when she sees her friend Layla having sex with another man and no one thinks she is cheating because she doesn’t have a boyfriend.

It also leads to a scene where the group finds themselves at TJ’s house, which is now abandoned and deserted. This is a great scene because as Sandy wanders through the empty and destroyed house, she flashes back to the moments they shared the night before. She can clearly see the past and the present, but she has no idea why. Even though the people around her make it clear that the present is how they remember things, she knows that something weird is going on.

I actually really liked Forget Me Not up until the end of the film, mainly because it was a little confusing. There are two possible endings to the film. One is that everything occurred because of something they did as children, and the ending becomes a little more cut and dry. The other ending is more of a psychological ending where everything that happened only occurred in her mind. No matter which ending the director intended, this is one that I could watch again.

Do You Wanna Know a Secret?

There's a difference between movies that are bad and movies that are entertainingly bad. Make no mistakes about it, “Do You Wanna Know a Secret?” is just plain bad.

The movie starts out with a college boy, running around trying to find his girlfriend. Think of it like the opening of a “Scream” movie but without any famous faces. Then we get to meet Hank and Beth, two college sweethearts. Beth is a kind of hot blond, but she has absolutely no self-esteem. At one point, she asks Hank if he's dating anyone else. When he denies it, she threatens to cut off his penis, but of course that's just pillow talk.

They head off for spring break where they rented a huge house with a group of friends. Of course, no college kids in the world could afford a beach house with a private beach and enough bedrooms and bathrooms for each person so you should disregard that. Every person in this movie is a stereotype, so you have the feisty Latino best friend, the African American jock, and the slutty blond who constantly walks around in a bikini.

Beth runs into some random guy (I didn't even bother to learn his name) who obviously has a crush on her. Don't worry about him though because he's just a red herring. He turns up every time something happens, just to make you think he's the killer.

Oh, did I forget to mention that people start dying? Yeah, nothing interesting there either. It's the basic, run of the mill stabbings and slashings. Plus, you have Chad Allen playing a jock with a video camera. Chad Allen mainly hits on all the girls and makes comments about Beth's boyfriend dying. I guess he was the guy in the beginning and the police found him dead in her dorm room. Chad Allen (yes, I'm only referring to him in that way) disappears for a good chunk of the movie.

That might seem suspicious, but it won't be when you learn that he's the killer. Yeah, I don't know either. I guess he always loved Beth and couldn't stand to see her with anyone else. Instead of just asking her on a date, he smacks her over the head, kidnaps her, puts her in a wedding dress, and seems shocked when she doesn't want to date him.

Don't I Know You From Somewhere?

If seeing Joey (I'm not calling you Joseph) Lawrence and Chad Allen in a horror movie brings back nostalgic memories, you aren't the only one. Unfortunately, those two aren't a good enough reason to see this movie. The actress playing Beth looks vaguely familiar, but a quick glance at her IMDB page reveals nothing of interest. The slutty chick in the bikini though, she's totally the cheerleader from “Scream,” the one who thinks Sydney is the killer. BTW, I always thought that would make a better end to the franchise.

Best Death?

Like I said, nothing new here. Seeing the Latina chick dancing around, trying to get the slut's attention though is great, especially when she doesn't see the bright red neck wounds or her glassy eyes.

I'm going with Joey on this one. When Beth claims that he's going to kick Chad Allen's ass, Chad Allen casually lifts his hand and shows her Joey's head.