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Film: Tales of the Forest Hopper
Year: 2023
Director: Kevin Gabor
Writer: Kevin Gabor and Zaid Gylderud
Starring: Zaid Gylderud, Joel Arenander and Jonas Lehtonen
Review:
This is a short that I got the chance to check out over Instagram. I enjoy helping lower budget, independent works like this when able to. I’m limited outside of sharing the information and doing a review like this. This short runs around 15 minutes and I saw it on YouTube.
Synopsis: three friends lost in the wilderness stumble upon a legend from the old folklore known as the Forest Hopper (Zaid Gylderud), who will help them find their way home if they partake in his sacred tea ceremony.
That synopsis sums this up well. We start though with old time paintings and pictures that depict this entity. This was a good touch as from what I could tell, this is all made up for the short, but I love that it feels like it is based on stories from where this takes place. I appreciated this quite a bit to be honest. There is also a rhyme that goes with it to help fill in a bit of the backstory as well.
The three friends are wandering around, trying to find their way out. They realize they’ve been walking in circles. That is when the Forest Hopper appears. We see what happens when you don’t have tea with this mythical being. We also see what happens when upset it. There is one that knows lore and what to do. It all comes down to following the rules.
Now if you couldn’t tell, this opening bit was my favorite part. No offense to the interaction this trio has with this creature, but I am a sucker for folklore. The images of the Forest Hopper looks real enough. I could believe that this entity roams the forest like we see. There is a feel a bit of the Mad Hatter or other cautionary stories. I also feel vibes of the Three Billy Goats’ Gruff where a challenge is issued to survive. Only one member of the group, played by Joe Arenander, seems to know this and is calm about it.
Where I want to shift then is how I judge shorts. For me, if they’re good they fall into two camps. What we get here is that I feel like we tell a complete story. I don’t need this fleshed out more as this feels like a dark truth of a children’s story, we’d get from like Grimms. They could add more to this, but I don’t necessarily think we need it. The other way is leaving me want more of the story to be told with another short or fleshing it out as into a longer product. I’ll be honest, I don’t see a lot of shorts fall into my grouping like we do here which is impressive.
Let me then go into filmmaking. What works here is that this feels bigger than its budget with the cinematography. Part of that is they used a simple idea. Go far enough into the woods where it feels lost. Since they are using a real location that helps with production value for me. How things are shot look good. There isn’t a lot in the way of effects. What they’re doing I believe would be in camera effects with having the Forest Hopper appear and disappear. That gives that mystical feel there. Other than that, I loved the voice-over in the beginning. The rest of the soundtrack fit what was needed.
All that is left then is acting. I’m not going to come down hard here as this is a low budget, independent effort. This group got up and made a short which is more than I’m doing. I do like Gylderud as the Forest Hopper. He fit that whimsical, yet scary nature there. You can feel that dark side underneath. Philip Böthun was a bit flat. Jonas Lehtonen, who is Jon, overacted a bit. What is interesting here is that Arenander was in the middle and that fit his character. I’ll give everyone credit here and would watch them all in other roles going forward.
In conclusion, this is a fun little, short film. I love the folklore that gets introduced through the rhyme and the images. We then get a basic story that fits what we learned about it. This is made well and tells a complete story. The acting fits what I would expect from an independent movie like this. Credit to everyone who helped as well. This tells a complete story that works in this medium for sure. I’d recommend giving it a watch if you like to support low budget, independent cinema or interested in folklore like this.
My Rating: 7 out of 10
Link to Watch: Tales of the Forest Hopper