Tyler Oliver

Tyler Oliver's directorial debut is a tough horror movie to talk about without spoiling too much. That's not to imply Forget Me Not has a maddening, last-minute twist at the end, a common fallback for most independent productions vying for the spotlight on the festival circuit, but there is a gradual turning point in the script in which the game changes unexpectedly, shifting the film's overall mood and direction with enough jolt that the surprise in watching it unfold is half the fun. It opens as a rather familiar story about a group of attractive high school kids partying it up on their first post-graduation weekend, when out of nowhere an unidentified blur of shadows begins to throw bloody wrenches into their rendezvous plans one by one.

Yet while the opener may seem like countless other teen-centric horror movies, particularly since the blurring shadow in question initially looks a little too much like the vengeful ghost from The Grudge, the film slowly tips its hand, revealing a refreshing premise unlike any recent, teen-centric offerings I can think of. There's a question to be asked as to whether or not being simply different is enough to land the film any great distance ahead of its peers, but the effort shown in trying to be a cerebral blend of horrors that do warrant a thorough dissection after the credits roll does more than enough to justify keeping Forget Me Not on your radar.

Every now and then a film completely sneaks up on you and delivers a nice, pleasant surprise. Such is the case with Forget Me Not, a movie I didn't even know existed before watching the trailer (embedded below). Though I suppose in this particular case, 'nice' and 'pleasant' aren't the most applicable words, as Forget Me Not doesn't look quite so warm and fuzzy.

Written and directed by first timer Tyler Oliver, Forget Me Not tells the story of Sandy, a gal who just wants to survive high school. But when friends of hers start disappearing on the weekend of graduation, Sandy realizes the culprit is most likely a girl her group of friends wronged long ago. Now before you start rolling your eyes at how familiar of a setup that is, give the trailer a watch below. Unlike what you'd expect from a basic description like that, the culprit in question isn't exactly alive, and she also doesn't exactly look like a ghost. Whatever she is, she doesn't look happy.

Carly Schroeder, looking a bit more grown up than in Jacob Aaron Estes' excellent film Mean Creek, plays the lead Sandy. She's joined by a handful of youthful faces from shows like "Hannah Montana" and "Drake and Josh", which reminds me how much I enjoy seeing actors go from playing teeny-bopers on the Disney Channel to playing teens who die horrible deaths. Call me old fashioned, but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.

If you live in L.A., or if you're flying in for the fest, you can catch the world premiere of Forget Me Not at Screamfest Thursday, October 22nd.