The Forest Hills is the upcoming Horror/Thriller Movie I posted about a few days ago. It stars Edward Furlong, Shelley Duval , Dee Williams and Chiko Mendez as Riko, the main character. Riko suffers from PTSD, which hits this contributor VERY close to home, and one particular part of this trailer, was very “triggering to me”.
https://youtube.com/clip/Ugkxv4h2yqYqjTm5Ak7ppn8cElYiGLckOxI6
In this small snippet taken from the trailer, Riko is talking to his therapist, and and she says “we can try to prescribe you another medication, 1 that may make you feel better” and Riko replies “I just don’t like the way they make me feel”.
This 1 scene struck me hardest, because I have had that EXACT same conversation with my own MH doctors over the past decade numerous times. I have taken medications that made me feel NOTHING AT ALL emotionally, I was basically a walking zombie. I spent 10 years in the US Navy, and I loved my time in the service and my Job as a Gunners Mate. however I saw things and had things happen to me, that I won’t wish on another human being. The VA classifies my mental health disability as Unspecified anxiety stressor disorder and unspecified depressive disorder. basically I have PTSD but the VA despite conceding my stressor events, won’t call it that. It doesn’t really matter, as once the VA says you have a “service connected” mental health disorder, how they list it, doesn’t impact in any way.
Elsewhere in the movie we see Riko going through Group Therapy, we also see Riko having multiple Dissociative Identity moments. for people with really bad mental health issues, these episodes can be harmful to themselves and to others because it is like falling into a black hole, where you no longer feel human, with that loss of humanity also comes a loss of a persons “human moral compass”. Although Scott Goldberg and Scott Hansen are getting a lot of positive press over their ability of bringing Shelley Duvall in front of the camera for the first time in 2 decades, watching this trailer, I think the bigger “get” was finding Chiko Mendez, and his ability to play a person suffering with PTSD. Even from the snippets in this trailer, his scenes with Edward Furlong, are powerful to watch, and for some PTSD sufferers, having that “buddy” is what keeps us going. Taking pills every day just to “make it” is not really a good existence, but a necessary one.
Even if this wasn’t a horror film, It hits way to close to home for myself to watch it, and that is a REALLY GOOD THING, because it shows the amount of care and research that was put into this film, to show a side of a PTSD sufferer, that not many people get to see. I can’t wait for this film to come out, so I can recommend it to everyone.
