Masaki Maehara has joined the cast of The Forest starring Natalie Dormer and Taylor Kinney in Jason Zada’s debut feature, a supernatural suspenser set in Japan.

With a vast array of supernatural beliefs and some of the most memorable psychological horror movies of the past dozen years, Japanese popular culture offers a wealth of references for any suspense film. Audiences unfamiliar with this legacy may initially find The Forest’s imitative stylistic flourishes intriguing, although first-time feature director Jason Zada and his trio of screenwriters spurn most of the genre’s rich legacy.

By selecting only a few ghostly elements to establish some context and a modicum of authenticity, The Forest seems determined to withhold scares while attempting to establish a persuasive tone, although moviegoers will likely remain unconvinced by a low-wattage cast confined to an unfamiliar setting and a lack of franchise identity.

Zada’s protagonist is Sara (Natalie Dormer), a thirtyish woman of comfortable social status who’s married to Rob (Eoin Macken), a restaurateur. It’s been some time since she’s seen her twin sister Jess (also played by Dormer), who has moved to Japan to teach English. Although they’re close in that twins kind of way, Sara is relieved that Jess has relocated to try something new, hoping it will alleviate her sister’s more self-destructive tendencies. So when Sara gets a call from the school where Jess teaches saying that her twin has gone missing in the notorious Aokigahara forest adjacent to sacred Mt. Fuji, she flies off to Tokyo the next day, leaving her concerned husband behind.