A dark, shrouded area of the forest.
Snow White & the Huntsman Clip - Dark Forest
The Dark Forest is a location in the kingdom of Tabor. It is a vast forest, with a sinister reputation and home to many deadly and magical creatures. A dark magic seems to lie over the Forest, causing people to hallucinate or experience feelings of great fear and dread, such as when tree branches appear to turn into snakes and begin crawling over Snow White. Eric the Huntsman states that the Forest "plays on your worst fears", which also implies that the Forest may have a degree of sentience.
A troll, one of the violent creatures of the forest.
Creatures that dwell in the Dark Forest include hyena wolves, imps, wraiths and trolls, with some creatures more dangerous than others. There appear to be a few ordinary creatures living there, such as birds and deer, but it is implied by the piles of dead birds Snow White finds that these animals do not last long. Even the trees appear to sentient, moving in a menacing manner. The dwarves also appear to live deep inside the Forest. There are a special kind of fungi growing in the Forest, which, when disturbed, release poisonous black spores that cause respiratory problems in anyone who breathes them in. They also apparently cause hallucinations and blackouts. There is also a part of the forest that is considerably brighter and filled with less harmful creatures, which the one of the dwarves called "Sanctuary". Whether this is what it is actually named, or just referred to as such by the dwarf because it is safer than the rest of the forest is currently unknown.
The brighter part of the forest.
The Forest has rightfully earned a dark reputation among humans. It is generally avoided by the people of Tabor and it is said on a number of occasions that very few people who venture into the Forest ever return alive - or with their sanity intact. Eric is one of the few people to have ever survived the Forest and even he considers the place to be extremely dangerous, expressing reluctance to re-enter the Forest on Queen Ravenna's orders, even when threatened with execution. When Ravenna told Eric that one of her prisoners had run into the Dark Forest, Eric immediately stated "she's definitely dead", further implying that very few people survive it. Snow White fled to the Dark Forest when she escaped her stepmother's dungeon, and clearly found it to be a terrifying experience. She would likely have died there, without Eric's help.