In A Violent Nature (Chris Nash, 2024) Review

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“Animals don't get too hung-up on reason.” Taking the typical story of a slasher movie and inverting the POV to instead focus on the monstrous killer, debut feature writer/director Chris Nash sets out with a bold hook, but can it be sustained over 90 minutes?...

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“This whole place freaks me out.” Amidst the picturesque Canadian woodlands of a former logging camp, a group of teens have rented a cabin for a weekend of relaxation and fun, but when they stumble across a dilapidated shack at the foot of an old fire watch tower – and take a precious necklace once belonging to a beloved mother – they stir something evil that is buried beneath the damp, dark earth.

A foreboding rumble begins. The soil twitches and writhes. A hand emerges from the dirt – and so it is that the killer is resurrected, his place of rest disturbed and a curse reawakened. Unlike the normal slasher movie, though, we stick with the killer for every trudging step he takes through the woods, lurking with deadly purpose, his direction only altered by the enticing sound of bitter arguments, passing cars, or teenage frivolity. In A Violent Nature is as much about the quiet passages between the bloodletting as it is about guts 'n gore.

“Come on then, soft serve – what's the story?” Objectively viewed through a quietly static or methodically gliding camera, the aggrieved killer proceeds with absolute patience and single-minded purpose, a relentless force that will not stop until it is appeased and can once again return to its place of rest. Following closely in the maniac's muddy footprints, we catch glimpses of who these holidaying teens are and what the campfire tale version of the backstory for 'Slow Johnny' is: The White Pines Slaughter – a shiver-inducing tale of rural community friction, an innocent child, a prank gone tragically wrong, corporate conspiracy, and a blood-drenched act of vengeance. And so, the killing starts – with creatively gruesome results.

“Cancel culture isn't real.” The choice to switch perspectives and almost exclusively follow the killer throughout the film is indeed audacious, but it also comes with its own troublesome constraints. The main problem is the canon fodder teens remain almost entirely undeveloped, a fact that is not helped by their curiously uneven reactions to circumstances that should be terror-inducing; strangely, such perilous encounters appear to decidedly underwhelm the victims on occasion. Perhaps the intention is to provoke the idea of becoming so terror stricken that one appears frozen with fear, but it can easily be misinterpreted. Indeed, one spectacularly inventive kill is preceded by an expression on the victim that could be read as 'aloof boredom' as much as 'a resignation to one's inevitable fate'.

Many of the human characters have little in the way of depth, but it's hard to establish such a thing when we're lurking in the woods mostly out of earshot to their squabbles and carry-on. However, there is at least Ehren (Sam Roulston), the pot smoking campfire storyteller, and the Park Ranger desperately trying to return the killer to his resting place, as he did once before ten years prior (Reece Presley) … but then there's the irksome Aurora (Charlotte Creaghan), a curiously written individual who amounts to little more than uttering annoying buzz phrases such as “toxic masculinity” while coming across as a bit of an arse who could kill a party vibe in an instant. Indeed, the inclusion of such phrases, which will inevitably age like milk, is a bit of a bugbear due to how easily they yank the viewer out of a movie or TV show. Even the 'final girl' Kris (Andrea Pavlovic) is, as a by-product of this film's unique approach to perspective, sorely underwritten. As such, come the muted finale, the audience hasn't got to know her, and therefore she is unfortunately a long way off from, by way of example, fan-favourite Ginny in Friday the 13^th Part 2.

“You can't just give it back, he's awake now! He's awake. He's gonna be coming for all of us!” It's fair to say that In A Violent Nature will be a divisive film with its audience – who will either be on-side throughout or simply hate it. Despite a couple of flaws, I can count myself in the former camp. The cinematography is gorgeous, capturing the contrast of crisp, sunny days amidst lush greenery and the cold, damn-near pitch black nights. There's even a modest sense of humour at times, too, such as when we follow Johnny through the dark woods to a ranger station. Using a decapitated head to break in to the building, he then throws the headless body at a glass display in order to steal the tools for the massacre ahead – replete with a genuinely creepy old-timey firefighter mask, gifting this movie maniac a unique and memorable look.

“I just feel that … I'm not getting myself wet.” Despite the indie film feel of the movie, In A Violent Nature nonetheless delivers on the gruesome business of vengeance-fuelled slaughter. Certain online comments lazily complain about the film as being 'just walking through the woods with one good kill', not only missing the point of the movie entirely but also being disingenuous about the blood-splattered kill count and the various methods of dispatching the unfortunate teens. Sometimes the kills take a subtler approach, such as the first kill which focuses on a match-cut of the killer's hand – at one moment slowly creeping towards a terrified victim-to-be, only to then suddenly be moving just as intensely towards a golden necklace, the muddy hand now caked in fresh, warm blood. A drowning in a lake is similarly understated, but still sends shivers up the viewer's spine thanks to the utter loneliness of the whole ordeal – it's clear to see why, in such isolation, how so many campers could be snuffed out.

And yet the crimson still flows with generous frequency as a head is smashed to smithereens with a boulder, while another head is 'sewn' through a gaping hole in the victim's torso, and then – perhaps the most chilling of all Johnny's kills – comes the mechanised log splitter. Rendered immobile, the victim is left alive and absolutely helpless, the wait for their brutal demise nothing less than excruciating, like a nightmare of sleep paralysis dragged into waking life.

“Fill me up, Ehren!” Bringing a fresh perspective (literally) to the old familiar ground of the 1980s slasher movie, In A Violent Nature, with its home video 4x3 framing proves to be far more successful at capturing its unusual presentational approach than another recent horror indie also from IFC and Shudder: Late Night With The Devil. While that film at times faltered in its willingness to 'stick to the concept', introducing an air of falseness in a generally entertaining story, In A Violent Nature doggedly sticks to its own specific approach, consequences be damned. Faults aside, writer/director Chris Nash (who directed the 'Z for Zygote' segment of The ABCs of Death 2) must be commended for his upside-down love letter to a fan favourite genre (there's even an appearance by Lauren-Marie Taylor, who played Vicky in Friday the 13^th Part 2).

“You know what the word is, asshole.” For the most part it works beautifully, and aficionados of the trope-fuelled 1980s slasher can easily picture the sorts of scenes that would be playing out while we instead methodically stalk in the wake of a fantastically performed killer (played by Ry Barrett), who is built upon strong foundations of lore and legend. Indeed, the mention of an encounter at a gas station (in itself a common trope of rural horror), paints a humorous picture of a scene we have not witnessed, yet can vividly imagine. Familiar but also fresh, this film may very well be divisive if approached from the wrong angle with ill-fitting expectations, but those who fit into this specific groove will be rewarded with a memorably beautiful-yet-gory alternative take on the slasher genre. While the climax (imagine if, at the end of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, we stuck with Sally beyond the end credits for a while) may favour subtle tension over brash thrills, In A Violent Nature still manages to stick the landing with a tingle up the spine. It would be hard to craft a sequel to this, but such is the viewer's interest in Johnny and the White Pines Slaughter that one is left simultaneously satisfied and yearning for more.