What does Jason Voorhees get up to when he’s not hacking horny teenagers into bloody ribbons? If he’s anything like the killer of In a Violent Nature, then it’s a lot of schlepping around the woods, slowly stomping from one victim to the next.
This Canadian slasher film by Chris Nash is unique in that it follows the silent killer (Ry Barrett) from his perspective, opening with his rude awakening in the woods. When idiot teenagers inadvertently raise the rotting monster from his grave, he won’t rest until he’s murdered everything around him into a gory slop.
Billed as an ‘ambient slasher film,’ this experimental take on the subgenre features no score, no soundtrack and minimal dialogue, except for that which is encountered by Johnny on his commute. A crisply-shot Ontarian wilderness ensures that Johnny’s hike never feels like a slog – even if the man does shuffle about like an overburdened Fallout character. The sound design, too, sings, from the chirruping, chittering woodlands to the bone-crunching, squelchy harmonies of Johnny’s violence.
Over fifty years of slasher history will tell us who his victims are and what their conversations are like, so when Johnny catches up with them, the story does so without missing a beat. Would-be final girl Kris (Andrea Pavlovic) makes a lot of minimal screen time, somehow feeling like a fully rounded character despite the fact she’s barely in the thing. Well, it’s hard not to root for the girl when Johnny is out here pulping her friends into bits.
As for Johnny, he’s a Jason analogue with mommy issues of his own and a compelling mythology (mostly Friday the 13th with a little bit of Hatchet, and a snifter of My Bloody Valentine). The antique fireman’s mask and dragging hooks help him to come into his own, while the sheer brutality of the kills set him apart from the rest of his kin.
In a Violent Nature starts slowly; an off-screen slaughter here and a head bisection there, finally peaking in one of the most unique, gratuitous, and mean-spirited kills ever seen in a horror film. It’s not funny, but the extreme violence builds to a point of absurdity, one horrific punchline after the next. It’s the greatest Friday the 13th film never made.
What it doesn’t have, however, is the patience to fully commit to its slow cinema aspirations, cheating by snipping around Johnny’s movements and suddenly giving up on the conceit altogether during the final act. Such compromises ensure narrative structure and keep things flowing, but it’s a disappointing betrayal of the premise.
In a Violent Nature isn’t a reinvention of slasher cinema – but nor does it claim to be. Instead, Nash uses the audience’s familiarity with its tropes to poke fun at horror franchisedom, offering a lesser-seen perspective on the ensuing carnage.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE is in cinemas from July 12th.
