In a Violent Nature (2024 | Canada | 93 minutes | Chris Nash)

Any filmmaker who takes on the tropes of horror cinema with an experimental eye merits major props from this corner. So right out of the gate, writer/director Chris Nash deserves kudos for really trying to change up the slasher film—that most trope-laden of horror sub-genres—with his feature debut, In a Violent Nature. 

Most slashers detour into a killer’s Point of View for small fragments of their run time. But shooting a feature-length movie entirely from the view of a quiet, implacable figure like Friday the 13th‘s Jason Voorhees or Halloween‘s Michael Myers represents a nervy move for a first-time feature film director. 

Fortunately, Nash has fabricated an effective boogeyman in the form of Johnny (Ry Barrett), a monstrous giant of a corpse that’s reanimated when the pendant keeping his spirit contained gets removed. The resuscitated Johnny covers his rotting visage with a pretty wicked variation on a Vajen-Bader Smoke Mask, then begins stalking and slashing hapless locals, campers, park rangers, and partiers with vicious iron hooks and other cutty-stabby implements. 

Johnny definitely feels like a composite of a couple of superhuman killers from slashers of yore—Jason Voorhees, The Burning’s Cropsy, and My Bloody Valentine’s Harry Warden among them—and he’s obviously rendered with affection. In a Violent Nature also boasts some legit gorgeous cinematography from Pierce Derks, whose camera glides leisurely through Canadian wilderness for long slow-burn stretches (despite being shot in the virtually square, old-TV-style 4:3 aspect ratio, this looks ravishing on a big screen). Having that pastoral scenery sporadically jolted with spasms of violence delivers some genuinely effective moments. 

And the gorehounds who’ll comprise most of In a Violent Nature’s audience will likely have their thirst for the red stuff quenched. Effects wizard Steven Kostanski pulls out all the stops on some of the setpieces here, with some seriously gnarly and fiercely innovative kills.

All that said, it’s surprising that (pardon the pun) In a Violent Nature’s hooks don’t dig in a little deeper. Johnny’s periodic stretches of wandering between kills don’t really further any understanding of him, even on the most basic knuckle-dragging level; nor do they help sustain the atmosphere of consistent dread that fuels most effective horror movies. None of the human characters/victims remotely register, even by the meager standards of slasher-movie characterizations: At times, it’s like watching a really impressive video game cut scene. And there’s a real sense here of hurtling too much pretentiousness at a genre that just doesn’t merit it (Nash cites Terrence Mallick, of all directors, as an influence on this movie).

In a Violent Nature represents a noble experiment packed to its gills with great things, and a worthwhile view for horror fans. But like most noble experiments, be prepared for it to inspire more respect and appreciation than actual love—or chills.

In a Violent Nature made its local bow at the 2024 Seattle International Film Festival, and it opens May 31 in select theaters.