Movie Review ~ In a Violent Nature

I was still a child in the early ’80s when the slasher film was experiencing its major boom.  After Friday the 13th debuted to huge numbers in May of 1980 and began ticking off its numerous sequels throughout the decade, the race to make and distribute similar slice-and-dice thrillers was in constant motion.  In a way, I’m glad I could watch these low-budget films for the first time on VHS and not in the confines of a theater where they instantly were held to a certain standard they could never live up to.  Enjoying them at home allowed me to take them on their merit, and while I found it hard to resist the spooky thrills of the Halloween franchise and the Nightmare on Elm Street continuations, my first love was always Friday the 13th and all its summer camp suspense.

Camp and nature-related slasher films have given us several worthy entries outside of Friday the 13th and its follow-ups.  Fans of this subgenre will recognize titles like Just Before Dawn (1981), Sleepaway Camp (1983), The Final Terror (1983), The Burning (1981), and Madman (1981).  These rustic offerings had the requisite T&A, bloody kills, and hulking mainiac and often used their smaller budgets to their advantage.  Forced to stretch a dollar as far as it could go creatively, the filmmakers took what Friday the 13th had introduced (a group of nubile teens picked off one by one by an unseen savage killer) and played their own twisted game with the formula.

Horror’s appreciation for nature hasn’t waned, as anyone who has seen Midsommar (2019), The Ritual (2017), Hatchet (2006), and The Ruins (2008) can attest to.  Echoing the sinister bite of slasher films past, In a Violent Nature emerges as a disruption to the norm.  Conjuring the macabre primal fury of camp-slaughter classics, its displays of dread and dismemberment rank with some of the most ghoulish ever put on film, beckoning devout horror fans to turn out the lights and get ready for a chilling ride.

An innocuous locket dangles from a pole buried deep in the ground next to the ruins of a collapsed fire tower in the woods.  It’s one of the first shots cinematographer Pierce Derks frames up, and at first, we aren’t sure where we should be looking or what we need to be taking in.  Then we hear voices getting closer, explorers who find the locket and take it with them as they move on.  Unbeknownst to them, this act of finders keepers has released the corpse of a beastly killer who was bound there buried under the ground some 60 years earlier.  And he wants his necklace back.

Revived and reborn, maniac Johnny (Ry Barrett) begins his merciless pursuit of this talisman, apparently able to track it through whatever dark connection has kept him at bay over the decades.  Derks positions the camera slightly behind Johnny as he walks and walks (and walks and walks and walks) through the surrounding woods, propelled by a need to retrieve his trinket.  As ill-fated protagonists Kris (Andrea Pavlovic), Colt (Cameron Love), Troy (Liam Leone), Aurora (Charlotte Creghan), Ehren (Sam Roulston), Evan (Alexander Oliver), and Brodie (Lea Rose Sebastianis) party in the tranquility of the great outdoors, they are oblivious to their impending doom.  When Troy gives Kris the locket he picked up in the woods, the unstoppable juggernaut lurking in the shadows sets his sights on her, and he’ll destroy her friends to get her.  

Written and directed by seasoned make-up/effects artist Chris Nash (the inventive Psycho Goreman is in his many credits), In a Violent Nature takes a unique approach by putting the viewer in the shoes of the predator rather than hanging out with the prey.  Instead of watching the dumb mistakes a group of unfortunates make as they enter the woods for a deadly weekend, we see the action from the perspective of the monster who will end their lives. An immovable force that attacks and kills with emotionless rage, Nash has provided a figure of terror not unlike terrifying creations of evil in the past. Still, this one will stick with you longer than most because of the vicious acts.

Nash’s history with make-up effects is put to meticulously choreographed use with a stomach-churning level of detail to each kill.  Executed with a display of old-school practical effects that genuinely warmed my heart, the carnage is graphic and committed to its cause.  Even the most hardened horror buffs will find the violence, one in particular, to be pushing the boundaries on the kind of brutality that can be shown on screen.  Unflinchingly realistic, the gore is not for the faint-hearted, with Nash deliberately staying away from the often giddily over-the-top eviscerations that let the audience laugh away the viscera and crunching bones as clearly fake.  

While the performances from the fringe players are serviceable, Barrett is quite haunting as Johnny, even if we spend most of the movie looking at the back of his head or clawing, bloody hands.  The film literally rests on his broad shoulders, and Barrett delivers, showing us a killer driven by supernatural anger.  Pavlovic’s portrayal brings a palpable sense of fear that grounds the film in whatever reality one could imagine In a Violent Nature operating within.  Though the film’s ground rules dictate that it isn’t about finding and creating a Final Girl, someone must fill the role, and Pavlovic slips into the screams nicely.

At a Q&A following the screening I saw at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, editor Alex Jacobs (V/H/S/85) confirmed that In a Violent Nature was filmed twice.  Initially filmed in one location (Ontario’s Kawartha Lakes), the final product didn’t have the appropriate atmosphere the filmmakers wanted, so they traveled to an area closer to the border between Ontario and Michigan to give their ambient horror film a more ominously eerie setting.  For as much time as we spend following Johnny through the unmarked paths and imposing trees (the pace can seem glacial, but it’s forgivable considering what Nash is going for), this slow tracking adds an assured layer of psychological horror as we watch a killer’s calculated actions.

Alas, the film’s momentum and goodwill take a baffling turn in the final act, veering bizarrely off course.  In an interminable sequence (featuring an alum of one of the Friday the 13th sequels), Nash’s film is nearly derailed completely by this oddball detour, which feels like part of a different film entirely or maybe even the opening moments of a sequel.  When you think it’s going right over a cliff, however, Nash swerves quickly and leaves the audience with a humdinger of a final moment that sends you off into the dark, shivering.

Not for the weak of heart or impatient, In a Violent Nature can be a grueling test for the most dedicated horror groupie.  Set apart from the crowd by its intriguing angle of approach and the savagery it gruesomely depicts, it demands your resolve and should reward those who understand what the game plan is.  The final terror comes upon reflection, realizing how little value these films place on human existence.  By showing such raw violence, Nash could be asking us to consider what we cheer for in these movies and if our bloodlust runs parallel to the relentless killing machines doing the butchering.  Or it could all be an exercise in gory excess to delight the late-nite crowd.  Either way, it won’t go down quietly.