IN A VIOLENT NATURE (2024)

Studio:   IFC Films/Shudder
Director: Chris Nash
Writer:   Chris Nash
Producer: Peter Kuplowsky, Shannon Hanmer
Stars:    Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, Lauren Taylor

Review Score:

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Summary:

Inadvertently resurrected when campers remove a necklace from his gravesite, a supernatural killer embarks on a gruesome murder spree in the Canadian woods.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

While on a camping getaway with his girlfriend Kris and their friends Colt, Evan, Ehren, Aurora, and Brodie, Troy swipes a necklace hanging on a pole in the ruins of a burned-out fire tower. Unbeknownst to Troy, removing the pendant resurrects supernatural killer Johnny, whose body was buried with the pole thrust through him and whose spirit was tied to the site by the necklace. A flashback later shows the pendant was given to Johnny by his father as a memento of Johnny's dead mother.

Johnny stalks his way to a farmhouse where he pursues and then kills a rude farmer named Chuck. Inside Chuck's house, Johnny recovers a gold necklace, although it turns out to not be the one he is now searching for.

As night falls, Johnny secretly stalks a campfire where Ehren tells the other six friends a ghost story about Johnny and "The White Pine Slaughter." According to urban legend, the surrounding forest was a lucrative logging operation 70 years ago, and Johnny's father exploited lumberjacks by charging exorbitant fees for the equipment his store sold. The lumberjacks used Johnny to take out their frustrations, culminating in a prank that caused Johnny to fall to his death from the fire tower. The lumberjacks put a fireman's mask on Johnny to make it look as if he were playing and fell on his own. Johnny's dad confronted the men and ended up killed, too. One week later, everyone in the logging camp was found dead. A witness reported seeing a man in a mask, leading some to wonder if Johnny's spirit somehow sought revenge.

Johnny kills Ehren while he is alone in the woods. After sawing off the top of his head, Johnny drags Ehren's remains to a ranger station where Johnny recovers a vintage fireman's mask and drag hooks from a historical display.

The next day, Johnny drowns Brodie after Aurora leaves her to swim by herself. Johnny then brutally kills Aurora with his drag hooks before kicking her body off a cliff.

Troy, Kris, and Colt have a jealous argument that ends with Kris and Colt going to the ranger station on their own, leaving Troy with Evan. Johnny rigs a car horn to lure Troy outside. Johnny hacks at Troy's leg with an ax, but he is stopped when Evan shoots him to the ground with a shotgun. Johnny recovers while Evan tries to help Troy limp away. Johnny throws an ax into the back of Evan's head, killing him. Johnny then smashes Troy's head with a large rock, but he is frustrated to learn the necklace, which he previously saw Troy handing at the campfire, is no longer in Troy's possession.

Having discovered Ehren's mutilated body at the ranger station, Kris and Colt return with the intent of warning their friends there is a killer on the loose. Johnny sees Kris wearing his necklace. Kris and Colt escape from Johnny on an ATV.

Kris and Colt make it back to the ranger, who warns that Johnny will come to kill them all because the necklace was removed from his gravesite. The ranger further explains that his father killed Johnny at the conclusion of the original massacre, and the ranger killed Johnny again when he returned ten years ago.

Johnny arrives to confront Kris, Colt, and the ranger. The ranger shoots Johnny to the ground. Colt hesitates when he's tasked with restraining Johnny's body with chains, allowing Johnny a moment to wrestle away the ranger's gun. Kris and Colt flee. Johnny snaps the ranger's spine and uses a log-splitting machine to decapitate him while he is still conscious.

Johnny kills Colt after finding him in the forest. Kris leaves the necklace on a gas canister and flees further into the woods.

The following day, Kris flags down a woman in a passing truck. The woman drives away with Kris, but she later stops to tend to a bad leg injury Kris suffered in her escape. While the woman works on her wound, Kris stares with concern into the trees. The camera cuts and pans to show the necklace is no longer on the gas canister, indicating Johnny returned to rest.

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Review:

Have you ever watched a "Halloween" movie and wondered what Michael Myers was up to during the many minutes he wasn't featured onscreen? Or maybe a "Friday the 13th" sequel had you wishing for a better look at exactly how Jason Voorhees moved so effortlessly from a secret hiding spot to being directly in the path of a fleeing victim?

That's the gimmick of "In a Violent Nature," a slasher film that takes place entirely from the killer's perspective, except for an uneventful ending that suddenly, oddly ignores the premise. "From the killer's perspective" doesn't mean "In a Violent Nature" is "found footage" shot in first-person to give viewers the killer's eyes. Rather, the movie takes a third-person approach by keeping its camera behind the killer's back or within his arm's reach as he stomps, stalks, and slaughters his way through a forest filled with unsuspecting campers.

By design, "In a Violent Nature's" slender story includes many hallmarks of classic slasher horror. Everywhere you look, you'll see countless similarities intended to echo the origins and M.O.s of virtually every cinematic psychopath to ever chop through teens, trees, and tropes.

According to local legend, a prank gone wrong led to a bullied boy's accidental death on the site of a logging business 70 years ago. The lumberjacks responsible for killing both the boy, Johnny, and his father ended up viciously butchered. A witness saw someone in an old fireman's mask carving up the men, leading some to wonder if Johnny's spirit somehow returned for revenge from beyond the grave.

In customary horror hero fashion, Johnny remains tied to the ground where he originally died by a necklace his father gave him as a memento of Johnny's dead mother. Leave it to Troy, the least-liked friend among a septet of campers, to greedily swipe the gold jewelry for his girlfriend, unknowingly unleashing Johnny for another blood-soaked murder spree. Intent on recovering the stolen pendant so he can be put back at peace, Johnny becomes a brutality-fueled buzzsaw whose new rampage aims to make his original massacre look like mere child's play.

In being a rare slasher film that follows its action from over the killer's shoulder, "In a Violent Nature" inadvertently illustrates why we probably don't see this concept more often. It turns out there's a good reason for horror movies to regularly swing the lens away from Michael, Jason, and Johnny whenever they're not making mayhem. It's because what they're usually doing in between decapitations isn't terribly intriguing.

"In a Violent Nature" features quite a lot of Johnny just walking around. When I say, "a lot," I mean a lot. No seriously, it's a lot. However much you're guessing it is, it's more. A lot more. Come up with a conservative number of minutes you think it is, double that, and you're probably halfway to the actual total. That's how much of this movie consists of Johnny merely traveling from one point to another.

The movie's ardent admirers argue tedium is part of the point. "In a Violent Nature" deconstructs the slasher formula not for purposes of parody or academic study, but to flip the format so familiarity is seen from a different angle. As an intention, that's all well and good. Put into practice, partnering a viewer with the killer deflates the typical tension that comes from not knowing where evil lurks or what it intends.

I'm all for a leisurely stroll through nature, but when it comes in the form of a film supposedly telling a terror tale, I need more pop than what the back of a man's head against a forest background provides. Gorehounds should at least get some pop out of the creative kills, which include one I don't believe I've seen before (involving drag hooks and Johnny's victim on a cliff), and which are gruesome enough to wind up the movie's energy until the respites in between wear it down once again.

At a minimum, "In a Violent Nature" will be remembered as "that slasher from the masked murderer's POV." As such, it's something longtime fright fans should see simply for the relative novelty, although I can't imagine the movie having the pull to be an evergreen entry viewers will crave to watch again and again. Better than a majority of indie slashers on similarly low budgets, "In a Violent Nature" remains interesting as an experiment, and I'm appreciative of writer/director Chris Nash daring to do something different in a subgenre that can always use a clever shot in the arm. If there's a sequel, I just hope there's more story than setup next time so the follow-up doesn't also feel like a film filled with entirely too much B-roll.

Review Score: 55

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