80s slasher icon Jason Voorhees has become the stuff of legend through the years and while the poster child for Camp Crystal Lake was hardly the first killer of his kind (Leatherface, Billy, and Michael all got their start in the decade prior), he certainly cemented the popularity of a subgenre that would become hugely influential. Chris Nash’s new film, IN A VIOLENT NATURE, puts a bit of an experimental art house spin on the quintessential slasher movie and it’s the kind of spin that’s sure to divide rabid horror fans.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE follows the legend of Johnny, an entombed rotting corpse who rises from the dead after several decades with one thing on his mind; Kill anyone who happens to be in his path. In the case of this movie, it’s a handful of prerequisite twenty-somethings. There’s a little more to it but that’s basically the gist of it.
What separates this film from the subgenre it’s riffing on is that IN A VIOLENT NATURE is mostly told from Johnny’s point of view. And when I say that, I’m not suggesting that this movie is simply a collection of substandard POV shots from Johnny’s perspective. That would just be more of the same. No, IN A VIOLENT NATURE takes the proceedings a maddening step further by offering large stretches of screen time in which a hulking (and oddly sympathetic) Johnny wanders aimlessly through the woods. And when I say “large stretches,” I mean several minutes at a time.
This is to say that IN A VIOLENT NATURE owes just as much to the “Wandering” phase of Gus Van Sant’s long-running career (think GERRY, LAST DAYS, and ELEPHANT) as it does to the legendary slasher films of old. And this is where some hardcore horror fans might get turned off by this movie. There’s no doubt that some viewers will also question the inclusion of a somewhat long-winded conclusion which, in addition to being uncharacteristically chatty, also features a familiar face from the world of slasher horror. It’s a nice touch even if, again, it’s all a bit long winded. What did I make of the film as a whole? Well, I have my issues with it but overall, I liked it… To a certain degree.
What might that “degree” be? The gore and kills, of course. There are a few impressive sequences to speak of (a wood splitter set piece and an extended over-head oner among them) but the one that’s sure to get horror fans talking most involves a young woman doing Yoga, out in the middle of nowhere, cliffside. Simply put, it’s a creative, brutal, over-the-top all-timer.
Following the Sundance screening I attended, Nash was on hand for a lengthy and insightful discussion about the film. He spoke openly about his decision to go the arthouse route with IN A VIOLENT NATURE and in fact, he seemed even more gleeful about the maddening nature of the “aimlessly wandering” portions of the film then that of the extreme kills and gore on display. Whatever the case may be, I have to hand it to him; He made the movie he wanted to make.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE will call Shudder its home. It’s set to drop on the popular horror streaming service later this year where fans will get to decide for themselves if the gore rises above the wandering. I was fortunate to speak with Shudder’s ace curator Sam Zimmerman a little bit about his thoughts as I bumped into him a couple of times throughout the festival. He’s quite enthusiastic about the film and upon bearing witness to that Yoga kill, it’s easy to see why. Ultimately, IN A VIOLENT NATURE is a mixed bag, but there’s no doubt that it’s a slice of unconventional slasher horror that’s sure to get viewers talking.
