In a Violent Nature wants you to question everything you know about slashers

In a Violent Nature. // Courtesy IFC Films/Shudder

By now you’ve likely read enough of The Pitch’s indie horror reviews to know that we’re big fans of artists who take risks and bring new perspectives to tired tropes. The last few years have seen a wave of outstanding examples from experimental and abstract (Skinamarink) to ambitious, endearing filmmaking (One Cut of the Dead) to folk horror (Enys Men) and animation (Mad God). Now there’s a new addition to the growing pile: writer-director Chris Nash’s In a Violent Nature, which tests the audience and questions our enjoyment of onscreen violence by flipping the script of traditional slashers.

The film begins like any Friday the 13th knockoff: A group of college kids camping in the woods stumble on a ramshackle structure, the site of a legendary decades-old slaughter. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s a haunted necklace in that old burned-out fire tower that activates a Jason-esque undead killer buried below. One of these horny idiots grabs the cursed bauble to give to his girlfriend. You can guess what happens next.

Here’s what’s different about this scene, and In a Violent Nature as a whole: instead of framing the speaking characters, the camera focuses (in a figurative sense that is, the image is pretty blurry) on the ruined ground around them. That’s because this movie doesn’t belong to the doomed libidinous dummies. It belongs to Johnny (Ry Barrett), the single-minded killer who’s ready to enact revenge on those foolish enough to take what isn’t theirs.

In a Violent Nature isn’t the first movie to look at a slasher from the killer’s perspective. A lot of you right now are probably clamoring that Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon already trod similar territory. But while that film used mockumentary to dissect the genre, Nash’s movie is more direct, and more sincere (but still very funny—Nash worked on effects for Psycho Goreman, and this movie shares that one’s brutal sense of humor and plentiful practical gore). Comprised mainly of long takes that follow Johnny as he lumbers through the forest, the film takes on an ambient quality that ramps up the tension and existential dread with each snapped branch, bird call or far-off scream.

Barrett cuts an appropriately imposing figure as Johnny, making the character hulk, stagger and fester just the way you’d expect a hook-wielding spirit of revenge to do, especially after he dons an old mining mask to complete his look. Nash’s approach to Johnny’s story also lends him unexpected empathy. He may be rage and retribution personified, but there’s an argument to be made that he’s a soul in pain, merely lashing out at the nearest target, whether or not that action is warranted.

Nash is deliberate in his filmmaking choices, pulling from arthouse sources like Michael Haneke’s Funny Games and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant as much as the likes of My Bloody Valentine, Sleepaway Camp and Halloween. The sound design by Tim Atkins and Michelle Hwu, Pierce Derks’ cinematography and Alex Jacobs’ masterful editing also play pivotal roles in making the atmosphere work, mixing the tragic, horrific and darkly funny to effective results.

In a Violent Nature. // Courtesy IFC Films/Shudder

The film isn’t without a couple of stumbles. There are a couple of instances where Nash abandons the killer’s perspective to view the story through a more traditional lens, which is good for momentum in key moments, but messes with continuity. Those moments also highlight a second issue: the perspective we’re getting is interesting, but it has its limits. Even at 93 minutes, a few scenes drag—Johnny isn’t exactly a fast killer, and sometimes that’s glaringly apparent, though Nash still ends things on a perfect coda.

In a Violent Nature is a successful exercise, but it probably won’t launch a new filmmaking trend. Its unique take on the genre defies copying; this is a take that doesn’t leave much in the tank for others to follow. It also plays very much into current trends that mimic the aesthetic of old-school slashers (and no small number of arthouse responses to those films) with reverence and appreciation. Nash is making something new out of something old at a time when the cry for originality is almost deafening.

In a Violent Nature is currently playing at Screenland Armour.