In a Violent Nature (2024) Review!!

Synopsis – When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it.

My Take – While it looks like the Friday The 13th series is going to be stuck in a limbo for a longer time (you can read all about the recent developments regarding the prequel series online), for his feature directorial debut writer-director Chris Nash, known for his work on the segment ‘Z is for Zygote‘ in ABCs of Death 2 (2014), aims to fill the big Jason Voorhees void in our lives with his own killer in the woods. Only with a twist.

Instead of adopting the usual perspective of focusing on a group of teens, the film flips the slasher genre by taking us through the perspective of the killer. Making it a very unique slasher in terms of its filming, storytelling, and overall cinematography. Without a doubt, the horror elements here are top-notch, featuring some of the goriest kill scenes I’ve probably ever seen.

However, while the concept sounds interesting on paper, it unfortunately does not translate too well on screen. In an attempt to breathe new life into the genre, director Nash brings a slow art-house style to the traditional horror setup resulting in excessively long sequences of walking or running through the woods with nothing happening. While it gives a realistic feel to how a real serial killer might operate, and their victims, the approach complete sucks the tension out of the whole film.

Sure, I am all for a slow pace, provided it is done for the sake of building pressure or leading to a great payoff, but here everything is simply tedious. Most of the sequences genuinely went on for so long and so repetitively at times that I particularly thought I was watching a satire.

Yes, there are a fun ideas throughout, yet only few of them seem to quite gel with one another. As the fresh take on a worn-out premise runs thin by the end, the rest ends up being a confused mixture of the slasher genre’s worst tendencies.

Indeed, I can appreciate what director Nash was trying to do here, I just wish he had aimed at also providing entertainment, something which slashers are known for irrespective of their quality, instead of making something new just for the sake of being new.

The story follows Johnny (Ry Barrett), a vengeful spirit, who was long buried and dormant under a fire tower deep in the woods, that is until the small locket hanging a splintered board over his resting place is taken by one member of a group of young men, heading back to the young women they’ve left at a campsite. Once awakened, the reanimated Johnny walks the woods to retake his trinket and brutally kills anyone who gets in the way. Coming upon a campground where a group has gathered to party and talk about an urban legend that just might be about Johnny, the carnage begins to increase.

Here, director Chris Nash clearly aims to pay homage to the low-budget ’80s slashers, both a nod to the past and a savage re-imagining for the modern era. But unlike other slasher films, the film spends very little time developing anything or anyone. Instead of empathizing with the group of coeds trying to survive this murderer, the action is almost solely focused on Johnny, but only in following him. Where the film really struggles is with the concept itself.

On paper, the idea of taking the slasher’s point of view sounds novel, but in practice, it isn’t as enjoyable as it sounds. Much of the time spent with Johnny is spent watching him walk around from place to place. Perhaps there is a reason why other slasher films haven’t attempted this concept, and one reason could be how this approach hurts the pacing. A serious determent for a horror film.

While this change in perspective is more than just a gimmick, where the film really shines is in the gory details. The attention to detail is astounding and the practical effects work is some of the most effective seen in a while. Even some of the more pedestrian kill scenes are elevated by how stellar the effects work is, even if it does veer into the realm of the absurd by the time the last kill rolls around.

One kill in particular takes the violence to a fever pitch. The use of traditional tools of death, such as a hatchet and drag hooks, lends a brutal authenticity to Johnny’s rampage. Especially with there being no music or score present at all in the entire film, these visuals succeed at creating a certain kind of visceral terror that’s not easy to shake off.

Even the main antagonist’s design is one of the things the film gets very right. To director Chris Nash’s credit, his monster’s screen presence works exactly as intended as Johnny stands tall as an effectively terrifying film monster, one that could easily gain his own little cult following in time.

Unfortunately, all of this culminates in a disappointing finale. After following the killer so closely for the entirety of the film, the film suddenly shifts its focus to another character’s perspective with little narrative justification. It seems as if the conclusion is building up to some twist, instead, ending on a dissatisfying final note.

Performance wise, Ry Barnett makes for an imposing figure, while Andrea Pavlovic is decent as the final girl. In other roles, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, Timothy Paul McCarthy and Lauren-Marie Taylor get the job done. On the whole, ‘In A Violent Nature’ is a visceral and brutal slasher experience that fails to captivate throughout.