Film review: In A Violent Nature

It’s a curious idea that demands some level of craft. Can Nash can pull off a horror movie when we are following and witnessing the killer? Can he avoid being sadistic? Can there be suspense if one knows where the threat is? Do you care about those who are going to die if you’re seeing them through the lens of an entity that doesn’t? Those are valid questions about the nature of horror film enjoyment that Nash only tangentially addresses as he fights hard to hold the tension between the rules of the genre and his own philosophical ideas.

The story is very bare bones. A young camper finds a curious locket in the woods, unaware that the object grounds the undead rotting corpse of Johnny (Ry Barrett), a deformed victim of a violent seven-decade-old crime. Johnny, a towering brute whose face is predominantly out of focus or inside an ominous old-school firefighting mask, slowly makes his way through the future with an axe and a bunch of hooks to find (and violently kill) the people who stole the locket. That’s as far as it goes. Nash literally follows Johnny through the woods, camera behind his back like the beginning of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant. We barely register the victims. They are purposely stereotypical characters from horror slashers with non-memorable names and even more forgettable faces.

It’s a frame that works because Nash sticks to the concept thoroughly. He positions the camera perfectly behind Johnny, lets the shots linger longer than expected, and paces the film in a quiet crescendo. The dialogue is almost diegetic, laughably bad by design as if it were lifted from the forgotten back of a video rental store in the 1980s and we just stumbled into it accidentally. For a good chunk of the film, we slowly accompany this creature, who we barely relate to, whose face we only see once, as it trudges along from victim to victim.

And when it gets to its victim, it tends to deliver the goods. As experimental as In A Violent Nature tries to be, it still knows its audience and does its best to give some gory violence. Most of the deaths are gruesome, almost cartoonish. A particular one is so brutal and gnarly it reminded me of Bone Tomahawk‘s infamous wishbone scene but elevated to an impossible standard of contortionist body horror. I didn’t just wince watching it; I squirmed, laughed, and couldn’t wait to see the reaction of other viewers.

Nash develops exciting ideas about our morbid interest in fictional horror. Near the end, he pulls a final trick I would not dare to spoil. It works to reposition our enjoyment of what we saw before although it doesn’t stick the landing. It makes sense in theory, but even a seasoned and experienced filmmaker would have struggled to pull it off, and Nash, who signs his first feature here, shows his inexperience. It is slightly disappointing because I understand what he was trying to make, and he should have taken a bit longer to sharpen the script and storyboard.

And that is the problem behind In A Violent Nature. Many of its missteps come from Nash’s inexperience in handling such a complex idea. His camera is mainly in the right place, he refreshingly shoots everything like an award-winning American indie, but the film lacks a layered atmosphere and editing that could elevate Nash’s long sequences. There are some crummy details I suspect are intentional to mirror the style of the genre. Yet so much of the film goes out of its way to put the audience on the other side of the story that it doesn’t come across as self-referential, merely cheap. Nash is simultaneously trying to break the rules of the slasher genre while winking at his audience when indulging in those same rules.

It’s still a rewarding experience for fans of the genre. It’s unapologetically made for horror nerds in need of a new buzz. And it’s never overly sadistic like Damien Leone’s Terrifier; for Nash knows the “film” part in “horror film” is just as important.

Verdict: 3 out of 5

For the horror nerd with a fondness for slashers. I know there is a solicitor out there with a hidden copy of Fangoria between files. This one’s for you.