The most interesting aspect of Chris Nash’s hyperviolent slasher experiment, “In a Violent Nature”, is that it is not scary. At least not in the way that say, the films that he seems to be trying to emulate, for example, would leave ‘Friday the 13th’ movies with the same disfranchising impression. There are no high points, little surge in heart rate, and there is really no mystery as to who will turn out to be the final girl. And yet somehow, particularly because it subverts the whole purpose of a slasher film, “Violent Nature” goes on to become one of the most fascinating, and rather tranquil enjoyable horror films of the year. This is precisely the same thing that the movie aims to recreate: What a normal day for Jason Voorhees looks like a regular man with the spirit of a demon wanting to mess things up, torment people, and rip them apart.
Despite its apparent straightforwardness, the shooting in Ontario courtesy of an anthropologist’s lens depicts the movie “In a Violent Nature” in an eloquent light. There is an overarching sense of suspense in the movie as it revolves around a horror killer known as ‘Johnny,’ who blood feasts on unfortunate souls in the form of truckers, teens, and park rangers. The opening scene presents a pair of whispering voices exploring the Canadian wilderness with the intent of uncovering more behind the charity locket. They call the event the ‘White Pines massacre and the locket is the object that they have hoped to fetch. Although in the later half the characters do remove the locket, the edit penniless layer of mud and leaves into the picture indicating the locket is valuable. In the later scenes, he stands up and quietly begins strolling through the woods, chasing after the locket that was taken away by a group of screaming teenagers.
Though this is an easily identifiable form, the twist and the way it is done places it within a Malick form of filmmaking. For a large portion of its runtime, it is quite fair to say, that ‘In a Violent Nature’ is more walk time than any other activity, Pearl Derk’s camera(inside the collar standard 4:3 camera ratio) tracks Johnny as he wanders the forests between trees in search of fresh kill which takes the camerawork to another level adding a game type over the shoulder perspective of the cool camera which now gently swivels to behind the protagonist. These segments are silent, still, and paradoxically comforting, the game ‘Dead by Daylight’ through the prism of A24 cinema. Quite rarely does the camera shift from the first-person viewpoint of the character known as MCIA 0D (“Johnny”), and even less often do we witness the actress’s face: through deformed and blotched amalgamation, his cut hands are filled with anger and sorrow’s embers.
A unique aspect of the game is the storyline and the plot in the game. The United States of America society-centric plot does not stop at restricting the fandom to solely America as even the fans from other countries have the potential to adore the rich storyline it has to offer. Now turning towards the viewer keeping in mind his inability to purchase the game firsthand, we delve deeper into the game. The story follows Johnny Garson, the respectful son of a powerful mafia family after which he is turned into a boy seeking vengeance. Such displays of terrorism can successfully win the sympathy of the audience where Americans in the post-apocalyptic world are showcased as the antagonists and so on. The history of America is explored greatly in the stories as well. Grabbers and Blooddemon offer an interesting juxtaposition as they portray America as a fallen society with Americans stuck in the ruins of Western civilization.
Now adding cherry to the cake is The US of America band of PAK who are incendiaries on the stage, combining charismatic vocals with dynamic game lore. However, concerning the interaction, it is somewhat lacking as they tend to run with a script. Texas replaced the familiar Johnny, who was great at improvisation and free voice acting. To the aforementioned, verbal coherence should be tied, so if there are sparkles and accents, it feels hollow. Reece Presley who worked as a park ranger saves children from a monster. Towards the end when America is portrayed as an unforgiving land, he is shown to be an antagonist throughout the rest of the story.
It’s a bit shocking, but we have Johnny with us so it’s pretty easy to know where he is, where he is going, and when he plans to move. There are, of course, some jump scares; but we do need them because it can be really truly terrifying to see two people arguing at a cabin in the woods or while socializing at a poolside. A fish has a grotesque head while kindling acts as a pruner that would “attempt” to cut the head off slowly, a beer-lunging lover truly got carried away there; an electric saw was worn around as every sane person would envision. Or sometimes even better because, as Johnny says, our character is truly bloodthirsty. However, what really stands out is how creative they are about it those awkward moments tend to stick around longer when Johnny targets him and approaches at a slow but steady pace. Some kid tries to hit him while others simply ignore him. But why do glasses give people headaches? Nash intends to highlight this from the onset.
In “Violent Nature”, we started with a premise that was nuanced and edgy. Even the runtime was aggressive, and it never felt as though other films endeavoring originality would be able to overtake “Violent Nature”. This impression is quite desirable with Nash at the forefront since more intriguing segments of the character do show up where scenes of him handing strength to somebody depict the events in that. It was predictable that he was going to survive. Now All of these constitute a fascinating idea, and some aspects of this sequence do work, such as Nash’s anti-rug pullover a standard drive away from a typical shady crime site, combined with Lauren Marie Taylor’s mysterious character. On the other hand, the film’s primary idea does in fact prevent us from even collecting the first ideas about what this woman represents, or what the background of her streets somehow looms to be, which given the trash time frame of the film is in wait of up to two minutes maximum feels like a terribly missed opportunity, which is why almost everyone expects that the entire movie is about to end not until that slightly backward appeal together with that stealth hint pushes into the picture. In this way, it becomes hard for professionals to tell what came first in their anticipation of the action of Johnny’s agility with the axe.
I had a violent nature close to myself because it is a film that even with an enormous amount of blood manages to maintain a great sense of detail in its environment which is commendable for a young director.
Is the creative approach of this movie going to remain refreshing I have serious doubts in this context. Despite the outcome, this is a remarkable demonstration of Nash’s rational, strategic intelligence and perhaps the beginning of a new era for him.
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