For a subgenre as deceptively straightforward and formula driven as the slasher, time has proven it to be a tenaciously versatile style of horror. The elements of killer, victims and kills offer a broad canvas, with sweeping influences ranging from giallo’s hyper-stylized mysteries and suspense of the ‘60s and 70s to the comedic meta-awareness of the ‘90s which all provide a plethora of paint for the canvas. Between the thriving longevity of Chucky and the Child’s Play franchise to the recent indie super-success of Terrifier, the subgenre’s future looks bright. Sadly though, it’s a future where horror’s most famous hockey-masked icon won’t be stalking the big screen any time soon. Still, even though it’s been 15 years since Jason Voorhees appeared in anything new (except for now, uh, MultiVersus), his spirit lives on in Chris Nash’s In A Violent Nature.
If you enter Nash’s film expecting a reimagining or critique of the genre, you might leave disappointed. This may be a minimalistic deconstruction of the slasher, but it’s still unabashedly and unapologetically a slasher with college-aged partiers in the woods, asshole kill fodder and spectacularly violent deaths. At its core, In A Violent Nature is a love letter to the classic formula—and to Friday the 13th—in all its glory, while also reframing those elements through a different stylistic lens.
A necklace hanging from a ruined fire tower slides into view, and the voices of hikers discussing a local legend can be heard off screen before they take the relic. The traditional slasher perspective departs by pushing the hikers to the fringes of the frame, focusing instead on the hulking Johnny (Ry Barrett) as he rises from the dirt to stalk and slay. The camera mostly watches from behind his rotting shoulders, and the ensuing 90 minutes unfold at the lurking deliberate pace of its Jason-like revenant, whose performance specifically draws from Kane Hodder’s iconic embodiment of the character. Heavy footfalls and forest sounds take the place of a score, and the 1:33 aspect ratio accentuates Johnny’s presence within the lush Ontario wilderness.
Exposition drifts in by way of campfire tales and other characters who provide the slight backstory of angry loggers and a handicapped child killed in an accident—more familiar genre beats—but in the absence of fleshed-out victims, the narrative becomes distilled to the silent unnatural drive of its undead force of nature. Is Johnny a roaming angry predator awoken from slumber? A mythic entity forever stuck in the young mindset from when he died? Shot with a distant coldness and divorced from a bombastic soundtrack, In A Violent Nature mines suspense from Johnny’s trudging treks. A lake sequence recalls many a Friday the 13th set-piece—see the Final Chapter’s raft ambush or the 2009 remake’s pier stabbing—but allows the camera to linger on unaware victims while its killer approaches below the surface. At times, the most outrageous kills even take on the air of a child’s curious play, mirroring a scene where Johnny is entranced by a toy car found in the woods.
Clad in a menacing vintage firefighter mask and wielding chained drag hooks with as much body-annihilating creativity as Jason’s machete, In A Violent Nature’s killer never strays from the slasher playbook and neither does anyone else in the film. Up until a subdued finale that immerses the audience in the final girl headspace instead of Johnny’s, Nash’s script reduces everyone to archetypal blandness and genre cliches. The focus on the voiceless killer becomes a blessing whenever the plot for its living, breathing characters enters the foreground. At best, those scenes become an endurance of stilted line deliveries. At worst, they’re a reminder of why fans often root for the killers.
Equally gradually paced and explosively splattery, In A Violent Nature relishes in genre tropes both fun and frustrating: terrible dialogue, fist-pumping practical kills, derivative plot and striking killer design. Nash delivers the expected joys of the slasher formula while turning the camera askew to imbue well-trodden style with a fresh artistic approach. Slasher fans longing for the return of Jason Voorhees have the next best thing right here.
Photo courtesy of IFC Films
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