When I heard there was a slasher movie making waves at Sundance this year I was instantly interested. When I learned that TIFF's Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky was one of the producers behind it my excitement only grew. In a Violent Nature is set to release on Shudder later in the year, but is currently out in limited theatrical release and I would highly recommend to huge fans of the horror genre.
Written and directed by Chris Nash, the film follows a young group of friends camping at a cabin in the woods, only to be picked off one by one by a Jason Voorhees-style undead killer. On the surface it's a very standard slasher, but this film takes a twist on tradition as we follow the killer for most of the runtime rather than the young victims.
This is a film that definitely won't work for everyone. There is a reason that we don't follow these voiceless monsters often, as much of the early runtime is just our killer walking around in the woods. Up until late in the film it's largely him roaming around, then delivering a crazy kill, then walking around some more. It's certainly a film that tests your patience, and if someone watched this and thought it was boring I could see where they're coming from, but I had a blast with this deconstruction of the genre.
As a big horror fan, I've gotten used to gore, so I actually found a lot of the film super relaxing. There's a soothing element to the killer's slow stomping through the woods, and knowing where he is takes away the edge of your seat tension of a typical horror movie. This isn't a bad thing though, it's a lot of fun waiting in anticipation rather than fear of when he is going to strike, and the kills here are worth the price of admission alone. One kill in particular is an all timer for the genre, a disgusting a crazily drawn out piece of violence with some magnificent practical effects. The film is also pretty gorgeous aside from the blood and guts, as the Canadian wilderness makes for a great backdrop and there are moments throughout of some stunning cinematography from Pierce Derks. I also just have to applaud the patience in the filmmaking. There is maybe a bit too much of the killer walking around, but when it comes to many of the kill scenes I loved how drawn out they were, leaving you knowing exactly what's to come and delivering a satisfying end well worth that patience.
If you go into this movie expecting something amazing from a story or acting standpoint you'll be disappointed. Narratively this is about as standard as they come, and while the acting isn't bad, it's largely surface level to emphasize the focus on the killer. The characters aside from the killer are hardly fleshed out at all, aside from one of them wanting to meet up with some "gas station girls" and a couple clearly having some relationship drama, but in this kind of horror movie the killer rarely gets to know any of its fodder so in the context of this film it makes sense that we hardly get to know them.
One thing I actually really appreciated about the film is how much the ending makes a case for the importance of us not following the killer. I was having a great time watching him go about his massacre, but for the last bit of the film we follow the final girl rather than the killer. All it takes is not knowing where he is for the first time in the film for the tone to go from almost relaxing to ridiculously tense. Every moment of the last 15 or so minutes of the film has the underlying fear of where the killer is going to pop up which plays brilliantly in contrast to us always knowing where he is.
All in all, I understand if this isn't your cup of tea. This is one largely for the big horror fans looking for a fresh deconstruction of the genre, and I don't see it working for those who are deeply ingrained in horror and its history. That being said, I really enjoyed it, I went in expecting to appreciate what this team was going for but I ultimately found it to be way more clever than I anticipated. It's at times brutally violent, at times super soothing, and at times hilarious, I really enjoyed this.
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