In a Violent Nature
Slasher flick equal parts awesome gore and arty chore.
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As a slasher flick fanatic I was definitely stoked for writer/director Chris Nash’s “In a Violent Nature” (in theaters Friday, May 31 and for my fellow Indy folks – it’s playing as part of a triple bill at The Tibbs Drive-In alongside “The Mutilator” and “Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter” (it wasn’t) this Friday and Saturday night). The movie was heavily hyped for being from the killer’s perspective and it’s definitely that … for both good and ill.
Johnny (Ry Barrett) was accidentally killed as a child in the Canadian wilds by a vengeful lumberjack who was put out of work for a time after injuring himself on one of the kid’s toys. Death didn’t take for Johnny and he grew to become a hulking zombie who haunts the woods in which he perished for generations to come.
Johnny generally lies dormant … unless of course someone snatches the necklace which belonged to his beloved mother. Troy (Liam Leone) dumbly does just this when he and his friends are camping in the woods. Troy’s crew consists of his girlfriend Kris (Andrea Pavlovic), her haunted ex-boyfriend Colt (Cameron Love), randy ladies Aurora (Charlotte Creaghan) and Brodie (Lea Rose Sebastianis) and knuckleheaded dude-bros Ehren (Sam Roulston) and Evan (Alexander Oliver). The whole posse will now perish under Johnny’s axe and chained hooks unless The Ranger (Reece Presley) can intervene on their behalf. My Magic 8 Ball says, “Outlook not so good.” These folks barely even register as grist for the grinder.
Nash certainly makes some interesting choices with “In a Violent Nature.” It’s safe to say 50 percent of the movie consists solely of seeing Johnny walk around from behind like he’s an avatar in a third-person adventure video game. (And you thought that “The Lord of the Rings” lot hiked a bunch!) I’ve seen and heard a bunch of noted names thrown around for who inspired Nash in these segments – among them Michael Haneke, Gus Van Sant and Béla Tarr. That’s all good and well, but the result is a bit boring. Speaking of boring, the end drops the ball BIG TIME when our focus changes from Johnny to final girl Kris. In a nod to Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,” Kris is rescued by a kindly passing motorist (Lauren-Marie Taylor) who proceeds to talk and talk and talk and talk some more. The flick finishes with a fizzle as opposed to a bang. Nash should’ve known better than to conclude as a bore and sent us away with more gore.
Now for the good! Speaking of gore, there’s an awful lot of it (this thing’s unrated after all!) and much of it is awesome (there’s a “Yoga Kill” that’s one for the time capsule). Nash’s crew of special effects artists and sound designers deserve a ton of credit for the bountiful bloodletting and bone breaking. His cinematographer Pierce Derks rocks an overhead shot reminiscent of the Dragon’s Breath shotgun sequence from “John Wick: Chapter 4” that awesomely culminates with Johnny crushing some poor bastard’s skull beneath a boulder. The flick is also frequently surprisingly funny and darkly so.
For as boring as “In a Violent Nature” can be, I’ll give it credit for this: Johnny is the killer and gets his mask in the first movie. We had to wait until the second and third “Friday the 13th” pictures for Jason Vorhees to follow suit.