In the 1980s, after the massive success of the first Friday the 13th picture, woods-set slashers were all the rage. Every year found cinemas scattered with not only sequels to Sean S. Cunningham’s classic, but dozens of low budget ripoffs and wannabes with a masked killer slaying teens and twenty somethings who dared to go for a walk, swim, or have sex. Some were fun, many were bad, but none could be called artistic. While writer-director Chris Nash’s In a Violent Nature isn’t an art piece, the filmmaker shows his love for the slasher genre by crafting an old fashioned horror tale and crafting it with an artful and inventive eye.

Director Nash does something quite interesting with his debut feature. Instead of spending all the time with the victims until they are killed off, the film stays with the killer. The events aren’t seen through his point of view, like most films of this ilk. The camera follows the monstrous slasher along his rampage, tracking behind him and making the audience his witness and unwilling accomplice. We are right next to him every moment as he unleashes his bloody carnage. This creative decision makes for some intense scenes, giving a couple of of them a (dare I say) Hitchcockian feel.

In a Violent Nature begins with a shot of a locket, hanging alone in the woods. The moment stays on the necklace as we hear voices of hikers coming closer. Eventually, the group sees and takes it. As the hikers go about their merry way, so enters the film’s killer, the undead Jason Voorhees-like, Johnny (Ry Barrett). Directly after the necklace is taken, the beastly Johnny rises out of the earth and immediately heads out to kill those who took it.

Director Nash used to work with Canada’s Astron-6, an FX group who respect old fashioned practical effects. Using what he learned, the kills found in this film would make FX master Tom Savini proud. When Johnny lets loose on his poor victims, Nash and his team create some of the most inventive moments of bloodletting in decades, paying respect to the days of homegrown blood and guts horror.

The craziest (and truly one of the best I’ve ever seen) is where Johnny dispatches the group’s yoga enthusiast, using (in a “twisted” way) yoga techniques to assist in his victim’s demise. As one who grew up on practical FX and laments their erosion in the age of CGI, I welcomed this creative kill with open arms. It is something to see!

Paying homage to the days of VHS, Nash and cinematographer Pierce Derks shoot in the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, but don’t present their images in a grainy manner. With the gracefully sinister flow of the camera and the eerie stillness when framing nature and the evil that exists within, Derks expertly captures the oppressive fear of the wooded environment. The serene beauty of the surroundings holds no safety for Johnny’s victims nor the unlucky few they come across. Combined with Tim Atkins and Michelle Hwu’s award-worthy sound design, the filmmakers allow viewers no safe place to hide from the fear.

While Nash’s screenplay is fairly bare bones (and the lackluster final act seems to have been a product of running out of ideas), the film is more than style over substance. The director has crafted something potently creepy, using stylistic choices that enhance the terror in cinematically interesting ways. Every kill will jolt the audience from their seats (and will have gore fans cheering) while the ambient horror atmosphere enshrouds them in a palpable fear.

In a Violent Nature is more than an Eli Roth-type homage to the bloody days of yesteryear that rides the coattails of movie references. Chris Nash and his team refuse to skate by on nostalgia. This crew has gifted the modern scare film with something unique, inventive, and quite effective.

 

In a Violent Nature

Written & Directed by Chris Nash

Starring Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Charlotte Creaghan, Reece Presley, Lauren-Marie Taylor

NR, 94 Minutes, Shudder, Zygote Pictures, Low Sky Productions