In A Violent Nature

Directed by Chris Nash

It’s not often that movies make it to the theater without an official Motion Picture Association of America age rating, a rating system so common that people may mistake it for a government-backed censor board. Even though it kind of functions like that, there isn’t any enforcement branch to the MPAA, so when film producers refuse to abide by these standards and remove violence or sex, or the gays depending on the year, they can release movies without that rating. Usually, this is because the movie has too much graphic sexual content and it got the old dudes on the board too hot and bothered to think straight, but in some cases, like with In A Violent Nature, extreme violence is the culprit, which is so odd considering that violent movies make the film industry billions upon billions of dollars, but god-forbid there’s a bit too much violence. This was all a long-winded way of me introducing In A Violent Nature, an unrated Canadian slasher film distributed by IFC and the good people at Shudder.

Now, there’s a word in that last sentence that may immediately have you rolling your eyes, and I need to say, shame on you, the Canadians are a proud and talented people whose artistic achievements should not be mocked or diminished! I kid, I kid, we all know that word is actually ‘slasher’, a horror subgenre that is more associated with gore, nudity, and general tastelessness than it is with making movies that can be taken seriously. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with any of those associations, I can concede that the slasher subgenre has housed some pretty careless filmmaking. But In A Violent Nature is a stark departure from that, as it is anything but careless.
 
Taking its cues from the classic slashers of yesteryear, In A Violent Nature features a group of students camping in a state park, who run afoul of a cursed slasher villain. The campers have interpersonal issues, make some questionable decisions, and sometimes act like horny fools. Our slasher has no dialogue, commits acts of heinous violence, and has a tragic and shocking origin that makes him slightly sympathetic, or at the very least pitiable. This story is rather standard for slashers, but that’s the beauty of it, this movie isn’t about giving you a different experience by changing the classic setup of a slasher movie, it gives you a different experience by changing the perspective of the film. In A Violent Nature accomplishes this by foregoing the traditional route of following the campers as protagonists, and instead focusing on our slasher, following him and having essentially every scene feature him in some regard.

The idea of having the protagonist of a movie be the slasher isn’t necessarily new, movies like American Psycho and Dream Home (which is an awesome Hong Kong slasher and you should watch it) have explored this. Unlike those movies, In A Violent Nature follows a supernatural slasher, a character archetype usually defined by their mysterious inhuman nature, and In A Violent Nature excels exactly because it is so different. So many aspects here feel like they shouldn’t work, that they purposely break the rules of cinema, succeeding because the filmmakers understood why these rules were in place and how changing them would work. For example, there is no score present, only ambient noise and dialogue. Horror movies traditionally have memorable scores to help the atmosphere, but this film turns that on its head by putting you in the woods, not in a movie theater, by focusing on realistic noises rather than atmospheric music.

Working in tandem with the embrace of ambient noise, the cinematography is shockingly mellow, following our killer at a deliberate pace as he stalks and dispatches the poor folk he comes across. This is where opinions will probably diverge on this film, as I’m sure some traditional slasher fans would look at this and say how ‘boring’ and ‘slow’ this approach is, but I completely disagree. My biggest problem with most old-school slashers is that they had no clue what should happen between the slasher segments, which usually meant there was tons and tons of pointless padding just to hit that 80-minute mark, but instead of padding with unrelated nonsense, In A Violent Nature dives deep into exactly how the slasher slashes. There’s no teleportation, no magic tricks, just a slow deliberate look at how vicious methodical evil plays out. This singular focus puts a unique claustrophobia in a forested setting, making even these wide open spaces seem like nothing but a trap.
 
I made a big deal out of the violence, which did earn that Unrated status, and I can confirm that this movie is quite violent. Most of the kills aren’t beyond a typical modern slasher in terms of how graphic they are, but there is one very memorable kill that is so over the top and excessive that I guarantee that the unwillingness to cut that sequence down is why this movie is Unrated. Even if most of the kills aren’t too out there, the unique filming style and atmosphere, along with the pretty decent practical effects, give more gravity to each moment, something that is either great or terrible, depending on how much you dislike gore.

All of this builds into an interesting final product, one that seems to be a slasher movie made for slasher movie fans for the purpose of experimenting with the formula to see how far it can be stretched before the movie collapses under its own weight. This makes me really like the movie, but it’s also why I would be hesitant to recommend it to a general audience. In A Violent Nature is highly atmospheric and memorable, with a bunch of shocking scenes that are going to stay with me, but I wonder how much of my enjoyment of it was due to me recognizing how the film was explaining slasher tropes or reimagining them in creative ways, and if this would even occur to someone who wasn’t a fan of the subgenre. Regardless, if the movie sounds interesting to you, I recommend you track it down. It received a limited release and may not be in a theater near you, so keep an eye out for it on streaming services, it’ll definitely be on Shudder soon-ish, but others will probably follow. Thanks for reading and I hope you stay safe!