‘In A Violent Nature’ is a 2024 Low Sky Productions and Shudder slasher-horror release, written and directed by Chris Nash and starring Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, and Reece Presley. This is one of the multiple Shudder releases within the past couple years to get a theater release, they seem to truly be etching their own name and way in the horror genre and I’m entirely here for it. They’re a great streaming service for horror fans of all types and I want nothing but success for them moving forward. This film in itself was a mixed bag though, there’s plenty I really enjoyed about this movie and there were also moments I felt almost lulled into a comfort and kind of tired or bored at the lack of things happening. It hit both completely opposite ends of the spectrum with the wild in your face brutality, and also quiet and slow, almost still shots of the nature as our main character lumbered his way through the forest. This film was 100% a slasher film. It had the tragic back story for our killer, a cast of sort of cliched kids camping in the woods, a local who knew about the killer and had a plan to put him to rest again, ya know a lot of the natural slasher cliches. The mega difference in this film though is that it puts you in the driver’s seat with the slasher himself, Johnny, and you follow him along his journey as he stalks the people staying within the woods and attempts to retrieve the locket they happened to pick up at an abandoned campsite, unknowingly awakening him. It’s a bold, new, and interesting take and for that I certainly commend Nash and everyone involved for experimenting and trying something fresh within a genre that many things are beaten to death in, literally and figuratively.
There were a lot of third person shots in the movie over the shoulder and behind our main antagonist Johnny, leaves crunching under his feet as he lumbered his massive frame through the woods in search of his next victim. It was a pretty neat shot and cool to kind of put you in the seat with the killer rather than spending the entire time with the group of kids and the killer just shows up to raise hell on the group and pick them off one by one, like the usual in these types of films. My main complaint with that kind of thing is because Johnny strongly resembled another lumbering stalker of the woods, Jason Voorhees. That wasn’t the issue, I actually like how much they paid homage to Friday the 13th films in this movie but spending a lot of your run time with a silent, lumbering, slow, melodically paced killer also has its downfalls. Some of the run time drug as we spent too much time just walking, or in the kids’ case, running through the woods, and the long shots of Johnny walking lulled me into a comfort with the rhymical crunching of his steps and the silent stillness of the woods around him. I can see this being a bit of a hard watch in moments for people who have a hard time keeping their attention on movies anyways, if I was watching this at home instead of in theaters, I’m sure I would’ve felt more inclined to check my phone a time or 2 myself. It’s also not one I’d suggest watching if you’re already feeling the least bit tired, unless you just want something on in the background while you nap. I feel like the concept worked, but we didn’t need to stay on the shots maybe as long as we did at times, but again this is just my opinion, and some people may really enjoy the pacing and cinematography in this film. I will say the some of the still or sweeping shots of the nature, and the setting of these woods, were beautiful at times. It was like watching a nature documentary, but humans were the prey this time.
I do however think the kills and bloodshed that takes place at the hands of Johnny were well shot for the most part here. There’s a specific kill from this movie (the yoga kill is all I’ll say) that I’ve already seen some horror fans hooting and hollering and raving about that is pretty intense. The acting in some of the stalking/kill scenes and some of the interactions between the teens just felt not believable or very good to me at times though, but that almost gave it a bit of a schlocky charm and another nod to the classic slashers of the 80s, like Friday the 13th, but the literal gore in itself was on point and really delivered when it happened. The overall look of Johnny was pretty cool too, donned in a tattered flannel and an old timey fireman’s mask, he looked the part and even the few shots of unmasked Johnny was giving me vibes of one Jason Voorhees. A misunderstood manchild momma’s boy, who’s now a vengeful spirit on a war path of slaughter. Overall, I’d say this movie isn’t perfect, it has its moments that really kind of slogged along and not too much really happens, but that being said it had its moments of backstory exposition dump and classic slasher killings that really pulled me in and captivated my attention as well. I’m sure it won’t be for everyone or even every type of horror fan, but if you consider yourself a bit of a horror connoisseur who likes to check out most things the horror community is going to be talking about and referencing, or if you’re a fan of classic slasher films and/or Friday the 13th then I’d give this one a watch. It feels different and fresh, and it was a neat experiment with the formula, so although not perfect, it is worthwhile and worth the time to see for yourself when you get the chance. It’s still in select theaters for a limited time and will be streaming on Shudder or I’m sure available to purchase on Amazon later this year if you can’t make it to the theater.
