IN A VIOLENT NATURE. A New Level of Horror

What if Gus Van Sant or Terrence Malick made a horror film? Enter “In a Violent Nature”.

A group of young people is spending their vacation at a remote cabin by a lake deep in the wilds of Ontario, Canada. While hiking through the forest, they come across the ruins of a fire watchtower, where they find a medallion hanging from a branch. One of the boys takes the medallion and gives it to his girlfriend, unknowingly releasing an undead monster buried beneath the tower’s remnants. The creature emerges and begins searching for the medallion. Later, around the campfire, another boy tells his friends a terrifying local legend: Decades ago, Johnny, the developmentally delayed son of a local shopkeeper, was lured to the tower by loggers working in the forest. Frightened by a logger hiding at the top of the tower, Johnny fell and died on the spot. Since then, the area has been plagued by a series of unexplained murders, attributed to a vengeful spirit from beyond the grave. Unbeknownst to the group, the monster, clutching an axe, is listening from the bushes. It’s Johnny, seeking to reclaim the medallion.

At first glance, “In a Violent Nature” may seem like any other slasher film: a masked killer, young people falling victim, an isolated camping trip, and extremely brutal killings. The difference lies in its unique approach. Almost the entire film is shown from the perspective of the mute, undead killer, wearing an old fireman’s mask. There are no protagonists capable of resisting him— the characters are classic horror archetypes: the horny jock, the class clown, the final girl, etc. Director and screenwriter Chris Nash stated that the true protagonist of “In a Violent Nature” is the wild Canadian landscape (the film was shot in the Algoma district). And indeed, the film is filled with slow, lingering shots of the killer moving through dense forests. There is no non-diegetic music; the soundtrack is mostly made up of natural sounds, which, combined with the 1.33:1 aspect ratio, creates a claustrophobic atmosphere of isolation in a vast, dangerous wilderness.

Another innovation in Nash’s film is the complete absence of typical slasher jump scares. The viewer almost always knows where Johnny is, as the action unfolds from his viewpoint. If the killer is stalking someone, you can be certain a sudden and brutal death is imminent. Some murders occur off-screen, while others are shown in gory detail, reminiscent of the fatality/brutality moves from the “Mortal Kombat” game series, where the victim is dispatched in the bloodiest way possible (the film reaches peak creativity in the cliffside sequence, though it’s best not to spoil the details). Speaking of games, “In a Violent Nature” also evokes the atmosphere of “Firewatch”, “Dear Esther”, “The Long Dark”, and other walking simulators, where exploring vast environments is only occasionally interrupted by action. It’s unclear if Nash drew inspiration from these games, but he did cite several cinematic influences, most notably the films of Terrence Malick and Gus Van Sant’s “Death Trilogy” (“Gerry” (2002), “Elephant” (2003), “Last Days” (2005)).

To this list, one could add Peter Carter’s “Rituals” (1977) and Sean S. Cunningham’s “Friday the 13th” (1980). The latter connection is underscored by the guest appearance of Lauren Marie-Taylor, who starred in “Friday the 13th Part II” (1981) by Steve Miner. The scenes featuring Taylor are some of the most unsettling in Nash’s film: she plays a woman driving a car who rescues the lone survivor of Johnny’s massacre and tells her a story. The tension is nearly unbearable. Will the killer emerge from the bushes? Will he cause the woman to crash? Or is she somehow connected to Johnny? On-screen, nothing seems to happen, but the anxiety is at its peak—partly because Johnny’s presence has been so strongly felt over the previous 80 minutes that it’s impossible to shake the sense that he’s lurking nearby, ready to resume his terror. Johnny is like a force of nature: unstoppable, unpredictable, and impossible to negotiate with. Since Mark Jenkin’s “Enys Men” (2022), there hasn’t been such an excellent and refreshing horror film.