In A Violent Nature (2024)
a review by Evan Landon
It's been a while since Jason Voorhies has shown his hockey mask since the schlock we got with Jason X (or Jason Goes To Space), so I suppose this will have to do for the time being. That being said, I should probably do a review of the Hatchet series because that was spectacular, but I'm getting off topic.
In A Violent Nature is a 2024 horror flick of the slasher variety from the twisted mind of newcomer Chris Nash who wrote and directed this art/grindhouse gore-fest. Everyone in this a newcomer, as a matter of fact. None of the cast had been in anything of relevance either, aside from Lauren-Marie Taylor who had a somewhat forgettable death in Friday The 13th Part 2, but I don't think she really counts because she does not show up until the end to pad the run time with one of the most inane monologue that had nothing to do with anything that happened. Nash went on record to say he did that on purpose to show how awkward it would be to pick up a hitchhiker after everything that person had been through, which I don't understand at all.
Now, I am absolutely certain that I am not the only person who felt like this movie dragged a lot (of bodies), but that was that arthouse vibe Nash was looking for and probably how it was screened first in the notorious “Midnight” program at the prestigious Sundance Festival in Utah earlier this year. I swear, the entire movie felt like a walkthrough of that Friday The 13th video game that came out a few years ago where you play the game from Jason's perspective. The “time jumps” that take place even makes it feel like he is teleporting like he does in the game mimicking the uncanny way Jason could in the movies.
The excruciatingly simple plot matters not in the least here, but I doubt anyone who loves this style of horror gives a shit. It is all about the slayings and there are some pretty memorable ones. There are also a couple of lame ones too, so that kind of evens out. This is also our first introduction to our character through the eavesdropping of the group of partying stoners off in the distance that, again, is reminiscent of hearing the victims off in the distance of the Friday The 13th game I mentioned earlier, so there is nothing invested there. You get maybe a couple of lines of useful exposition; the rest is following your undead killer trudging through the woods to only the sounds of the Canadian wilderness to keep his lumbering view company.
Have I mentioned there is no score? Yeah. There is zero music, aside from the cheesy, generic shit one of them is playing at the campfire in the beginning. That's all you get. The fact there is no score and the tedious monologue that goes nowhere before the film abruptly ends is so reminiscent of No Country For Old Men, so if you were missing some of the kills on camera from that film, you can make up for it all with this one.
In A Violent Nature is hardly an award-winning film and the plot is almost non-existent, so you give absolutely no shits for the victims in the slightest. The kills are pretty gnarly though and the “3rd person shooter”-esque approach to the filmmaking is kind of original, but only if you can differentiate it from any video game of the same style. It made waves at Sundance enough to have a limited release in theaters to the tune of $4.2 million against a fairly modest budget, but IFC lost very little quickly sending it to it's streaming service on Shudder to which both are owned by AMC. It has been divisive to fans of the genre because of it's pacing and stylistic approach, but it is awesome to see unknown filmmakers think outside of the normal banality of conventional storytelling to try something new and I definitely dig that.
3.5 Out Of 5