'In a Violent Nature' is a slow-burning gore fest with an ending you'll hate - or love
One of the most effective types of characters in movies is the one who simply gets up every day and goes about their business without complaint until eventually they’ve built up a kind of consistency that’s almost heroic.
Think of Matthew Modine’s character in “Vision Quest,” or Willem Dafoe’s in “The Florida Project.” They methodically go about their business, and over time it becomes a virtue.
So what if the same principle were applied to a slasher movie? And it was told from the point of view of the slasher? That’s what’s going on in “In a Violent Nature,” Chris Nash’s gore-fest of a horror movie. Nash, who also wrote the script, takes genre tropes seriously — but he takes filmmaking just as seriously, demanding patience from the audience and a willingness to go along for what is at times a slow ride.
What is 'In a Violent Nature' about?
The payoffs are worth it — if you’ve got the stomach for them. Truly, if slasher films are measured in part by their “kills,” Nash has come up with some truly original ones. I’m pretty certain the human body is incapable of some of the horrors visited upon it here, though it’s not for lack of trying on the film’s part.
The movie begins out in the woods, because of course it does, where a group of young guys find an old shack. It’s dilapidated, but there is a gold necklace hanging from a splintered board. One of them takes it and they leave, going back to the young women they’ve left at a campsite. So far, so “Friday the 13th.”
As soon as they’re gone, however, a hand claws its way out of the dirt. Eventually — take that word for all it’s worth — a rotting body climbs out and marches through the trees. We don’t know who he is (yet) or why he’s risen from his grave (yet), only that he seems like a reanimated man on a mission.
Which he is.
And he’s taking his time about it. Nash follows him — we learn that he is the reanimated corpse of Johnny (Ry Barrett), a mentally challenged young man bullied, killed and buried in the woods — in long shots in which Johnny just walks through the woods, heading inexorably toward his victims.
Nash uses this technique often. It’s challenging, a little, but it’s also effective. It establishes Johnny as a workmanlike figure driven by purpose. It’s just that his purpose is chopping off body parts.
With all of the genre elements in place, Johnny mows his way through a bunch of victims who we learn virtually nothing about — they have names, rarely used and mostly screamed, but in spirit they’re closer to the “nameless rabble of victims” Jean Shepherd writes about in “A Christmas Story.”
Except for Kris (Andrea Pavlovic), a Final Girl type, about whom we learn little more than she is smart enough to haul out of there when the going gets grisly.
How gory is 'In a Violent Nature'? Very gory
Eventually we learn a little more about Johnny, thought not a lot. The film doesn’t suffer for lack of character development. There isn’t dramatic narrative so much as there is a relentless pursuit of … what? Revenge? Satisfaction? Bloodlust?
It’s not as if this kind of thing hasn’t worked before. Michael Myers wasn’t even Michael Myers in the first “Halloween,” surely one of the greatest horror films ever made, after he grew up. He was simply The Shape, an unstoppable, dispassionate killing machine, pure and simply evil. (The endless sequels tacked on an increasingly baroque backstory that just gets in the way.)
The ending of "In a Violent Nature," involving Kris, shifts gears a little, to even greater effect. It’s got a little “Sopranos”-finale energy to it. You may be satisfied, you may not. But you won't be on the fence.
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'In a Violent Nature' 3.5 stars
Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★
Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★
Director: Chris Nash.
Cast: Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Reece Presley.
Rating: Not rated.
How to watch: In theaters Friday, May 31.
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. X: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'In a Violent Nature' review: Chris Nash's gore-fest takes its time
