Director: Chris Nash
Writer: Chris Nash
Stars: Ry Barrett, Charlotte Creaghan, Liam Leone
Synopsis: The horror movie tracks a ravenous zombie creature as it makes its way through a secluded forest.
Johnny’s arrival in Chris Nash’s slasher film, In A Violent Nature, isn’t signaled by much. In fact, when the film opens up, we can barely tell what’s going on. Conversations are simply overheard, and in most slasher films, the viewer would expect to see who’s talking. One would imagine that these are the voices of our central characters, or merely the victims of a deadly cold open. In A Violent Nature, while deeply and clearly indebted to countless slashers that came before it, is not like most slasher films. It brings a new approach to the tried-and-true subgenre that works unbelievably well. The beauty of Nash’s film is just how well it takes the most common tropes imaginable, and repurposes them through a literal new lens. What is that new lens you might ask? It’s Johnny’s! With the camera primarily remaining behind the hulking beast, this second-person style slasher is deeply immersive, and staggeringly effective.
As stated, the film begins and there’s absolutely no sense of geography in which to ground ourselves. That all changes fairly quickly, for as soon as the voices we heard dissipate in the distance, the ground begins to essentially gurgle. Johnny has awoken, and it’s as if evil is being birthed from the ground. He’s practically spit back out into the forest. And then? He begins to walk… and we as the viewer are forced to follow. His hulking footsteps, the leaves brushing against his body, and the occasional ambience of nature is all we come to hear. He doesn’t speak, doesn’t mutter anything, and for all we know, he barely even thinks. With no musical score to escape into, In A Violent Nature places us inside the mind of its behemoth. And while being trapped in there for so long, one gets the sense by this point that he, or it, is completely and utterly mindless. It’s a frightening subversion of slasher films, wherein with classics like Friday the 13th or Halloween, at least other characters provide an inkling of an idea as to what’s going on. Nash is not interested in explaining whatsoever, although there’s a handful of easter eggs which make it clear he is as interested in inventing a dense lore for his new horror icon as he is in grossing audiences out.
This film definitely requires a bit of patience, but make no mistake, it is gnarly. There’s one sequence that is likely to go down as the best horror death of the year, and realistically, will be canonized as one of the greatest ever. But aside from the outstanding makeup and prosthetics, as well as the crunchy, squishy sound design, Nash’s kills take on another layer. We have sat in this stalking beast’s mind for so long that we barely get to meet any of his victims. There’s a few moments where we learn the very basics of their relationships, but it’s all heard in pieces and through walls or from a distance. One would think that this would lessen the impact of these kills, but in fact, it makes them all the more upsetting. There’s simply no rhyme or reason to his actions. Over time, it becomes clear that Johnny, while remaining ever silent and mindlessly committed on his aimless path, is deeply sadistic and inventive in how he chooses to murder his victims. It’s not simply a matter of him achieving his objective. It goes much deeper than that. The violence only adds to his complete and utter lack of humanity.
After the film premiered, Nash explained how he wanted to make a film full of vibes punctuated by extreme violence. On that front, he obviously succeeded wildly. The vibes are incredibly bad, and genre fans are going to eat it up. There’s a steadfast commitment to just how grim In A Violent Nature can get. Complete and total isolation feels like one of the primary throughlines of the film. Pretty much every victim of Johnny is attacked while they are frighteningly alone. Screams can never be heard, if there are any to begin with. This isolation is something that the brilliant sound design captures by either screams echoing into thin air or by simply drowning the agony out by other means. At one point, Johnny drags one of his victims into a shed. Without revealing anything, it’s one of the more deranged things I’ve ever seen in a film, made all the more frightening by the roaring sounds we hear. Prior to witnessing what is causing the noise, our minds are driven mad from imagination. When the reveal arrives, it numbs our mind with the blaring noise until we can no longer think straight. These moments of stark violence are captured in such a way that, even though we’re trapped following Johnny around, we’re somewhat grateful to not know what is truly going on in his mind. He observes his prey as if they’re mere toys, and it’s horrifically effective.
Although it will not be spoiled here, the ending of In A Violent Nature is perhaps the proof of Nash’s greatest strength. He must be applauded for the level of restraint used in the extended finale. He completely reshapes the typical final girl into something viscerally perturbed. There is absolutely no solace or satisfaction by the time the credits roll. Instead, both the final girl and the audience are left with, again, that sense of complete and total isolation. And with that, there comes a deep seeded fear that can be felt throughout your body. In those moments of full disorientation, the horrors we imagine can so easily sneak up on us. All they have to do is hide in plain sight, and more often than not, Johnny usually is. And he is one horror villain you definitely don’t want to be ambushed by.
In A Violent Nature celebrated its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight section, and will be released by Shudder and IFC Films later this year.
