In a Violent Nature
Written and directed by Chris Nash
Starring Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic and Lauren-Marie Taylor
Classification N/A; 94 minutes
Opens in select theatres May 31
Critic’s Pick
Watching the excellent new Canadian slasher film In a Violent Nature, I couldn’t help but flash back to a formative period in my life: Sept. 14, 2001, when I watched my first “Midnight Madness” movie at the Toronto International Film Festival.
It was a screening of Takashi Miike’s psychosexual thriller Ichi the Killer, in which festival staff led by Midnight programmer Colin Geddes cheekily but wisely handed out Ichi-branded barf bags, so disgusting was the Japanese crime epic. And while I didn’t avail myself of the spew swag back then, I yearned for it two decades later while watching In a Violent Nature, a gorgeous ode to gore that not only tops Miike’s lust for ultraviolence but is also produced by Peter Kuplowsky, TIFF’s current Midnight programmer.
An ingenious, almost diabolical cross between a Friday the 13th flick and an open-world video-game a la the Grand Theft Auto series – but pitched to the slowed down tempo of such Gus Van Sant films as Gerry and Elephant – In a Violent Nature is the most thrilling, terrifying, gross and often quite funny reworking of the slasher genre in ages. If the subversive 2006 mockumentary Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon felt like the last time a slasher movie was given even the glint of a new edge, then In a Violent Nature arrives like a freshly sharpened, artisanally forged butcher knife. This is horror with art on its mind and blood on its hands.
Filmed almost entirely from the perspective of a mute Jason Voorhees-like psycho-killer named Johnny (Ry Barrett) – the camera often placed just a few paces behind the supernaturally strong monster, as if the audience was in lockstep with evil path being carved – director Chris Nash’s film patiently documents the slow slaughter of a group of young adults who make the mistake of spending a few nights in the Ontario wilderness. (The location is never named outright, though the production was shot near Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.)
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There isn’t much of a story. Some attractive young people of barely distinguishable characteristics – including the geek, the jock, the good guy and the “final girl” (Andrea Pavlovic) – enter the woods one weekend, and leave in pieces. There is a bit more detail and mythology dedicated to Johnny – a brief campfire tale recounts an apocryphal tale of a young, developmentally delayed boy dying after a cruel prank by a group of local loggers, his father vowing revenge – but narrative is not Nash’s focus.
This is an ambitious, methodical, immersive, and admirably devious experiment in conjuring atmosphere and testing gag reflexes. It will quicken your pulse, tighten your throat and – for those on its extremely particular wavelength – bust your gut.
A familiar player in Canada’s low-budget genre-flick realm – he previously worked as the on-set creature effects supervisor in the similarly revolting and amazing 2020 splatter comedy Psycho Goreman – Nash understands the limits of on-screen carnage and blows straight past them with a confident recklessness. The kills here are not only brutal but nihilistically next-level, impressive on a kind of existential level. There is one slaying in particular – of a young yoga enthusiast whose body is stretched out to the point of becoming a human ampersand – that nearly caused a stampede during my press screening. (And during which I dearly wish I could’ve reached for that Ichi bag.)
It is all soundtracked by nothing but the ambient, terrifyingly natural sounds of the woods – or, in one haunting case, the mutated warblings produced by a victim’s vintage cassette tape player, its battery drained of as much life as its one-time owner. And those aforementioned laughs? Well, it all depends on how funny you think it is casting Lauren-Marie Taylor (a.k.a. Vickie from Friday the 13th Part 2) in a key role, or watching one of Johnny’s victims make the all-time stupidest “let’s distract the killer!” move of all time. For my part: both moments are deeply, darkly hilarious.
So, yes, In a Violent Nature is not for everybody – not even those audiences who regularly flock to whatever latest mass-market horror movie mega-producer Jason Blum (Halloween Ends, M3GAN, Night Swim) is releasing. But if you have made it this far into this review without flinching or throwing the newspaper across the room, then there is a good chance you are ready for Nash’s film to deeply upset your dreams for a very, very long time to come.