In a Violent Nature

In a Violent Nature
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Chris Nash
Written by	Chris Nash
Produced by	Shannon Hanmer Peter Kuplowsky
Cinematography	Pierce Derks
Edited by	Alex Jacobs
Production companies	Shudder Films Zygote Pictures Low Sky Productions
Distributed by	IFC Films Shudder
Release dates	January 24, 2024 (2024-01-24) (Sundance) May 31, 2024 (2024-05-31) (Canada)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English
Box office	$2.1 million

In a Violent Nature is a 2024 Canadian slasher film written and directed by Chris Nash. Described as an "ambient slasher", the film follows a mute killer who targets a group of teenagers in the Ontario wilderness, with the events observed largely from the killer's perspective.

In a Violent Nature premiered on January 22, 2024, at the Sundance Film Festival, as part of the festival's "Midnight" program, and was theatrically released in the United States and Canada by IFC Films on May 31; it is scheduled to be released on the streaming service Shudder later in the year.

Plot

A group of friends discover a locket hanging on the remains of a fire tower. Troy pockets it. Moments later, the corpse of Johnny rises from the ground. Enraged, he begins his search for the item and walks through the woods. He pauses at the sight of a rotting deer corpse then hears a nearby argument from two men, one of whom set the traps that killed the deer. Johnny walks to the house and enters unnoticed. When he sees a necklace that he mistakes for his locket, a brief memory reminds him of his mother. The homeowner soon returns, but runs off horrified. In the woods, he gets his leg stuck in his own bear trap and is killed by Johnny. Later, Johnny hears a car in the distance and pursues it.

The group of friends are sitting around a campfire. One of them, Ehren, recounts Johnny's death: he states that years prior, Johnny was tricked into climbing a fire tower for a "bag of toys", only to find an individual at the top who scared him. As a result, he fell off the tower and snapped his neck, with the incident being played off as a mistake to officials. After the story, the group goes inside the cabin. Ehren steps outside and is killed by Johnny with a hacksaw. Johnny then drags his body to a nearby park ranger office. Inside, Johnny collects a pair of hooks and equips an old firefighter mask.

The next day, Johnny comes across Aurora and Brodie on a lake dock. Brodie wants to swim but Aurora leaves to go practice yoga. As Brodie swims in the lake alone, Johnny submerges into the water and drags her underneath, drowning her. He then walks towards Aurora, who is standing by a cliffside practicing yoga. Johnny forces his hand through her stomach, smashes a hook into her head, and drags her head through her open stomach before letting her body fall down the cliff.

Later, Johnny finds a keyring with car keys and a toy car keychain thrown on the ground. He drops his weapon, sits behind a tree, and plays with the toy car as Troy, Colt, and Evan argue over the car keys and their missing friends. Colt and Kris drive off on an ATV. Johnny resumes his mission, wounding Troy's leg with an axe before Evan shoots Johnny with a shotgun. Evan and Troy attempt to flee as Johnny recovers and rises to his feet. Johnny throws an axe into Evan's head and crushes Troy's head with a rock. Returning from finding Ehren's body at the park ranger station, Colt and Kris discover the carnage left behind in Johnny's wake. Johnny notices Kris has his locket around her neck and tries to kill her, but she escapes with Colt.

Kris and Colt locate the ranger and beg him for his help as Johnny approaches again. The ranger, who has a history with Johnny, explains that the locket is the only thing keeping Johnny at rest. Johnny arrives and the ranger shoots him with a shotgun, causing him to collapse to the ground. The ranger orders Colt to tie him up with chains, but Johnny grabs the ranger's gun. Kris and Colt flee, and Johnny disables the ranger's spine, paralyzing him, before cutting off the ranger's arm and head with a log splitter.

Later, Colt attempts to distract Johnny to trap him, but Johnny kills him with an axe to the face. Kris leaves Johnny's locket hanging on a gas canister and flees into the woods. Kris accidentally injures her leg but manages to limp to a nearby road. A woman in a pickup truck stops and offers to drive her to a hospital. In the truck, the woman recounts her brother's near-death encounter with a bear who reportedly murdered anything and everything in the same woods. The woman then stops the truck, noticing that Kris's leg wound has worsened and she demands to put a tourniquet around her leg. Terrified, Kris begs her to keep driving and then peers into the woods, waiting for something or someone to appear. Elsewhere, the left-behind gas canister is missing Johnny's locket.

Cast

• Ry Barrett as Johnny
• Andrea Pavlovic as Kris
• Cameron Love as Colt
• Reece Presley as The Ranger
• Liam Leone as Troy
• Charlotte Creaghan as Aurora
• Lea Rose Sebastianis as Brodie
• Sam Roulston as Ehren
• Alexander Oliver as Evan
• Lauren-Marie Taylor as The Woman
• Timothy Paul McCarthy as Chuck

Style

Commentators have drawn comparisons between In a Violent Nature and slow cinema. Nash drew inspiration for the film's style from the Gus Van Sant-directed films Gerry (2002), Elephant (2003) and Last Days (2005), which Nash characterizes as "slower, more methodical, more deliberate and follow characters through a scene." Nash also cited the work of director Terrence Malick as an influence.

In a Violent Nature emphasizes static long take shots, and features no musical score.

Production

Filming

Filming initially took place in the Kawartha Lakes area of Central Ontario, Canada, in 2021, but Nash later recalled that the locale "just felt like it wasn't hitting the right note for us". The film was ultimately shot in Algoma District, Ontario, near Sault Ste. Marie.

Release

In a Violent Nature had its world premiere on January 22, 2024, at the Sundance Film Festival, as part of the festival's "Midnight" program. The film was theatrically released in the United States by IFC Films on May 31, 2024, and is scheduled to debut on the Shudder streaming service later that year.

Reception

Box office

IFC Films released In a Violent Nature in North America on May 31, 2024 on 1,426 screens, marking the widest opening release of a film for the studio. It earned $410,000 in Thursday night previews. It went on to gross $2.1 million at the North American box office during its opening weekend, marking the second-best opening for IFC Films after Late Night with the Devil.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 87% of 106 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "As single-mindedly focused on mayhem as its demonic monster, In a Violent Nature serves up a deliciously disgusting feast for gore aficionados." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 69 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Variety's Dennis Harvey wrote that the film's "stripped-down approach to a familiar gist has a distinctiveness that is impressive, and is sure to please fans who are always up for a new slasher film—but wish most of them weren't so interchangeable." Cheryl Eddy of Gizmodo called it "a fascinating artistic experiment and genre fans should definitely give it a look. But it may also make you wish you were watching a traditional slasher—for something more fun and entertaining, may we suggest Friday the 13th Part 2?—instead."

Michael Gingold of Rue Morgue wrote that the film's style "isn't quite a reinvention of the form, but it creates a different and very effective kind of tension." David Ehrlich of IndieWire gave the film a grade of "C", writing that the film "derives its semi-hypnotic power from the disconnect it creates between the sheer movieness of what happens and the somnambulant nonchalance with which it all goes down. The effect is interesting in theory, but largely unsatisfying in execution (pun very much intended)."

External links

• In a Violent Nature at IMDb