By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
You want to know the scariest word you can ever hear from an artist? “Deconstruction.” That’s the fancy term creators use when they want to tear something apart in order to understand how it was made. Done well, this can absolutely transform entire genres. For example, Alan Moore’s seminal Watchmen was designed as a deconstruction of superhero stories, and this unflinching glimpse into the psychology of self-proclaimed heroes has influenced the last four decades of tights-and-flights comics and movies. Done poorly, though, and a deconstruction falls apart, ultimately revealing why the original design was so effective in the first place. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened with In a Violent Nature (2024).
The movie serves as a deconstruction of the slasher genre and is a not-so-secret homage to the Friday the 13th series. It’s a film with a truly fascinating gimmick: we watch the entire story unfold from the killer’s point of view. Like, have you ever wondered what Jason Voorhees is doing whenever he isn’t dramatically hacking and slashing his way through horny young people? In a Violent Nature attempts to answer that question, and it gives us some of the most gruesome kills in modern horror. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for the gimmick of this movie to fall apart and leave you wishing you were watching a traditional slasher instead.
When Nature Calls
The plot of In a Violent Nature begins when a group of friends discovers a mysterious locket hanging from a fire tower. When one of them grabs the locket, he unknowingly awakens the corpse of a serial killer. As he hacks and slashes his way through the woods to retrieve the locket, we get some backstory: the killer, Johnny, was once a developmentally disabled boy who died falling from a fire tower when a prank went sideways. Over the years, mysterious deaths have been attributed to Johnny’s vengeful spirit. Now, he’s back and scarier than ever, leaving his victims to answer a chilling question: how do you kill someone who’s already dead?
Obviously, Johnny is a thinly-veiled stand-in for Jason Voorhees. Like the famous Friday the 13th killer, Johnny was a developmentally delayed kid whose death was caused by idiot teenagers. Like Jason, he has inexplicably risen from the dead on multiple occasions, and he’s nearly unstoppable once he gets to killing. Unfortunately, In a Violent Nature’s gimmick keeps Jonny from being as sympathetic or compelling as Jason. Movies like Friday the 13th: Part 2 helped to humanize Jason Voorhees, and his relatively limited screen time made him a mysterious character fans loved to speculate about. Here, Johnny is directly in front of the camera for almost all of the film, robbing the character of any real mystery.
The Man Behind The Mask
Jonny’s constant presence also makes it more difficult to put together this movie’s barebones plot. Keep in mind that we are seeing almost everything from a third-person POV centered on the killer, which means that almost all of the story that we get comes from seeing Jonny effectively eavesdropping on other people. It’s always hard to concentrate on what the other characters were talking about because I was waiting for our slasher to make his move. Like, remember the awesome campfire scene in Friday the 13th: Part 2, where we learn more about Jason Voorhees? Imagine how much worse the whole thing would be if we were just watching Jason watching the camp counselors.
Now, one area where In a Violent Nature really shines is in its gruesome kills. This is a Friday the 13th-style movie made for the post-Saw era, so our hapless characters almost never get an easy death. Early on, Jonny brutally garottes someone against a tree. At another point, we watch him methodically feed a living victim into a wood chipper, and the prolonged scene makes you feel every moment of this guy’s excruciating torment. In the movie’s most famous kill, we see him hook a poor girl and literally pull her head through her own torso and out her back before he sends her dead body careening down the world’s steepest hill.
The Real Reason You Watch Horror Movies
That brings us to the most divisive element of the movie. In a Violent Nature does a poor job of deconstructing horror movies, but it does help viewers discover exactly why they watch scary movies in the first place. If you’re just here for cool kills and buckets of blood, this film is very nearly perfect. Every kill is memorably nasty, and they are carried out by an iconically ugly killer. Personally, though, I prefer slashers with colorful, memorable victims. This helps us actually care about these people before they are turned into mincemeat. Here, everyone but Jonny is so forgettable that they are just one step above the nameless henchmen in a Marvel movie.
Going in, I really wanted to like In a Violent Nature. I’m a Friday the 13th superfan who is proud to have Jason Voorhees tattooed on my body. Since his franchise has been in legal limbo for so long, I was quite eager to watch a movie that served as a kind of spiritual sequel to the early Friday films. However, writer/director Chris Nash forgot the golden rule of making an homage movie: if you can’t do something better, you shouldn’t do it at all. In this case, all but the worst Friday the 13th movies are better than In a Violent Nature, and you’re infinitely better off watching one of those films instead.
In a Violent Nature is divisive, to put it mildly. Critics loved its bold new take on the slasher genre, while general audiences thought the movie was as slow and plodding as Johnny himself. However, the movie is a solid watch for gorehounds, and it deserves props for its memorable kills, practical effects, and the gallon upon gallon of blood that gets spilled by our creepy killer. If you’re looking for a film with thrilling kills and a chilling villain design, you should definitely stream this movie on Hulu. Otherwise, you should skip the genre deconstruction and just watch a film where you might actually care about one or two of the characters.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE SCORE
