In a Violent Nature

A group of teens find a locket under a collapsed watchtower in the woods, and one of them removes it to give to his girlfriend.  However, upon removing it, they unwittingly resurrect the corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit who sets about seeking the lost locket, brutally killing anyone in his way.

With a plot that involves woods and lakes, teens on vacation, and locals in ramshackle homes, with an undead killer dispatching all he meets in creative ways whilst mostly wearing a mask, you’d be forgiven for thinking I had stumbled on another Friday The 13th sequel.  Yes, this lifts heavily from such films, and similar in the slasher genre, offering nothing plot wise that we haven’t come to expect, with every trope being played right down to the final girl.  From that perspective this could simply be taken as derivative trash, but what makes this film stand out amongst its peers is the approach that it takes.  You see, for the majority of the film, we are following the killer.

With a tight 1.33:1 box aspect ratio being used, and a third person camera style approach following from behind Johnny as he stomps his way through the forest, the film offers a whole different approach to the overused cliches of slasher horror.  In addition, the choice to not have a music score underlying the events is wonderfully unnerving.  Without rising cues to tell us that we should be getting scared, instead we get the ambient sounds of the forest and lake, before we start to hear voices in the distance, and the killer changes direction to home in on the sounds and strike, along the way selecting various tools to use to maim with.  This serves well to allow the moments themselves create the unnerving terror, rather than an orchestra telling you that you should be worried.

The ‘following the killer’ approach allows the film to shine a spotlight on moments often seen where the killer seems to appear out of nowhere, and there’s one scene in particular around a cabin that covers the ‘distracting noise – nobody there – someone glimpsed through a window’ sequences that is so perfectly done, showing that these undead killers aren’t necessarily as stupid as we tend to think they are.

Gore fans will have a lot to relish here, with the variety of kills on offer, but to some degree I felt a few of these diminished the film, making the smart concept a little too exploitative.  I’ve never been a fan of overdone gore, and here I feel much the same – yes it is creative and effective, but it also kind of breaks the rising tension whenever it happens.

The final act flips to follow a final girl, and does somewhat diminish the overall approach, ending a little flat as a result, but overall this was a smart new approach to a very tired formula, that served its purpose.  Akin to watching a gamer stream of the Friday The 13th video game, In A Violent Nature is worth a watch for any fans of the slasher genre.