Director: Chris Nash 
Starring: Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, Lauren Taylor
Certificate: 18
Run Time: 94 mins

In A Violent Nature is a high-concept slasher, which flips the genre on its head by depicting the events largely from the killer’s perspective. The film opens with a group of friends discovering a locket hanging on the remains of a fire tower. When one of them pockets it, the corpse of Johnny (Ry Barrett) swiftly arises and stalks the group and anyone in his way for the locket. 

While In A Violent Nature has an interesting concept, unfortunately the film fails to make the most of it. Comparisons have been drawn with slow cinema, which are certainly apt given nothing happens other than Johnny gruesomely murdering the group between large, prolonged stretches of walking through the Ontario wilderness setting. A last minute shift to another character also feels completely out of place. 

Being free of a narrative isn’t necessarily a problem in my view but director Chris Nash doesn’t do anything with the concept to maintain interest. The writing is particularly poor and the group of characters seem to simply box-tick trendy current personality types – I didn’t care for any of them at all. Nash also fails to maintain tension or a sense of dread in between kills, forgetting tension for monotony. 

At least In A Violent Nature is memorable for its brutal slayings. Two of them are particularly grisly and prolonged and will be what the film is remembered for. To a degree, most of the kills are more elaborate than the last but the two in question (one involving a character practicing cliffside yoga and the other a log splitter) don’t come at the film’s climax. 

Nash also succeeds in not revealing Johnny’s face until quite far into the film (Longlegs also succeeds in this department). Instead, DP Pierce Derks uses the dark and shadows or simply follows Johnny from behind and this is deeply effective. 

While there are two slayings that will be forever etched in my brain, it’s a shame In A Violent Nature cannot quite make the most of its innovative concept. The slow cinema approach is also novel but what undoes the film for me is the ear-scraping script, its lack of tension or dread and the last minute perplexing bait-and-switch to another character’s perspective. In a Violent Nature is certainly a better film to discuss than to experience.