‘In a Violent Nature’ Is Sundance’s Bloodiest Horror Movie
If there’s one thing that decades of horror watching will teach you, it’s that if you find a strange, fascinating object in a remote area, you should not, under any circumstances, pick it up. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Necronomicon, a VHS tape, or, in the case of the Shudder-produced Sundance Film Festival entry In a Violent Nature, a funny-looking necklace. If you’re out in the middle of nowhere, nothing good will come from disturbing this probably-cursed object.
In a Violent Nature, a slow-moving slasher that spends most of its time trudging along behind an undead serial killer, plays all the horror-trope hits: You’ve got your unsuspecting campers, your masked axe-wielding meathead, a brooding atmosphere, and, of course, a couple of final girls. But writer-director Chris Nash remixes these ingredients into something more experimental, forgoing the obligatory victim character development to instead follow Johnny the monster around. All character development happens through voyeuristic glimpses through the woods and into windows, as Johnny eavesdrops and waits for his moment to strike.
“I wanted it to play very long,” Nash recently told Variety. “I wanted that one to almost get boring, to bore the audience with grotesque violence. I just found it interesting to have a large spectacle death, but have it be so meandering.”