In A Violent Nature – Sundance Review

Call It The Slow-Burning, if you will – this ambient slasher upends the rules of the genre to deliver an 80s horror homage that’s as reflective as it is bloody. And it has the kill of the year.

★★★★

In A Violent Nature opens on a locket, hanging unattended in a remote part of the Ontario wilderness. We hear voices, muddled, low in the mix. Teen hikers, goofing off. After a little while, they notice the locket too. A hand comes into frame, and takes it. The laughing voices recede as the hikers head back. And then everything goes to hell.

Director Chris Nash’s “ambient” slasher is a remarkable reimagining of the genre, in which the camera spends most of its time in long unbroken shots following locket’s owner, Johnny (Ry Barrett), as he pursues his property. We trail him from behind, following in his stomping footsteps, hearing nothing but the sound of his feet on the grass, his laboured breathing, and the birdsong in the trees. Occasionally the murmur of voices returns, indicating that Johnny is steadily nearing a hiker, a campsite, or a dwelling. This is bad news for whoever is about to come into view. Because as steady and controlled as he is on his journey, Johnny is a hulking killer zombie.

It’s as if Tsai Ming-Liang got bored with filming monks, and decided to remake Friday The 13th Part VI. It’s like playing a beautiful Jason Voorhees console game, handing control over to the computer, and just sitting back to let it play itself while you watch. With the sunlight streaming through the dappled trees, and the regular rhythms of rustling and breathing, the effect is serenely peaceful and meditative. Until Johnny rips someone apart.

Cinematographer Pierce Derks (who did additional photography for Mandy) transitioned from a documentarian on an earlier version of the film to the director of photography for the final product, and keeps the roaming camera responsive to the environment, with a natural quality that feels almost like a character in itself. The film’s aesthetic, combining a detached observational style with occasional brutal violence, and blending horror and beauty in its eerie wilderness setting, brings to mind Jonathan Glazer.

Bits and pieces of lore are gradually revealed, mainly in overheard conversation. Johnny’s backstory is that of a few dozen 80s horrors, with echoes The Burning and (to a lesser extent) Prom Night, Terror Train, and Slaughter High. But with its woodland camp setting, bag-on-head killer mask, zombie elements, and multiple scenes where characters describe the events of previous encounters it’s clearly the Friday movies that are being paid the most loving homage.

I won’t spoil exactly what happened to Johnny here, nor whether he ever gets his precious locket back, or the rule-breaking aspects of the third act, but I will say this: this is the most tranquil slasher you’ll ever see. Its distanced, observational style has an almost Brechtian effect that renders its various slasher tropes very funny to see played out. And watch out for the kill of the year.

This slow-burn triumph is meditative, playful, wildly gory, and a little bit magical. Recommended!

In a Violent Nature played at the Sundance Film Festival, ahead of a theatrical release in the US on May 31, 2024, and then on Shudder. UK release details are TBC.