IN A VIOLENT NATURE (2024) – Finally! Slasher movies go art-house!

In A Violent Nature is definitely not your typical slasher movie although it certainly has its fair share of torture porn scenes! This is Canadian writer and director, Chris Nash’s first feature movie although he has dabbled with the genre in a smaller scale with short features in the anthology horror ABC’s of Death. What he has done with this movie is something unique and refreshing to a genre that has always followed a common formula.

Firstly, the film’s aspect ratio of 4:3 immediately differentiates it from all other movies. This aspect ratio is usually used in arthouse movies these days. The choice was a good one because the tighter ratio made everything feel more closed-up and involving. There is also the absence of a music score which is unusual. Instead, we are engulfed by the sounds of nature in the forest providing a further level of engagement for the viewer without the distractions of a booming soundtrack to create the mood. Most exceptional of all was the way much of the movie was shot which was from the viewpoint of the killer rather than the victims. Here, the victims are kept mostly in the background although we do get some sense of their background from the clever snippets of dialouge which are heard again from killer’s point of view. Even though the killer does not utter a word throughout the movie, Ry Barrett who plays homicidal exterminator, manages to do an excellent job through his body language. He has the built, his slow walk across the thick under bushes of the forest comes across a totally menacing. The camera work is also imaginatively positioned often times showing mostly the back of the killer and sometimes locking the camera in unusual positions giving them an almost voyeuristic feel to the scenes.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing in the movie are the absolutely brutal kills. These are customary in slasher movies but a number of them here are creatively and outrightly sadistic. If you are not game for such extremities, then this is not the movie for you and my advice is to stay clear if you don’t wish to have nightmares.

Finally, a word about the film’s ending. Without giving any spoilers, I would say that it is quite an expectedly low key. Initially I found this rather annoying, and it felt like something was amissed. But later, upon reflection and as an afterthought, I appreciated it for its honestly and the subtle message of lingering horror that is more mental than physical. Once again, Chris Nash demonstrated his strength as a movie maker to be reckoned with by taking a gamble to breakaway from tradition. We have become so brainwashed in our expectations on what to expect and how a movie of this nature should end, that we would instinctively reject the unconventional. Thank you Chris for giving us an opportunity to help us widen our vision.