'In a Violent Nature' is a Unique Spin on Slasher Horror

 

Credit to Sundance: ‘In A Violent Nature,’ a slasher film — TownLift, Park City News

I was expecting to get bored during this film, watching a killer wander the woods for hours. I was not expecting the film to kick off so crazy after the beginning offscreen death, and I found myself cringing from how brutal each death was in the movie. 

And I loved how the ending caught me off guard, leading down to a conclusion I wasn’t expecting. 

We follow the point of view of a killer named Johnny, who comes back from the dead after some asshole named Troy steals a necklace that belonged to his mother. 

I’m not kidding here, this piece of shit is the reason why all of his friends die. 

After Johnny kills a random dude who is caught by his own bear trap in the woods, he comes across the group who is carrying his mother’s necklace. He spots Troy with it, putting it into his pocket while a dude named Ehren is telling the origin story of how Johnny became a slasher. 

From here on out, the movie goes from a calm film to a straight up gore fest. 

This is how the majority of the group is killed by Johnny:

Ehren: Gets a blade pressed against his mouth, that literally saws off half of his face. I couldn’t help but laugh when Johnny uses his body two times to smash open a door and a glass case of weapons. 

Brodie: Ends up drowned by Johnny. Her death bothered me, because of how simple and raw her death was. No one was there to save her. 

Aurora: The girlfriend of Brodie. She has the worst death in the film. She gets a damn hook shoved through her body, and then Johnny uses one of the hooks to shove her entire head through the back of the open hole in her stomach. I’m not exaggerating. This actually happens, and my mouth was open the whole time. 

All I could say was: “Damn.”

Evan: His death pissed me off so much. He was trying to protect Troy (the asshole) and he gets killed because of that. Johnny throws an axe against the back of his head, and he is one of the few who gets a mercy kill. 

Troy (The asshole): Gets hit by an axe, and he dies in absolute fear when Johnny stands over him, throwing a large rock against his head. We see an explosion of blood, and Troy is finally taken down. 

I could not stand this piece of shit…

The Ranger: I felt so damn sorry for this dude. He knew all about the story of Johnny, and was the only one who could have stopped him. Unfortunately, he is tricked and killed by Johnny, and I think he ends up paralyzed. His eyes are blinking the whole time, and he doesn’t react when Johnny shoves a hook through his body to drag him to a machine. 

Johnny uses the machine to chop off the ranger’s arm, and then his head. He suffered so badly, and I was so pissed he died like that. He even warned the last two remaining survivors that Johnny came back for the necklace. Troy had given the necklace to his girlfriend, Kris, but at the time, she was too scared to comprehend what to do. 

Colt: I was so sad when he died. He was trying to protect Kris, and he even came up with a plan to defeat the slasher. While he is attempting to distract Johnny, he gets a blade shoved through his head, instantly killing him. Dude was trying to do the right thing, and he died for that. 

We then get one of the rawest endings I have seen in a slasher film. 

Kris watches as Johnny continues to slice up Colt’s body, and she is in total shock. She places the items they needed for their plan, and she leaves behind the necklace. She then makes her escape. 

I was not expecting Kris to actually run away. In horror films, the final girl always finds a way to defeat the slasher. In this film, we get a realistic ending. She is scared, and she wants to escape. I can’t imagine how terrifying it feels like to watch a friend of yours die, hell, she even found the dead body of Ehren in the ranger’s building. 

She is saved by a random woman, who offers her a ride to the hospital. Kris is in shock the whole time, not saying much to the woman, who tells her a story about her brother who gets mauled by a bear. She explains that sometimes some animals commit acts of violence for no reason. It was like an analysis of Johnny’s character, who was exactly the same. 

He killed all those people to get back his mother’s necklace, but were the kills actually needed? It is in his nature, and he killed everyone for the hell of it. 

The woman then stops the car to stop the bleeding on Kris’s leg, and she watches the woods, waiting for Johnny to appear again, hinting that this event had deeply traumatized her. 

The film ends with the necklace nowhere in sight, because Johnny got what he wanted, and he gave up his pursuit of Kris. 

If only Troy hadn’t taken the necklace. He was the reason why Kris will not be alright, and why all of his friends are dead. 

Asshole.