In a Violent Nature Cinema Review

3 star innovative and gruesome slasher flick.

In a Violent Nature is a 2024 Canadian horror film, written and directed by Chris Nash who makes some bold choices with his very interesting feature directorial debut.

A Shudder Original, it is now showing in UK cinemas courtesy of Altitude Film Distribution.

“This was your mother’s John. I want you to have it. That way we’ll always be with you, no matter what happens. You’ll always be our little boy, John.”

In a Canadian national park, a group of friends are on holiday together, staying in a remote cabin. They find an old fire tower, left over from the logging days, with a gold locket hanging from the outside. Against the advice of his friends, Troy (Liam Leone – Darts) pockets the locket to give to his girlfriend Kris (Andrea Pavlovic – Learn to Swim). Shortly after they depart, the earth parts and out comes a shambling figure, Johnny (Ry Barrett – . The locket belongs to him and he wants it back.

From here everything is seen from the point of view of our protagonist as we walk along behind him. He witnesses an argument over traps between the local Park Ranger (Reece Presley – Bloodslinger) and resident Chuck (Timothy Paul McCarthy – Dangerous Rumors, Beyond the Chamber of Terrors), who then becomes his first victim, as we see just what he will do to get back his beloved locket.

Johnny then comes across the campfire, where Troy and his friends are sitting telling stories. He hears Ehren (Sam Roulston – Mood) tell his story, about how he was killed and the ensuing massacre seventy years previously. It’s only a matter of time before this hapless bunch fall foul of Johnny’s rage.

“After a healthy donation from the company, they paid off the widows, closed up shop and the police ruled it as a poisoning from tainted meat. And they said a bunch of animals got in there and tore up the bodies.”

In a Violent Nature takes a very different approach from the norm when it comes to the visual narrative. It’s an interesting technique to follow the slasher around and gives you more idea of his motivations and thought processes.

The down side to this is the lack of back story for any of the victims, which makes it difficult to relate. I don’t think there has ever been a friend group in a horror film quite so deserving of their fate, they are a thoroughly unlikeable bunch and I was genuinely excited to watch them being slaughtered.

What does work very well is the lack of any music, the sights and sounds of the forest make for far better tension than any score could do. There is rather a lot of walking about and in some places it feels a bit like playing Skyrim in third person mode. This does serve to dissipate any tension that may have built up.

Having said that, the kills are very gruesome, very imaginative and downright disgusting in places and there is certainly enough blood to satisfy gore hounds. It isn’t a scary film, but if you are in it for the blood then this one is well worth a trip to the cinema.

“You can’t just give it back. He’s awake now. He’s going to be coming for all of us.”