IHQC

Film: In a Violent Nature
Format: Streaming video from Amazon Prime on Fire!

I’ve been thinking about the idea of a Myers-Briggs categorization for slasher killers. Right now, my thinking is Mortal/Immortal (M/I), Huge/Small (H/S), Quiet/Talkative (Q/T) and Covered/Uncovered (C/U, and this means basically masked or unmasked, but the “M” was already taken). So, Jason Vorhees would be IHQC—he’s immortal, huge, doesn’t talk, and has his face covered. Freddy Kruger would be ISTU—he’s also immortal, but normal sized, spits out one-liners, and doesn’t wear a mask. Leatherface is MHQC; Chucky is ISTU, and on and on. Johnny, our killer from last year’s In a Violent Nature, would be another in that classic vein—IHQC. Johnny can’t be stopped, is gigantic, never talks, and despite being unmasked initially, hunts down a mask after his first couple of kills.

Just like you can give the killer a type, you can also rank slasher movies in a variety of ways. You can look at the killer’s origin story, the number of kills, the style/gruesomeness of kills, the quality of the mask, etc. Leslie Vernon from Behind the Mask has solid kills and a great mask, but a weird origin. Freddy’s origin is horrifying, but he has panache and a fantastic signature weapon. Johnny, once again, is going to go for the classic. Johnny was a developmentally-delayed child who lived with his father at a logging camp. A bit of a pest to the other workers, he was tricked into climbing a fire tower, where someone waited at the top to scare him. Johnny fell off the tower to his death, and then his father was killed in the resulting brawl.

So, this is more or less the same origin story, sort of, as Jason or Victor Crowley from the Hatchet movies. Johnny’s restless spirit is kept at bay by a necklace that had been given to him by his father. Pick up the locket, and Johnny wakes up and starts coming. His weapon of choice is a dragging hook and his mask of choice is an antique firefighting mask, both naturally a part of his origin in a logging camp and his death by falling off a fire tower.

Now that we have that out of the way, we need to talk about the movie, and there’s no actual plot. A group of young people—think early 20s—are out in the woods when one of them removes the necklace from Johnny’s resting place, which causes Johnny to rise up to search for it. Think of this as sort of a Cabin in the Woods scenario, but with only one choice. Johnny starts his rampage, and that’s pretty much it. What’s interesting here is that we’re not going to see this from the point of view of the victims for the most part. For the bulk of the film, we’re going to follow Johnny, the camera looking over his shoulder, as he stalks and murders his victims.

What this means is that In a Violent Nature is a film of odd components. It’s incredibly slow. There are very long shots where not much happens. It takes a few minutes for Johnny to dig himself up, for instance. We get a lot of shots of him just walking after his next victim, or hunting down the next person. In that respect, it’s a surprisingly calm film with some shots having the camera sit still for a couple of minutes while Johnny brutalizes someone in the distance.

On the other hand, several of the kills in In a Violet Nature are immediately going to become slasher movie legends. They are brutal, inventive, and disturbing. One in particular that takes place on a cliffside is horrifying, as is one involving a log splitter and another that happens mainly off-camera, but goes on and on and on.

The other dichotomy here, the elements that make this a film of two types is just how average a slasher this is in so many ways while also being completely new in so many others. There is nothing really new about our killer or our victims outside of the new mask and new favorite weapon. He’s not really that different from Michael Myers or Jason in most respects. He’s big, unkillable, never speaks, never stops, and wears a signature mask. But the actual filming feels completely fresh and completely different.

If you don’t like slasher films, In a Violent Nature isn’t going to make you a fan. However, if you are a fan, there’s something here you’re going to find very interesting.

Why to watch In a Violent Nature : The perspective is completely new.
Why not to watch: Beyond that, it’s really just another slasher.