In a Violent Nature (2024)

I’ll be honest: I did something I almost never do (especially not with a film I haven’t seen before) and sped through a bit of this. Only during one kill sequence that was taking fucking forever, but still… Anyway, it’s nice to be able to say I’ve actually seen a film in the same year that it was released, which is not something I’ve been able to say much in the last decade or so; wish I could’ve said that about a better film. Director Chris Nash takes what could be called an “arthouse” approach to the slasher, with IaVN drawing comparisons with “slow cinema” and taking Gus Van Sant’s Gerry as an avowed inspiration; with what I know of those things, I suppose I can see that point, especially with all the goddamn walking in this one… though what it put me in mind of was actually Jim Jarmusch and something he said about his 1999 film Ghost Dog, about leaving in stuff that other directors would cut for timing, story, etc. IaVN definitely does something similar.

Basically, Nash takes the slasher cliches—seemingly immortal killer, negligible characters, graphic murder scenes, final girl, all of that—and then proceeds to do nothing much of interest with them. Supposedly it’s shot mostly from the killer’s perspective, which is bullshit in that it’s actually shot mostly from behind him as he plods through the delightful bit of Ontario forest in which it’s filmed (it can’t be his POV if he’s actually in the shot now, can it?). To give Nash due credit, the choice of location is stunning and the visual sense on display is an interesting one, a couple of the kills are particularly imaginative and they’re filmed in a really interesting way, the lack of incidental and highlighting of the natural sounds of the area is a bold and successful choice. But dear GODS it’s so fucking boring. The backstory is as trite as they come, the Expendable Meat is even less interesting than they usually seem to be in these things, and just… urgh. I will give it points for what it does well, but I otherwise have not a lot of use for this. Still interested in seeing what else Nash does in future, I think he could be interesting, but I just hope it’s not more of this…