The enigmatic resurrection, rampage, and retribution of an undead monster in a remote wilderness unleashes an iconic new killer after a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower that entombed its rotting corpse. A film by Chris Nash, starring Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Sam Roulston, Alexander Oliver, Timothy Paul McCarthy, and Lauren Taylor.

A group of friends discovers a gold locket hanging on a rusty pole in the collapsed old fire tower in the forest. We don’t get a good look at who they are because they kind of talk offscreen while the camera just lingers on the locket, which I like because it feels like this locket is the most important thing in the scene or the narrative of the film. We only hear them arguing about whether they should take the locket. Colt (Cameron Love) fears the locket might be there for a reason. Ehren (Sam Roulston) says they’re in the middle of a graveyard and mentions the name “White Pine slaughter,” presumably referring to a tragic incident that occurred around here many years ago. As they leave, Troy (Liam Leone) snatches the locket from the pole and takes it with him, unaware that the locket belongs to a vengeful spirit.

Their footsteps fade away and the pole shudders, then falls down as if an unseen force pushes it from below. Suddenly, a mysterious figure crawls out, emerging from the hole left behind the fallen pole. The enraged figure ventures into the forest, relentlessly searching for his lost locket.

The camera then fixates on the mysterious figure as it strides through the forest, placing us directly behind him. However, it doesn’t feel like a typical horror film because there’s no suspenseful background music. Instead, we hear the sounds of nature exactly as they would be: footsteps crunching on the ground, birds chirping merrily. The scene is a calming tableau of a beautiful forest bathed in sunlight filtering through the trees.

As night falls, around the campfire, the film reveals the faces of the group of friends we heard earlier. Ehren tells them a story of the White Pine slaughter. Sixty years ago, there was a tragic accident that killed a mentally hindered kid named Johnny. He fell from the old fire tower and broke his neck. When Johnny’s father found the body a day later, he confronted the loggers in the mess hall. A fight broke out, leading to the death of Johnny’s dad. Then, a week later, a horrifying incident happened at the lumberjack camp. All of the loggers were found dead, torn to pieces. The police couldn’t explain it and ruled it as poisoning from tainted meat, with the bodies scavenged by animals. However, some believed it was Johnny’s spirit seeking revenge.

Written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Chris Nash, IN A VIOLENT NATURE takes an experimental spin on the slasher genre by following the villain instead. With almost a documentary style, it’s as if we’re looking through the murderer’s eyes as he goes on a killing spree to get what was stolen from him.

The premise is quite simple, starting off like a typical horror story. Though the villain seems inspired by Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers, the old firefighter mask adds an iconic flair to the character.

While the film employs a unique approach in the slasher genre by unfolding the story from the killer’s perspective, it suffers from slow pacing and requires a lot of patience from the viewer. Without the background music to build suspense, we don’t know what to expect as we follow the killer’s slow walk through the forest. The repetitive sound of footsteps crunching on grass can be tiresome. Is the filmmaker trying to convey the killer’s boredom? It’s a very long walk throughout the film, and cutting some of these scenes would benefit the pacing. He’s supposed to be a vengeful spirit, so it doesn’t matter how fast the victims run; he will eventually catch them, even by walking slowly.

I appreciate the filmmaker’s vision in trying something new for the slasher genre. However, some elements don’t quite work or feel inconsistent. For example, dialogue reveals too much of the villain’s backstory, and some dialogue sounds unnatural due to the timing as the killer moves closer. The gore and the killing are visceral and intense, yet some of it looks unrealistic, such as the head bouncing off the floor like a ball or the crushed skull that looks like rubber. The perspective also keeps switching back and forth between a view like a third-person video game and the typical slasher view, where we see the victims being slaughtered violently.

Despite the flaws, this film shines in a particular killing scene where Aurora (Charlotte Creaghan) is attacked and brutally murdered on the hilltop. It’s such a memorable kill that stands out from the rest of the film, perhaps even the entire slasher genre. The practical effects in this scene are clearly impressive, and it’s evident they poured a lot of money and effort into it. Big applause for everyone involved! I personally believe this scene alone makes the film worth watching.

IN A VIOLENT NATURE premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2024. The film was theatrically released in the United States and Canada on 31 May.