In a Violent Nature is a horror film written and directed by Chris Nash. It's his debut in both categories, and is a slasher film in which the camera is primarily following the killer from the time he emerges from the ground in the cemetery to the end of the film. It's widely considered a unique entry in the horror genre, as most films typically follow the protagonist's perspective, instead of the killer, as this film does.
The film starts with the killer rising from the dirt shortly after some college students are messing around in a shack and removing a locket that was hanging from a metal pipe sticking out of the ground. The camera then follows him as he travels around the forest where he is stalking the college students and killing anyone he comes across.
There are a lot of things about In a Violent Nature that make it entertaining as a horror film. Not only does it have the unique perspective of the killer, but it also has some unique kills to go with it. The killer gets pretty creative despite only having some crude weapons like a hook and an axe to work with. The gore in this film is definitely appreciated, and they don't shy away from showing lengthy kills in their entirety. There are, however, some things about the film that detract from the overall experience.
The obvious thing to mention is that while seeing everything from the killer's perspective is cool, that also means that the film has the killer's pace. And if you have ever seen a Friday the 13th film, you can imagine how slow it could be watching everything from Jason's perspective. The killer walks just as slowly as Jason does, and a lot of screen time is spent following him around at his pace, ultimately dictating the entire pace of the film as well. Also, while the gore is fantastic, and the kills are interesting, some of them are drawn out much longer than they need to be. One, in particular, involving a very slow woodsplitting machine was just not even worth the amount of screen time spent on it. Listen, we love watching people die in horror films as much as the next person, but it was dragging on so long even we were over it. Some scenes in general seemed to drag on too long and the screen time wasn't worth it.
Outside of the pacing issues, the audio for the dialogue wasn't great. It sounded too inauthentic most of the time. It always sounded like people were talking directly into a mic even when outdoors or far away from the camera location. It just wasn't mixed well and didn't sound right a lot of the time. We did enjoy some of the other areas in the production department like the cinematography. There were some nice shots mixed in here and there that were worth appreciating.
Overall, In a Violent Nature has a unique concept, but could have been executed better. Watching the film from the perspective of the killer is great, but slows the pacing of the film down to where it detracts from the experience of the film as a whole. There are some nice kills, but even those are drawn out too long sometimes. We think that it's worth a watch, but if there is a follow-up, maybe keep the audience in mind when writing scenes that take up a lot of screen time. As mentioned previously, it was Chris Nash's writing and directorial debut when it comes to a feature film, and for a debut, it was a good effort, and we would love to see a follow-up with a bit more energy in the future.
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