Summary
The 2024 Canadian horror movieIn a Violent Naturewas a controversial film, and not just for its gore. Writer/director Chris Nash’s debut received a great deal of hype for itsunique take on the slasher genre, while also irking some purists and starting many a conversation in horror circles after its Sundance premiere and streaming release onShudder. Critics largely embraced its strange combination of striking nature cinematography and brutal killings, praising its willingness toexplore and subvert genre conventions, while some audience members were left scratching their heads by those same elements.
Possibly one of the most divisive aspects of the film is its ending, which removes the viewer from the action andtoys with our expectations of how slashers operate. While some consider it a bold and unconventional choice, others find it disappointing and anticlimactic. So how doesIn a Violent Natureend, and how does the ending fit in with the rest of the film?
In a Violent Nature: an “Ambient Slasher”
In a Violent Naturehas sometimes been described as an “ambient slasher,” somewhere betweenthe classic tropes ofFriday the 13thand the slow, immersive filmmaking of Terrence Malick. Shot in the Ontario wilderness, the film takes a very deliberate approach, with shots of the beautiful forest scenery interrupted by some of the most graphic murder scenes in recent years. The story follows a supernatural killer named Johnny, whose eternal rest is disturbed when a couple of guys steal a locket that was hanging over his grave. In his quest to retrieve the locket, Johnnydons an old firefighter’s maskand hacks and slashes his way through an array of characters, with the camera often following behind him as he trudges ceaselessly through the woods for hours on end en route to his destination.
The film effectively plays with our understanding ofhow slashers typically depict their killersas being somehow able to appear anywhere at any time, tossing out narrative logic in favor of more efficient bloodshed.In a Violent Natureshows the audience those things that normal slashers would cut out, placing the audience in Johnny’s perspective as he covers what seems like miles of ground. It’s all in service of a film that pays homage to the classic “young people being murdered in the woods” slashers likeFriday the 13thorSleepaway Campwhile subverting audience expectations by coming at it from a unique angle, sustaining the tension until the inevitable violence.
In a Violent Nature’sUnexpected Ending
After a relentlessly brutal climax, Nash toys with our expectations once again forIn a Violent Nature’sfinale. Two characters are left standing from Johnny’s rampage,our “final girl” Kris(Andrea Pavlovic) and her boyfriend Colt (Cameron Love), who attempt to escape with their lives. Colt tries to distract Johnny, but is quickly dispatched with an axe to the head. Finally realizing that all Johnny is after is his locket, Kris leaves the locket on a gas canister and flees as Johnny continues to take an axe to Colt.
She eventually finds a road, where she’s picked up by a helpful stranger (Lauren-Marie Taylor) who agrees to take her to a hospital. As they drive, the woman asks Kris what attacked her, and she merely replies “an animal.” The woman then relates a long, winding story about her brother, a former game warden, being mauled by a bear seemingly for no reason, as Kris anxiously looks out the window. Finally, they stop to dress Kris’s wounds, despite her protests and desperation to leave the woods. She stares at the seemingly empty forest as the woman bandages her, expecting Johnny to emerge at any moment.
Rather than end on this moment of ambiguity, the camera cuts to a couple more static shots of wilderness before ending on the gas canister, Johnny’s locket nowhere to be seen. With this moment, Nash implies that Johnny was reunited with his lost locket, and able to return to his grave.
This ending, while maintaining a similarly detached tone as the rest of the film, creates an overwhelming sense of dread as the audience expects Johnny tobehave like a traditional slasher, appearing out of nowhere and murdering Kris and the woman, perhaps even jumping out of the backseat of the pickup truck. Similarly, when they stop to dress Kris’s wounds, the audience no doubt expects Johnny to emerge from the woods, taking advantage of this moment of stillness to strike.
The film has already established by this point that Johnny cannot appear out of nowhere, having shown him walking slowly and deliberately across many miles, so viewers are logically aware that it’s very unlikely he could have covered enough ground to catch up to them. Butpast slashers have rarely relied on logic, which is just another way that Nash plays with our preconceptions of this genre. The final shot of the gas canister could also be seen as subverting tropes, where we expect the killer to go on wreaking havoc, Johnny is content to return to the grave, his mission complete.
As a film that takes risks with one of horror’s most iconic subgenres,In a Violent Naturewas perhaps destined to be polarizing. But while some viewers might have been put off by its subversive elements, it’s hard to deny that there’s been no other horror film like it this year, or any year.
