IN A VIOLENT NATURE
When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back - along with anyone in his way.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE, which just had its world premiere at Sundance, spins out a fun, grisly, slasher film from the killer’s perspective in a horror movie that feels like a nature documentary, and does it extremely well. Writer-director Chris Nash seems to take inspiration from Michael Myers’ slow but deliberate stalking in the Halloween movies. Long stretches of IN A VIOLENT NATURE are still, quiet, gorgeous shots of nature — Think of the comforting vibes one would get from playing THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD or DEATH STRANDING, but the protagonist is a hellspawned slasher lumbering through bucolic scenery, giving a pastoral feel of nature’s untouched beauty, rather than bombastic and quick — until our rotting corpse anti-hero approaches some camping teenagers and the gruesome mayhem commences…