By Kolin Kriner
What if “Friday the 13th” was filmed from the perspective of Jason, or “Halloween” from that of Michael Myers? “In a Violent Nature,” directed by Chris Nash, came out this summer and did just that: presented the world with a slasher from the perspective of the killer, and it’s genuinely phenomenal.
This movie is so humorous in the dullest way possible, and that’s on purpose. The film sits there and really takes in what a killer does when not on screen.
The film follows Johnny, a spirit on the path of vengeance, as he slowly, and I mean slowly, traverses the world around him. Most of the film is made up of him walking from place to place, kill to kill, and it is genuinely hilarious once you realize what the film is doing. It drags on purpose, because if you were watching any other slasher, for example, what would Jason Vorhees be doing between kills? The man would slowly be walking toward his next kill.
The kills in this movie are amazingly shot, using primarily practical effects. They are gory, gruesome and incredibly artistically done, which adds a layer to the point of the film — if Johnny is always walking, he has a lot of time to really sit there and plan out his kills.
You follow Johnny for genuinely the entire movie — there are other characters, of course, but they are never the center of focus. Characters are talking? The camera is just watching Johnny under the bed listening. It’s completely and utterly fascinating that a movie like this hasn’t been made before.
I give this film 4.5/5 stars, for the beautifully dull, bloody, yet hilarious masterpiece it is.
