Ahhh, nature, such grand beauty and majesty. Oh, look over there a slow-witted zombie man with a old turn-of-the-century firefighter's mask. Such beauty.
In a Violent Nature could have been an instant horror cult classic. With a premise about following the under killer from their perspective. And, following them as they take their time wandering through the forest. It be fun to find the artsy in the 80's b-Horror movie classic. And, it almost pulls it off. Almost.
John, Johnny is a resurrected vengeful monster who just wants his locket back and he goes after 20-something douches who deserve to die after they woke him up.
This is very much built upon the genre of Jason/ Friday the 13th and a million other rip-offs. That part, it has down. Some lovely brutal kills that might even make you laugh or throughout.
Once again, some amazing nature shots, with our friend, the killer.
All of it gets undone with a third act back into the perspective of one of the victims. Back to someone running into the woods and forest being scary again. The point of it, is now fear/PTSD/drama isn't gonna leave that person. Maybe Johnny will get them, but it doesn't matter, because fear is the mind killer.
And, after spending so much time with our lead, it seems like such a lesser ending, a cope out. The director shows he has the look, but not the writing chops to complete the story in a satisfactory way.
It did not need to end with more violence, my blood-lust was satiated, but the tacked on last ten minutes from someone else's perspective to the same old horror story...no, thanks.
It hurts, because with a minor tweak to the end, it would have easily been a favorite for the year.
Dear John,
We'll always have our cabin the woods.
In a Violent Nature is now streaming on Shudder.
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