'In A Violent Nature' (2024)

Runtime: 1 hour, 34 minutes.

All the purchasable horror movies on Prime Video seem to be on special offer, no idea why... ;o)

Yesterday was another long old day so when I finally made it home, I thought I'd take advantage of the sale prices and have myself a little horror with my dinner. I'd seen the 'Carnage Counts' video for 'In A Violent Nature' and was intrigued enough to make that my choice for the evening. Sometimes the decision making process is as simple as that ;o) There's not a lot to tell, for reasons that will soon become obvious, but here's what I've got.

When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods. the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. Johnny has lost his locket and woe betide anybody that gets in the way of his search.

'In A Violent Nature' is your standard 'slasher in the woods offing teenagers' affair but with a little twist. This time round, we follow the journey of the killer as he makes his way through the forest, killing teenage campers (amongst others) along the way. What does this mean for the viewer? Well, instead of watching teenagers mill about frantically, we get to watch Johnny plod through the forest, on his way to seriously fuck some people up. What it ultimately means then is a lot of forest noises and just the sound of Johnny's footsteps as he makes his way towards his goal. It' doesn't really do much for the tension (a little bit but not much) but at the same time, there is definitely something off about watching an undead killer slowly track those teenagers down. So definitely unsettling then but also what 'Terminator' would have been like if we'd spent an extra hour and a half with the T-800 as it tracked Sarah Connor across the city. To be fair though, it is beautifully shot. On the whole, it worked for me but your mileage will inevitably vary. I guess it depends on how much walking you're happy to watch. 

When Johnny finally meets the teenagers who stole his locket... Wow. Johnny moves too slowly to affect the pacing of the film but the violence that he metes out more than makes up for it. I'm thinking 'Yoga Death' in particular. For someone who is undead, Johnny sure is creative in his work. Depending on your ability to control your stomach, you might want to close your eyes at that point. That's as bad as it gets though.

The ending didn't quite hit the target for me, the final girl got away a little too easily, but on the whole, I enjoyed 'In A Violent Nature' and I'm glad I made a little time for it last night. I liked how it was prepared to try and do something new with what is essentially a very straightforward horror trope and what it did was done well from where I was sat. Maybe the film wasn't as tense as it wanted to be but the sense of inevitability in Johnny makes up for it, that and what he did to that poor yoga girl... Apparently there's a sequel in the works, I'll be there for it.