Hush Hush Biz – In a violent nature review – Scott Driscoll
In a violent nature – “Nature is unforgiving”
In cinemas exclusively August 1-4.
Starring Ry Barrett and Andrea Pavlovic
This movie takes the Slasher genre and messes with the formula just a little, unlike most Slashers you do not get a big dump of exposition after a cold open with a tangentially related story beat. With In a violent nature, we start with characters that we will follow throughout, but out of shot. We are introduced to our supernatural killer very quickly and then the film proceeds at the implacable pace of the killer as he searches the forest for the missing locket that is removed by some of the central characters and killing everyone between him and the locket. This did have the benefit of keeping my interest and curiosity up throughout.
The filmmaking, rather than relying on incidental music and synthesised sound effects to build suspense and anxiety in the watcher it goes down the route of using just natural sounds and some excellent foley work. The background forest noises ebb and flow as the action rises and falls. One almost constant throughout is the sounds of the killer’s footfalls as he makes his way through the forest. It looks like the production was using Steadicam throughout or possibly the newer technology of a drone set to follow a subject. We mostly see the killer from behind and it takes a very long time into the movie before we see his face. The killer also spends a long time with a vintage piece of Lumberjack PPE over his head and carrying his weapons, a drag chain, and an axe. He puts the weapons to good use in his killing spree, each kill themed to his victims, the most gruesome of these is what he does to the nubile young woman who is doing yoga in the forest. The sound design and cinematography created an almost intimate voyeuristic experience between me as observer and the Killer.
The pacing of the film is steady and at times languorous. The scripting is naturalistic while still giving us such usual slasher gems as “I’ll be right back I promise” etc. The backstory of the world unfolds at the slow steady walking pace of the killer, revealing his previous massacres and the way to return him to torpor. The lazy feeling is belied by the slow ramping up of the action and the lack of overt jump scares really let the anxiety and horror build.
The film ends with an almost identical shot to the opening scene of the film, and it is set up for further stories if they wish to go down that path. The acting is good and at no point becomes campy as some of these can. The actor portraying the Killer (Ry Barret) does a wonderful job of bringing Johnny to unlife and does not draw focus in any negative way. The film’s final girl (Andrea Pavlovic) also gives a strong performance, and the supporting cast are suitably supportive. The sound design is sterling, the cinematography and other technical facets of the film make it look like a much higher budget movie.
I enjoyed this and would happily watch it again.
Scott “The Baron” Driscoll – 2024 has a podcast with horror films
