In a Violent Nature

Directed by Chris Nash, In a Violent Nature follows a resurrected killer as he embarks on a murder spree after his prized locket is stolen from his makeshift grave. Filmmaker Nash, armed with his own screenplay, delivers a decidedly intriguing spin on the slasher genre that fares best when focused on the aforementioned killer, as the movie admittedly does lose a fair bit of momentum each and every time Nash places the elements on other, far-less-compelling elements – with this particularly true of virtually everything involving the hapless (and very familiar) victims. (It doesn’t help, either, that much of the movie’s dialogue has been rendered unintelligible by poor sound design, which only enhances the feeling that such interludes should’ve been excised.) It’s clear, then, that In a Violent Nature fares best when focused on its central character’s slow, methodical pursuit of his various targets, and while Nash certainly does push the deliberate aesthetic as far as it can possibly go, the picture boasts a handful of spectacularly (and impressively) brutal kills that effective buoy the viewer’s interest on a relatively regular basis. By the time the padded-out and fairly underwhelming final scene rolls around, In a Violent Nature has cemented its place as a relentlessly hit-and-miss endeavor that nevertheless earns a pass almost entirely on the basis of its audacious premise.

**1/2 out of ****