The first of many misdirects of perspective occurs in the opening shot of “In a Violent Nature.” The film opens with off-screen voices in discussion as the camera fixes its glance on what appears like a slipshod frame of a tree branch in the forest. It’s an image that feels haphazardly put together, and combined with the disembodied dialogue, filmmaker Chris Nash primes the audience to perceive the scene as something akin to a DIY YouTube video.
READ MORE: Sundance 2024: The 23 Most Anticipated Movies To Watch
Instead, he lingers there. Any sensation this composition was accidental slowly curdles into a realization that Nash has the viewers exactly where he wants them. The terror proceeds from this revelation of intention and attention. It continues mercilessly and meticulously.
Picture Michael Haneke telling a campfire story to get some sense of what “In a Violent Nature” achieves. Nash understands the mythical power of oral storytelling to conjure a looming, fearful threat. But rather than hewing to the traditional genre playbook that would ask viewers to face an embodiment of their fears, his camera forces identification with that lurking presence. This inversion creates something of an “It Follows” situation — and the audience is it.
The patient, precise camerawork of cinematographer Pierce Derks makes all the difference as it keeps the pace behind the monster as it lurks about in search of vengeance. “In a Violent Nature” draws its energy from these extended pursuits of prey, drawing on Slow Cinema pacing techniques to create heightened awareness of time’s passage. That sense of stalking the stalker gets amplified by Nash’s attention to all senses, especially the crisp sound work that twists the stomach anew with the crunching of each leaf under the monster’s feet.
The killer takes thirty minutes to strike his first blow, which might sound like a lot of build-up. But Nash’s skillful direction ensures the momentum keeps building rather than restarting from zero. Like the monster, “In a Violent Nature” picks up velocity with each victim. Because the opening took care to establish the plodding pace at which he starts, the increased speed and closer camera positioning foment a sinking sensation that the beast is unstoppable.
If this experiential immersion sounds a little too avant-garde for the garden variety horror fan, don’t worry. “In a Violent Nature” may lead with its suspense and restraint. But in time, it packs on the gore and gruesomeness. Nash knows how to twist the knife for prolonged impact.
These bloody displays are not just short, sudden shocks, either. In keeping with the elongation of time throughout the film, they arrive with a burst of slow-building fury like the explosion of air from a bottle being slowly twisted. The deathly discharges of “In a Violent Nature” arrive like a present for a viewer’s patience, especially because Nash often delivers them with a subversively sick sense of humor. It’s shock without schlock.
If the movie falters, it’s when Nash breaks the forced perspective aligned with the killing machine. “In a Violent Nature” is at its best when operating in an experiential and elemental nature, but it does fill in some details to fill in the lore behind the lurker. The hypnotic, harrowing spell breaks most noticeably when breaking up the chronology to help provide some context around why a man in a leather fire-fighter mask feels so dead-set on killing everyone in his path.
But the present tense scenes focused on the various campers doomed to become prey are perfectly serviceable. They provide some grounding of the terror in plotting, which keeps “In a Violent Nature” from becoming just an overlong exercise in style. Their energy just cannot match the towering terror of keeping lockstep with the madman.
Yet even in these simpler scenes, Nash never loses the thread entirely on suspense. His frames make chilling use of negative space, suggesting an impending presence through the depicted absence. He’s not afraid to cut away or move the camera right before the most desired information would be revealed, either. For “In a Violent Nature,” careful calibration of chills just feels like second nature. [B+]
Follow along for all our coverage of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.