When I started to become fascinated with movies during the early 1990s, “Friday the 13th” (1980) and its countless sequels naturally drew my attention whenever I spent some time in local video rental shops. Because of my young age, I could not possibly rent their VHS copies for myself, but I eventually got a chance to watch “Friday the 13th Part 2” (1981) on TV, and, boy, how much I was disappointed! First of all, it did not scare me at all, and, above all, I could not understand why some big dude wearing a bag tried to kill all those young (and boring) people who simply seemed to have a good time at that lakeside camp.

And that is the main reason why I had some naughty fun with “In a Violent Nature”, a little independent horror film which turns its very familiar story premise upside down in an amusing way. While it is surely drenched in lots of blood and violence as expected, the movie handles the story and characters with enough wit and competence to be appreciated, and that certainly distinguishes itself a bit from the main source of inspiration.

In the beginning, we are introduced to the killer character of the movie, who is simply named Johnny (Ry Barrett) and will surely look quite familiar to any connoisseur of the American slasher horror films of the 1980s. He is a hulking dude who does not speak at all as lurching here and there in his remote forest territory, and we later get some obligatory background information on how he was turned into a boogieman figure of that area many years ago.

Anyway, he has been somehow dormant during last several years, but then he is awakened as a group of college students inadvertently disrupts his hibernation, and he is certainly ready to kill anyone who dares to mess with him or his old territory. After eliminating one very rude local guy early in the story, he subsequently approaches to those college kids who are going to spend a night at a little lakeside cabin, and the mood naturally becomes a little tense as he is watching them from the distance without being notice at all.

It goes without saying that most of these college kids will get killed in one way or another just like many characters in the Friday the 13th flicks. Whenever one of these college kids happens to be alone by himself or herself, our killer character automatically comes for another killing, but the movie skillfully provides some good moments of nasty and fun surprise, and my favorite moment in the film is when a young lady is forced to do a very fatal physical stretching thanks to our killer character.

Things becomes a bit more interesting as the few surviving main characters try to get away from our killer character as soon as possible. When they come across some local ranger guy later in the story, this ranger dude turns out to have an old score to settle between him and our killer character, and he is certainly very careful because one cannot possibly be too cautious about Johnny, who, not so surprisingly, cannot be easily stopped or killed at all. 

Meanwhile, the movie closely sticks to its killer character as he slowly goes for one target after another, and it shows some wry sense of humor in addition to bringing considerable realistic touches to the screen. As shot in the screen ratio of 1.33:1 by cinematographer Pierce Derks, the movie often limits itself within its killer character’s perspective, so we usually observe him from the behind, but the movie does not disappoint us at all when it finally shows how its killer character’s expectedly hideous face, though he eventually covers his face with something equivalent to that hokey mask in “Friday the 13th: Part III” (1982) and its following sequels. 

In the end, the “Final Girl” character emerges as required during the last act, and the screenplay by director/writer Chris Nash, who makes a feature film debut hear after making several short films, puts a little nice twist on this genre convention. No, we do not get something like that infamous final scene in “Friday the 13th”, but we are served with something much more intriguing instead, and you may actually come to wish for a possible sequel to come in the future.   

The main cast members of the film fill their archetype roles as much as demanded. Although his job is as thankless as whatever those big stuntmen did in the Friday the 13th flicks, Ry Barrett manages to bring some deadpan humor to his gruesome character, and his character will probably draw a fair number of fans like Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. In case of several other main cast members, Reece Presley provides some gravitas to the story while Andrea Pavlovic is also effective as the “Final Girl” character, and the fans of the Friday the 13th series may appreciate a brief but crucial cameo appearance by a performer from “Friday the 13th Part II”.   

On the whole, “In a Violent Nature” simply has a fun within its familiar genre playground, but it is a lot more engaging and skillful than those Friday the 13th flicks and their countless imitators. Needless to say, this is mainly for genre aficionados, but you can enjoy it enough if you have ever watched any of those American slasher horror films of the 1980s, and you may find yourself gladly going along with all those gory and violent moments in the film.