The following contains spoilers for In A Violent Nature, now playing in theaters

In A Violent Nature‘s ending is relatively straightforward, but highlights a purposefully and haunting ambiguity that benefits the film. Directed by Chris Nash with a naturalistic approach that subverts the typical slasher, In A Violent Nature follows an undead masked killer dubbed Johnny. After his resting place is disturbed by a group of teenagers, Johnny rises from the grave and hunts the group, picking them off one by one while searching for a locket. By the end of the film, the modern slasher villain Johnny has slaughtered all but one of the teens, setting up a quietly ambiguous and haunting third act.

Although the plot of In A Violent Nature is fairly basic, the ending of the film poses questions about the natural urge for gruesome impulses and the way it can spur some to lash out in horrifying ways. The ending of the In A Violent Nature embraces the slasher movie tropes that clearly inspired the film, while also reflecting on the natural instinct for violence — all while leaving the door open for a potential follow-up that could bring Johnny back for another rampage. Here’s how the ending of In A Violent Nature reflects on common themes of slassher sub-genre as a whole.

Is Johnny Still Free After In A Violent Nature’s Ending?

Johnny Isn’t Actually Defeated By The End Of In A Violent Nature

In A Violent Nature‘s ending leaves Johnny’s ultimate fate somewhat ambiguous, leaving the possibility that Johnny is still free. Much of the film focuses on Johnny as he hunts down the locket that once belonged to his mother. Eventually revealed to be the one thing capable of keeping his spirit at rest, much of In A Violent Nature‘s cast are gruesomely dispatched before they even realize what they’ve done and how important the locket is. After watching the last of her friends try (and fail) to distract Johnny as part of a plan to lure him back to his grave.

Watching this, Kris leaves the locket behind and makes a run for it. The final shot of the film implies Johnny reclaimed the locket, but there’s no indication what happened to him afterwards. There’s a chance that Johnny simply returned to his grave with the locket and went back to sleep, bringing peace back to the forest for a time. There’s also a chance that the failure to properly put him down means he’s still roaming the woods. While he may not be on an active hunt, this leaves the possibility that his titular violent nature could set back in, setting Johnny up on another rampage.

Why Johnny Lets The Final Girl Live

Kris Is The Only Character To Escape Johnny’s Rampage

Kris is the Final Girl of In A Violent Nature. A common trope in the kind of horror slasher films that directly inspired In A Violent Nature, the Final Girl trope often refers to the last survivor in many horror films. Kris continues that trend, escaping into the woods after leaving Johnny’s locket behind. Her survival suggests that Johnny truly was driven solely by the drive to relocate the locket, as he doesn’t appear again after that point in the film. While Johnny had already proven his lethal bonafides, his decision to let Kris escape suggests his rampage was specifically tied to the locket.

The decision to spare Kris and not chase after her implies that Johnny will be content now that he has his locket again, and may even willingly return to his grave. Thematically, Kris’ survival reinforces the connections In A Violent Nature has to the horror films that inspired it, adhering to the kind of rules most often seen in the slasher sub-genre. Those films also often had a Final Girl, like Kris, and her desperate escape from an undefeated killer feels specifically reminiscent of the ending of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

The Meaning Of In A Violent Nature’s Bear Story

What In A Violent Nature‘s Reflection On Death Means

Effectively a coda to the rest of In A Violent Nature, Kris is found on the road by an unnamed woman who quickly agrees to drive her to the hospital. To keep an exhausted and injured Kris awake, the Woman tells a story about her brother, a former park employee who discovered evidence that a bear had been lashing out wildly. The bear encountered the man and attacked him, only sparing him because it believed it had killed him. The bear, much like Johnny, is a visual, visceral, and violent realization of brutal impulses.

The Woman’s story underscores some of the central themes of In A Violent Nature and the horror genre as a whole. The story reflects on how some are driven to carry out horrible acts. It’s simply in their nature to be violent, effectively operating more as specters of death than actual members of their respective species. While a backstory for Johnny is revealed, his lack of humanity or restraint makes it clear that he’s more like a bear than any of the people he cuts down. Both were forces of nature, a dark counterpoint to life that can only be survived, not destroyed.

How In A Violent Nature Sets Up A Sequel

How In A Violent Nature Could Bring Back Johnny For Another Rampage

Teases about the past of In A Violent Nature as well as the somewhat ambiguous nature of the ending leaves room open for several different kinds of sequels. In A Violent Nature reveals that Johnny has been awoken before, even beyond his initial rampage against the loggers who ultimately killed him the first time around. Sam Roulston’s Ehren and Reece Presley’s Ranger both reference a massacre of several park rangers years earlier, with the Ranger revealing it had been his father who defeated Johnny and discovered the means of keeping him contained in the Earth.

A prospective follow-up could focus on that event, lending an inevitable sense of doom to the story. Johnny potentially being free of his earthly prison could also be an easy means of setting up a sequel. Johnny stalking the nearby woods and slaughtering those who he comes across could open up plenty of room for prospective sequels. This could extend to another group of hapless teenagers, or could focus on a more capable and prepared group of hunters contending with the largely unstoppable killer. Johnny’s inherent adaptability stems from his clear but basic character, allowing him to work in a number of different possible scenarios and against different targets.

The Real Meaning Of In A Violent Nature

In A Violent Nature Isn’t Just About A Slasher Killer

In A Violent Nature is a quiet and naturalistic approach to a typically bombastic genre. It’s a slasher movie that’s focused on the slasher, with no overt score to direct the audience’s attention and tension. This quietly underscores the danger of someone like Johnny, a remorseless killer who will simply hunt down people and dispatch them in gory fashion. Coupled with the Woman’s story at the end of the film, In A Violent Nature highlights how banal and mundane gruesome acts can be. While some of the film’s death scenes are astonishingly brutal, just as many are blunt and quick.

In the end, Johnny isn’t a complicated character, and his backstory doesn’t make him any more sympathetic or understandable. He’s more a force of nature, a violent hurricane in the shape of a man that can’t be stopped. In a sense, the true villain of In A Violent Nature isn’t Johnny but the drive to kill, a twisted impulse that occurs in others across the genre and even in other species. The meaning behind In A Violent Nature‘s ending suggests that brutality is just waiting in the woods, capable of striking anyone who comes across it again.