Upcoming Horror Movie With 93% On RT Flips Friday The 13th’s Killer Story (& Makes It More Exciting)

Shudder’s In A Violent Nature promises to turn the Friday the 13th franchise’s premise on its head with a subversive spin on the slasher formula, and its experimental approach might be enough to reignite interest in the series. The Friday the 13th franchise has a simple premise, but this formula has been enough to sustain eleven movies, a TV show spinoff, and countless knock-offs. The story of a masked undead murderer rising from the grave and killing off campers one by one at an abandoned summer camp managed to make the Friday the 13th movies cult classics.

Ironically, not all of the original movies in the series even follow this basic setup, with some taking Jason Voorhees to Manhattan or outer space. However, although Friday the 13th’s upcoming TV show Crystal Lake may change this, the franchise’s most enduring contribution to pop culture is still the image of a masked killer pursuing young counselors across an empty summer camp. In an interesting subversion of this trope, Shudder’s upcoming In A Violent Nature takes this simple setup and revolutionizes the slasher sub-genre with a perspective shift. This time, the movie never leaves the killer’s point of view.

In A Violent Nature Subverts Friday the 13th’s Slasher Formula

The indie horror takes the killer’s POV for the entire story

Ever since director Bob Clark’s Black Christmas, slasher movies have always featured scenes from the killer’s POV. However, these are usually brief stalking sequences and chase scenes, as well as kills. In contrast, In A Violent Nature tells its entire slasher story entirely from the killer’s POV, from the moment they are resurrected throughout their entire massacre. The incessant chatter of doomed young counselors, their various romantic entanglements, rivalries, and comedic relief, are all absent. Instead, In A Violent Nature takes Friday the 13th’s franchise setup and strips it back to the basic elements of a killer, a lonely forest, and his victims.

The scenes that would usually be spent watching counselors unpack and establish their personalities are instead devoted to walking through the idyllic woods with a silent, patient killer. The plot doesn’t set up a half dozen minor characters and encourage viewers to work out who will die next, but instead investigates how killers like Jason Voorhees spend their time navigating the dark woods between kills. From the killer’s POV, In A Violent Nature can be bizarrely peaceful and Zen at times, unfolding at a leisurely pace and reveling in the grandeur of the movie’s forest setting before the next gory kill.

In A Violent Nature’s Slasher POV Makes It More Exciting

It can differentiate it from Friday the 13th and other slashers

Influenced by Gus Van Sant and Terrence Malick, In A Violent Nature has been described as an “Ambient slasher.” The movie’s slow pace results in a hypnotic feel that calls to mind the work of Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and this makes sudden lurches into kills that belong in a Friday the 13th sequel all the more shocking and effective. By borrowing from the world of slow cinema, In A Violent Nature breaks slasher movies down to their most basic components and makes them exciting again. All of the superfluous elements are removed and replaced by long, slow takes.

Despite how dreary this could be, the patient approach makes the scares surprisingly impactful. Viewers are forced to pay more attention, making In A Violent Nature somewhat similar to last year’s viral hit Skinamarink. Without distractions like conventional plotting or characters, the setpiece kills are more shocking and their gore is more of a surprise after the tranquility of the preceding scenes. As Crystal Lake plans a return to the Friday the 13th franchise, the series could stand to learn something from this risky experimental horror movie’s singular focus on its unknowable villain.

In A Violent Nature’s Experimental Style Doesn’t Limit Its Scares

The Shudder release is every bit as gory as a Friday the 13th sequel

While In A Violent Nature might be influenced by the slow cinema movement, the horror still has the beating heart of a slasher at its core. The deaths are shockingly gory, with the peace of the movie’s long passages of silence accentuating this brutality. Numerous reviewers noted that one particular death scene is nastier than anything found in many of the Friday the 13th sequels and the movie as a whole doesn’t skimp on shocks. While Friday the 13th’s best sequel has a lower body count than viewers might expect, In A Violent Nature lives up to its title.

Although earlier movies like 2015’s underrated The Final Girls and the same year’s Dude Bro Party Massacre III engaged with the history of summer camp slashers on a meta level, these were broad comedies that parodied the genre. In contrast, In A Violent Nature is both a loving tribute to and a great example of the sub-genre. The slasher movie also just happens to be a patient and methodical piece of art-house cinema, with In A Violent Nature blending Friday the 13th and slow cinema to great effect.