The slasher is amongst the most reliable subgenres in horror. As true as that is, so much of what we’re getting in the modern era is retreads of slasher franchises of old, such as Halloween and Child’s Play, among others. Is that a bad thing? When the results are good, absolutely not. But the nostalgia tank runs dry eventually. We need new slashers on the silver screen. Director Chris Nash gave us one this year with Johnny, who we follow in In a Violent Nature. That movie now has the release it deserves thanks to the new collector’s edition Blu-ray.
For fans of the film, or horror in general, this Blu-ray release truly is the way to go when it comes to this movie. It’s currently streaming on Shudder and that’s certainly an easy way to go about it. But this is an example of the physical release adding a lot to the proceedings, even for those who didn’t altogether love the film. Because of what is included in the release, it becomes one of those situations where the journey of bringing this movie to life is almost more interesting than the movie itself. And, love it or hate it, it’s a pretty damn interesting movie.
It’s also a wildly inventive movie – one that admittedly has the ability to divide – as it’s almost slavishly shot from the POV of Johnny. It’s almost like “a day in the life” for a murderous, undead killer. It would be like following around Jason Voorhees instead of the campers in a Friday the 13th movie, lumbering through the woods and all.
The film picks up after a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that serves as the resting place for the rotting corpse of Johnny. His body is then resurrected and becomes hellbent on getting this locket back. A group of vacationing teens is then slaughtered one by one in gruesome fashion as Johnny tries to take back what belongs to him. One kill in the film, the “yoga kill,” was so good it won Best Kill at this year’s Chainsaw Awards. More than a gimmick, there’s a lot of creative filmmaking on display from Nash.
IFC and Shudder packed the In a Violent Nature collector’s edition with bonus features, reminding one of the heyday of DVD when director’s commentaries and deep dives into films was common practice on home video. One of those features dives much deeper into the yoga kill. That’s great. There are storyboard galleries and commentary tracks. It even includes a limited edition poster! All great as well. But that’s not remotely what makes this disc worth picking up.
What’s most fascinating is that Nash shot a very, very different version of In a Violent Nature, one that was abandoned along the way in favor of. Dead in the Water is a full featurette dedicated to the making of that failed version of the film, and they’ve even included some footage from that scrapped version. It’s an incredible window into what could have been. It’s also rather remarkable given that this isn’t exactly a big studio movie. It’s endlessly engrossing, even for those who might have been left feeling less than thrilled about the movie we got.
For those who do love the movie, this is the way to go. The movie itself looks fantastic. It was previously available on DVD, but that just doesn’t cut it in 2024. Shudder is worth the investment for horror fans and it’s hard to complain about the movie being available there. That said, the limits of streaming always show themselves when there is a lot of black in a movie. The compression makes it look choppy. It’s just the nature of the beast. It’s all crystal clear here. For a movie as gory and gross as this, it’s also rather beautiful to look at. The Blu-ray brings that out.
Johnny is now a budding slasher icon. In a Violent Nature 2 is already in the works. He’ll join Art the Clown of Terrifier fame as one of very few slashers to emerge in the last 15 years beyond a single film that had any meaningful impact on the mainstream. That being the case, the deep dive offered by this Blu-ray is well worth one’s time, as this sort of thing doesn’t happen everyday anymore. The ‘80s were a long time ago. This is an outstanding example of a physical release truly adding something for the viewer, rather than just the movie itself.
The In a Violent Nature collector’s edition Blu-ray is available now. For more, check out our list of ‘80s slashers that never got sequels, but seem ripe for a reboot.
