In a Violent Nature

Everything I heard about In a Violent Nature, both good and bad, made me very excited to see it.  I finally had the chance last night and, while I can understand why people might not like it, I really dug it.  A group of friends, including Kris (Andrea Pavlovic), Colt (Cameron Love), Troy (Liam Leone), Aurora (Charlotte Creaghan), Brodie (Lea Rose Sebastianis), Ehren (Sam Roulston), and Evan (Alexander Oliver), are staying at a cabin in an old logging camp with a history of tragedy in northern Ontario.  When they discover a fallen fire tower in the forest, Troy notices a locket which, he eventually learns, once belonged to the son of a firefighter named Johnny (Ry Barrett) who was lured to the tower by loggers and then fell to his death.  He takes it to give to his girlfriend Kris but this theft reanimates Johnny's corpse, which had been buried under the fire tower, and he begins killing the group of friends one by one for retribution.  What distinguishes this from other slasher movies is that it is from the POV of the killer, rather than the victims, as he slowly and methodically (in some long continuous shots that follow Johnny from behind) stalks them through the forest.  Since we know where the killer is at all times there is not a lot of tension but there is a very palpable sense of dread as each victim inevitably succumbs to his increasingly inventive violence.  Johnny wears a vintage firefighter's mask and uses the tools that would be available in a logging camp, such as drag hooks, chains, axes, and log splitters, in some of the most brutal and gory scenes imaginable (there is one scene in particular that is so shocking I had a visceral reaction to it).  The fact that all of this violence takes place in such a beautiful location filled with sun-dappled trees and crystal lakes is also quite disconcerting, especially in scenes where Johnny seems to blend in with nature before he attacks.  Barrett gives a silent but riveting physical performance but some of the other actors are a bit cringe-worthy (I actually think that this would have worked better with no dialogue at all).  I'm also not sure the shift in POV from Johnny to one of the victims in the third act really works (aside from a brilliant cameo) but I have to admit that I'm still thinking about it.  This is a slow burn that many will find tedious and it is definitely more disturbing than scary but I liked it!