I saw In a Violent Nature

If Werner Herzog were to remake Friday the 13th, it might feel like director/writer Chris Nash's In a Violent Nature (produced by Shannon Hamner and Peter Kuplowsky and now streaming on AMC+/Shudder). For this homage, the predatory kills prevail, but the journey builds like Herzog's 1979, Nosferatu remake, with doom crawling along an exquisite, blood-splattered path. 

The concept centers on backward-minded, Mamma's boy, Johnny, played by Ryan Barrett, who due to insensitive employees, met his demise at a Canadian, woodland, work station. According to rustic legend, Johnny rose from the dead and slaughtered them, disappearing for a spell, only later to resurface as a brawny zombie in an old, firefighter mask, slaying any and all who entered his sequestered camp. 

The movie keeps Johnny's victims in the backdrop, as they whisper and question his existence and actions, positioning him in conspicuous front and center. This doesn't mean the movie is seen through Johnny's eyes, but one does hover within his close proximity, reinforcing the events through his vantage for about ninety-percent of the running time. (A Coen-bent epilogue caps the tale, though in a roundabout way also underprops the closing unease.)

The kills are quite graphic and often original in their styling, similar to the brutality found in the Saw franchise, but with a messy edge that matches Herschell Gordon Lewis' notorious effects. (In fact, the movie's murders may be the most revolting since Blood Feast 2: All U Can Eat.) 

Those who comprise Johnny's supporting cast are Timothy Paul McCarthy, Alexander Oliver, Charlotte Creaghan, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Sam Roulston, Andrea Pavlovic and Lauren-Marie (Friday the 13th Part II) Taylor. 

There's no score to accompany their journey. The gentle sounds of nature fill that gap, instilling a Herzog subtlety, though even Herzog will inject music now and then, (case in point, the Nosferatu remake). Even so, this laid-back crawl (on occasion, reminiscent of The Birds) makes the story as calming as it's unnerving. That's quite an artistic torsion, which prompts the kills to be more startling, emphasizing a prelude nonchalance that was always part of Voorhees' agenda, though in such case, the tactic was more prone to fade into the rapid, body-count shuffle. 

Some call In a Violent Nature an elaborate, Friday the 13th, fan film (with sporadic traces of Twitch of the Death Nerve, The Burning, Humongous, Just Before Dawn and My Bloody Valentine), an honorable wannabe that isn't quite what it's supposed to be and yet succeeds because of its frightful familiarity. I only know that as a macabre excursion, it delivers the goods, and when the disc version arrives, it'll be placed next to my Friday the 13th collection, no questions asked, no apologies offered.