10/18
So we had to change the main “monster” actor
Story
When the locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a 70-year-old vengeful spirit fueled by a horrific crime, his body comes back to life and he becomes hell-bent on retrieving it. In a 2024 interview with Points of Reviews, Chris Nash talked about doing a major reshoot: “I’d say we reshot 70% of the movie. That number varies depending on my mood, but it’s about 70%. We shot for four weeks in a completely different location with another lead actor who died of medical problem after a week and a half of production. He’s dressed up for the whole movie, so I thought if we could find someone the same size, roughly, we could avoid the change. But there are so many important things about performance.
It’s just watching someone walk and move and study their behavior
How they carry themselves, their gait, the weight of their feet; everything mattered so much. We only realized how much that mattered when we did a rough build of the first four weeks and saw the stark differences. They’re almost imperceptible until you realize that this is really the whole movie. But this was only one of the reasons why we felt it necessary to start production and start all over again. Another, perhaps more selfish, reason was that I had always imagined this to be filmed in Northern Ontario in that wilderness. That’s where I’m from, and where we originally shot didn’t have the same feel.
The trees didn’t feel the same
Everything felt different and too strange for what I wanted. When I got the chance to shoot again, I was adamant with my production partners that I would love to go back to my hometown and I would ask every friend and family member for everything possible. It’s not like we had the same budget to get it all done, and luckily a lot of our crew stayed with us. A lot of our cast stayed with us and we managed to pull it all together. There is one take from the original film. It’s a five or six second shot that was included, and it’s by far the most expensive shot in the movie.".
The film was shot in Canada
A small poster identified as an error uses the Canadian spelling “amoung” when the display case is shown at the ranger station. Referred to on the Film Junk Podcast: Episode 961: In a Violent Nature + TIFF 2024 (2024). Lessons Not Learned (The 1980 Damascus Missile Explosion) written and performed by Jess Lane courtesy of Jess Lane. A Violent Nature is a slasher film told mostly from the perspective of an undead killer named Johnny. While I appreciated the unconventional approach, I found most of the film lacking much excitement. It was a lot of lingering shots of the killer just walking through the woods.
Line deliveries were very wooden
For the most part, it’s just a slasher movie with one really inventive kill during the yoga scene. I appreciated some gory customs and practical effects. Unfortunately, some of the acting was not up to par. The best actress was the woman driving the car at the end of the movie. The ending of the movie was very anti-climactic. The movie wasn’t a disaster, but I felt the critics hyped it too much.