Why do we watch horror movies with massacres at campsites?
Have you ever wondered what it is that makes you enjoy movies that place a killer in a campsite slaughtering a group of young people, with a completely superficial plot supporting whatever happens?
We don't watch them for the excellently written characters. We don't watch them for the immense depth in the storyline. We certainly don't watch them to enjoy the well-written, sparkling dialogues.
What's left? Well, of course, the utterly extreme scenes of violence, where the killer—usually inhuman but humanoid—slaughters the youths in unreal ways, using inspired methods that go beyond the narrow limits of reality.
We can think of many reasons why these images fascinate us. We can also see the new movie "In a Violent Nature," which tries to make us think about everything I just mentioned.
This film does the following: it thinks about what we might like about the slasher genre, puts it at the center, and removes the rest. A killer with a bizarre appearance and sometimes a mask on his face walks in a forest and kills anyone he finds in his path. That's the plot, in broad terms. And that's not all: the film is shot minimally, with the camera from the killer's point of view, who doesn't speak and doesn't explain why he does what he does.
We see the camera, in a single-take style, following the killer in the forest, with particularly sharp cuts in the editing that somewhat speed up the passage of time so that we don't see the entire routes. Occasionally, we hear the young people, sitting by a fire or by the water, talking, thus setting up a weak backdrop for the massacres. We learn very little about the youths, a bit about the killer, but the bulk of the film is this: we see the "villain" walking, with the camera following him from behind, and when he finds a youth, we see particularly (PARTICULARLY, I EMPHASIZE) violent scenes.
Yes, the film becomes boring at points, inevitably. However, it faithfully serves its style and doesn't back down (not much, at least; I would have preferred even less plot). It's a very interesting experiment, which you might appreciate if you, like me, are a fan of the genre. It's not necessarily that you will have a good time; it's not certain that you will be entertained, but as an experiment, it's effective because it strips the genre down, breaks it into pieces, and presents them to us uniquely, examining the structure of a slasher on different terms.
Additionally, as we've seen in other experimental films (like Skinamarink), the removal of the plot can make a horror movie more nightmarish, make the killer more threatening, strip away any connection to reality, and discard any sense of familiarity, creating insecurity for the viewer. Finally, I am very interested in horror movies that experiment and present a bizarre idea, but the experiments do not rely on new ways to make the genre "elevated," on new ways to make a horror movie thought-provoking, to convey messages. From me, it's a yes.
