This Canadian slasher flick tells a classic camping trip massacre from the perspective of the guy doing the massacring (Ry Barrett).

Chris Nash’s In a Violent Nature proves an interesting genre exercise – not so much for its predator POV (which has been a slasher staple since the equally Canadian Black Christmas in 1974), but as an eco allegory; the violent nature of its title.

Johnny’s rampage represents the crushing inevitability of climate change; in true slasher style, he is punishing innocent teenagers for the crimes of previous generations. Specifically his backstory involves getting revenge on the logging company who covered up his father’s murder, and he uses logging equipment to carry out his gruesome kills. They should have called it Tucker & Dale vs. Diesel.

The self-described “ambient horror” foregrounds the often overlooked elemental beauty of Friday the 13th (Lauren-Marie Taylor from Part 2 appears) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, exploiting the serenity of the setting and purely diegetic sound to stage some comically drawn-out murders. This makes for a unique deconstruction of the genre and its teenagers – providing you enjoy long shots of Canadian forest punctuated by moments of extreme gore.

Where most postmodern horror movies are crammed with discourse, namedrops and winks to camera, Nash strips the formula down to the bone. It may not do the genre’s depiction of mental illness any favours, but it sure puts the Gore in Al Gore.