In A Violent Nature 2 Trailer Suggests The Most Ambitious Slasher Movie In Years Is Making A Big Shift

Chris Nash's "In a Violent Nature" was one of the most startlingly original slasher films in years when it stalked into theaters in the summer of 2024. The movie introduced us to Johnny, a slow-moving, undead hulk who's on the hunt for the locket that was stolen from the fire tower where he was buried. The locket is in the possession of a group of young campers who, per the conventions of the genre, are indulging in booze, marijuana, and premarital sex. Unlike "Friday the 13th" slasher Jason Voorhees, Johnny doesn't seem to have a moral objection to campers carousing. He just wants his damn locket back. And he'll rack up one helluva body count, in shockingly inventive ways, until he retrieves what is rightfully his.

The hook to Nash's film was that it was shot largely from Johnny's perspective, which, given his lethargic gait, added an unusual level of suspense (as did the finely detailed sound design). It only gets creepier when he dons an old firefighter mask and begins dispatching the campers with an array of antique firefighter implements. The kills are off-the-map brutal. Johnny is a true artist of murder. He makes Jason, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger look like amateurs.

"In a Violent Nature" was successful enough for IFC Films and Shudder to generate a sequel, which, as a fan of the original (I considered it one of the ten best movies of 2024), pleased me. But the novelty of the film's aesthetic was vital to its effectiveness. How do you keep this approach feeling fresh? Judging from the first trailer for "In a Violent Nature 2," you abandon it. I'm sure we'll get callbacks to the hand-held one-takes, but it really looks like they're employing a more visually dynamic style this time around. This could very well be a full-throttle thrill ride, and, y'know, I'm here for this.

Granted, we're only dealing with a little over a minute of footage here, but "In A Violent Way 2," which was written by Nash and directed by Nathaniel Wilson, seems to be taking a more traditional slasher approach. It's set at a summer camp where Johnny goes on a bloody rampage because some fool kid has absconded with his locket. According to the brief plot summary at Variety, the story will center on "a young, outcast camper" and his counselor sister, who, along with their friends, must survive Johnny's bloody wrath.

"In a Violent Nature 2" looks like it's going to be a corker. The teased kills look utterly vicious, while Johnny's surprise assault on a cabin living room feels like a jump scare that was too jarring to spoil in a trailer. Shudder knows what they're doing, though, so I just take this to mean that they've got some truly wild stuff planned with this sequel. Per producer Peter Kuplowsky, "We are thrilled to return for a new chapter and are excited to deploy Johnny as a conduit to further experiments in the genre." That's fancy talk for "We're gonna scare the knickers off you."

This trailer's only bum note is that there's no release date! When's Johnny trudging home again?