I hope so too - I really don't like slashers because it seems like people don't really know how to make them scary without jumpscares which I don't personally enjoy. I don't really know how you would pull that off personally but yeah... just any amount of depth whatsoever would be cool
@@TheRainstorm97 the original Strangers had some pretty great scenes of terror with a lot of subtlety. Too bad it lost all of it as the series went on.
The end track is really great yeah! I love all of the ones may has used since ... when did she start doing this? Before her first album? It's really nice & they've all been good
See, the mirror flashback scene near the start made me think of a video game, as does the camera perspective (which yea i know everyone is saying ofc). It reminded me of when you're walking around in a game, interact with an object and it triggers dialogue or a flashback or something....so I assumed they were REALLY trying to go for the video game thing....but then they never did that again...so yes it was wildly out of place. But yeah, I had similar feelings about this film. Some really unique stuff here and there, not all of it consistent which definitely brought it down a little bit. But generally engaging (for me). I really enjoyed how peaceful it felt despite the violence; even when the intense gore was happening, characters weren't screaming in anguish. They felt at peace in those moments, almost as if they understood that's just nature. That was honestly the most unique part to me.
Yes, I kind of got that vibe too. I don't think that's what was intended, but I could easily see a one to one shot of the movie only with the occasional player interaction.
That's pretty heavy thinking about things in terms of these being the last movies of their kind but I think you may be right and hopefully after the decay something new and beautiful can emerge. I think the last truly great slasher film to come out was You're next
No way! I haven't released my Slasher movie yet! It's about a crazy Mormon who only wears his anti-native American underwear. He roams the woods collecting hallucinogenic berries and killing people with a bit of wood with a squirrel attached to it. The squirrel is rabid and also the man's only friend. Together they have to save his forest from being demolished by a giant conglomerate trying to build a site for a new hotel on top of an old native American burial ground. The man knows this will cause the vengeful spirits to rise and start the apocalypse. Some of the more memorable kills will be lashing a guy to bulldozer and setting it to run over a propane tank. Another will be the man summoning his dead ancestors to kill the CEO with a golden wheel. Oh and the squirrel is the only survivor at the end. It's gonna be called Mormon Bates Hotel.
I felt mixed on it, like I really appreciate the presentation, the sound design, the crazy violent kills and just for how unique it actually was, but overall the actual experience of watching it was very dry at moments. There's also that weird part with the mirror you mentioned and just how damn long the fireplace scene went on. I also got some mixed feelings on the ending in the car. I like how it connects the killer with the bear, and how we're basically trained to expect the killer to pop out and do something and he just..doesn't. But man, that monologue feels like it takes forever lol.
While I don't think it's the last slasher in a literal sense it does feel like the slasher as a genre feels incongruent in our modern age. It feels like the two types of slashers that can grab modern audiences are to either follow the meta approach of Scream or be a throwback to 80s gory excess, the fact In A Violent Nature threads the needle between these two registers reveals the limited ceiling to grow from. Keep thinking about a comment from a recent Red Letter Media video where Mike says that these movies used to be made by perverts trying to make a quick buck and the films reflected that but now they're being made by people who grew up watching horror movies and have a marvel easter egg approach to their filmmaking (paraphrasing a bit).
Almost as shocking as the gore I think was the calm beauty of some of these long, drawn out scenes of this Johnny guy meandering through the wilderness. Almost peaceful (aside from the killing lol) contemplative moments of wide-shot natural beauty sorta stuck with me
im just really excited to get to watch/listen to opinions and stuff. i like horror conceptually but am not a fan of actually watching it so yr videos really just hit
I had the same feelings after Cabin in the Woods 2011. I thought well I guess they don't need to make any more horror movies now, and then a few years later the remake of Evil Dead came out.
I went to see the movie a couple of days ago. I enjoyed it for what it was, though I thought it could have been helped by a little more editing. The kills were entertaining, I loved the look of Johnny, and the cinematography was on point. I hope this is not the end for Slashers as I am a Slasher fan. I guess that time will tell.
This movie has so much potential imo, if they were to make a sequel or successor or whatever using the highlights of In a Violent Nature it could be a breath of fresh air for modern horror movies. Personally im sick of analog horror and all that shit
I don't know that I agree with your notion that these films are to the be the death rattle of their respective genres. If anything I see them as something akin to lightning. Brilliant and one of a kind flashes that reanimate their stories into something new and perhaps stranger. Slashers may die, but I think we all know that death is not as final as it may seem.
I think I basically agree with this. I get where May's coming from, and I think she may be right in a sense, but also - slasher fans just like slashers. Something may have been (basically) done before, but if it's done well, or even just in a way someone likes, then some people will still like it, and consider it worthwhile. I think this is the same for films in general, and media in general.
the strange thumbs up filter thing cracked me up so much i had to show it to my wife. this review rocks. watched the movie after your vid, and honestly, this movie made me really happy, and it was surprisingly goofy (the mirror scene AAAA..). lots of love in the horror genre. i really enjoy your videos and thoughts on horror, May! hope youre having a kind summer!
I think the movie lost me with the campfire scene being like 10 minute explanation and the entire ending , because the creative limitation of following the killer is basically broken . The first kill was so disingenuous to the rest of the movie and the build up to it was incredibly weak . Regardless I respect this movie as someone who isn’t a slasher fan .
This being compared to Terrifier 2 by anyone feels of a younglings first movie gore comparison , no disrespect to either party but yea there’s a difference
I dont know that there will ever be an end to a genre as popular and well loved as slashers, but i can definitely see the movie moreso redirecting the slasher genre in a different direction. Overall though i loved the video!
Chuck Palahniuk, in his memoir, had a section that he called "Books You Can't Unread". I was only able to find a couple of them on Audible, but one that stood out was Lee H Whittelsey's "Death In Yellowstone." Read it or listen to it if you want, but it is so disturbing at points that you will want to throw it away. It is a reference guide to every recorded death in Yellowstone Park, and that is what this movie made me think of. I'm honestly a little bit sad that the filmmakers did not capture much of the ruthlessness of nature itself. Arguably, the two scenes that come closest are the yoga scene and the lake scene because if you are alone somewhere that you can't escape danger like a high place that you can't climb down or a large body of water, the beauty isn't going to comfort you while you die. Seriously though, read Death in Yellowstone. It is unflinching. Dropping an edit to humbly request that May read the book and review it. Dropping another edit to say, I screwed up. Chuck's memoir had a section for fiction and non-fiction reading lists. He has a collection of short stories called "Stories You Can't Unread." My bad.
(spoilers) There were things i liked about this movie. The gorgeous nature shots! The well done gore effects! The way it played with sound! But the film itself did not work for me. Now, part of that may be the expectations I had. We went because it was the movie that started next and the summary was, " The horror movie tracks a ravenous zombie creature as it makes its way through a secluded forest." This is not a zombie movie. This is an undead slasher movie. Johnny is not a "ravenous zombie", he's a revenant at best. It felt like somebody filmed their Friday the 13th fanfiction and had to change the names and details a little a la 50 Shades of Grey. The highlights for me were the moments at the ranger station with the ranger- the little details he shares (my father survived the first massacre, that ground's the only dirt that'll hold him, etc) and the scene with the woman in the car. I honestly was bored with the drawn out final girl running through the woods sequence and was starting to pick out specific bird calls in the background. I also feel there was a missed opportunity to mirror Johnny and the dead coyote in the trap at the beginning if we're going to be comparing him to a fox in a henhouse? Overall score 5/10. Made me want to take a walk in the woods.
omg may!! your vids didn’t show up in my sub box so i thought you stopped uploading :/ anyway i never comment on videos ever really but i’m having a tough time right now and seeing you review this film made me smile - i just had to leave a comment to let you know that. you are the definition of a comfort creator ❤ thank you very much ma’am
I'm not a huge fan of actually watching slasher horror, but conceptually I love the way it strips away our false notions of transcendence and reduces us to the lowly bags of meat and guts that we truly are. I think it helps keep us grounded and our heads at least partially out of our own asses. Thank you as always for your thoughtful art and commentary.
I am so interested with your perception, not just in this being the "last slasher movie", but that a lot of genres are reaching their "last leg". I don't know for sure if I agree, but I would love to hear you potentially delve more in-depth with your thoughts on the modern direction in cinema and if it is possible for things to reach a point that nothing new can be said.
Super hard agree on the wild comparisons to Terrifier 2, that's completely out of pocket. What I didn't see coming was the Skinamarink comparison and that is thought provoking. But I think there is a very good conversation to be had about what read to me as a real tension between nature, "nature", and the purported conscious motivations of the killer. I saw it as a creative dissonance, not a confusion, even if I'm probably forced to agree that Johnny's mirror memory scene isn't the best. Side notes: the park ranger actor told us about how he worked with the practical effects lead on Pysho Goreman both in that movie and in this one, and the "final girl" Andrea Pavlovic pointed out to us that the woman delivering that final monologue was Vickie in Friday the 13th 2! Let us know what could possibly follow up these movies if you think we've already seen the "last" slasher, the "last" spookshow?
I really loved the things that were working in this movie... but damn, the things that weren't working made me think the perspective shift and all the opportunity for reflection on the genre it brought was wasted on this particular movie.
Same, most of the people I follow I'd want to be friends with if I could be, not in an obsessive way just in a it would been cool to be able to just talk to this person and hang out on that level, but oh well
In a Violent Nature is my second favorite horror movie, Skinamarink being my first. I loved both completely. I can not understand any negative take about either movie that people say. I don’t think they’re wrong, everyone’s allowed to their opinions, I just honestly see absolutely nothing wrong with either film. I would love to have a 1 on 1 discussion with someone about both films, but sadly none of my peers are willing to watch either lol
love all your diary entry reviews lately may! even if i don't plan to watch x movie i always find your take on them super interesting. this is like slightly sideways topic wise but i'd be interested to know your opinion of the eyes of my mother (2016) if you've ever seen it or plan to, which is like on topic in the slasher sense, but your saying the slasher genre is kind of over reminded me of what i found were the failings of that movie, it's like half important to me because it gets very close to my kind of freakness but then what makes it special feels kind of dropped in the service of remaining respectably within the genre & not scaring the audience in too unconventional a way. to me it marks the ways i feel tired of the genre (even if its not like so overtly slasher in nature, more grounded ig), which is i think there are bounds around it wrt kinds of way violence & sex are married and the kinds of people you're meant to/allowed to feel empathy/sympathy/any-kind-of-kinship-with especially like how you say in a violent nature is from the killers perspective just as the eyes of my mother is, what taking the perspective of the killer does with the rship to the audience
I work at a movie theater, and I watched the film and loved it immensely, but every single person I've talked to walking out of it seems to hate it. One person even came out with two thumbs down at the ready.
(Sorry for the rambling ahead i have Thoughts) My theatre was laughing at the gratuitous violence throughout the whole movie and so was I. I really liked how well executed the effects were, but I felt like i was Missing something watching it. Like the themes were there and the commentary on the genre was clear enough to me, but the execution of the metaphor ultimately felt sloppy to me. I dont feel like it being "boring" is a problem, (which was the first thing i heard upon exiting the theatre) it established a ghoulishly peaceful atmosphere in my opinion, which really worked for me. What sucks is that one of the best parts of the movie (the titular Violent Nature with the gore and such) also is its biggest detriment. the fact that the killer is in theory supposed to be a force of natural violence while in practice is actively Consciously conniving and doing these elaborate kills, it just feels like trying to put a square peg through a round hole, and desperatly hammering it to try and make it fit. It really felt like i was watching the film makers figure out what the point of the film was As the film was rolling ANyways good kills and lesbians were there so 10/10
slashers make me physically uncomfortable because i can't help but put myself in the seat of the person who is being gored, so i don't watch them or they put me in a terrible headspace. but every time you upload a video about a movie with gore in it, i still click because you have such interesting opinions about things that i have so little knowledge of.
Hi May, I finished your review and then immediately went to my local theater to see this film! I thought it was okay, honestly wish there was a bit more space a la Elephant. Also, I think the film would have been elevated more with better acting. All the stilted dialogue hurt the vibe for me, they could have tried for a much more mundane, semi-improvised, naturalistic tone
I don't think it's the last slasher. I feel like Behind the Mask was a better deconstruction of slasher movies and their tropes. This is more of an arthouse version of Final Girls or You Might be the Killer which both tackled camp slasher tropes but from more humorous spots. We'll still get slashers, but hopefully these sorts of deconstruction and metanarratives will push the next generation of writers to reinvent the tropes or come up with unique ways to make them fun (like Hush, which would be a generic slasher if not for the Final Girl being deaf).
I watched this a couple days ago and I've been stewing on it ever since. I mostly had a bad time with this movie, which sucks because i was onboard for the first 25-ish minutes. everything up until we meet the college students i thought was cool (i did however completely forget that mirror scene though lol). i liked that first kill being off screen, and we dispassionatly waltz back through the scene of a mauling. that really felt like a thesis statement from the movie, only to be completely undercut by most fo the rest of the kills that felt too... creative, spiteful & out of character. like when he pulled that yoga-girls head through her stomach, it felt like the director was snickering and muttering "you see! she was so self obsessed and now she's really navel-gazing teeheehee". it felt like the writer was being spiteful to his own characters, and the slasher was just his tool to enact poetic justice on them, even if it went against the characterization that had already been established. Also the diegetic score was relaxing to me. I was a boy scout as a kid, so i spent a lot of time in the woods, and all of the parts just listening to birdsong and cicadas was pleasantly nostalgic... and i don't think that was the intended tone. for me, that also made the scenes of violence (or god forbid, someone talking) really dissonant and frustrating. I liked the log splitter. the closing monologue felt like it belonged in a better movie, truck lady also gave the best peformance hands down. i agree, on the whole. the execution is interesting, but the everything else falls on it's assand drags the rest of the movie with it. I wanna see a better version of this movie.
I'm thinking the kills are to emphasize that the killer is, mentally speaking, a little boy. He's playing with his victims like he played with the toy car on the keychain. I got the feeling he was meant to a more realistic version of Jason Voorhees.
@@mysteriiis Legit i liked the scene where he playe with the toy car. i wanted more of that. i can actually read the log-splitter as him playing, or doing that thing where kids do something with an obvious consequence because they aren't 100% sure the obvious thing will happen... but the mouth decapitation and navel-gazing kills both were such obvious metaphors that they have to say something about the killer, but at least in my reading they seemed to clash with the character established at the start. And even if we run with the playful child line, that clashes with the movie's other statement of him being kind of like an animal (closing monologue/title implications). the characterization is inconsistent is all, it got under my skin in particular more than other people i guess
my fascination with slashers have always had a technical angle, as in how far they can push the gore and how realistic they can make the practical / visual effects, which always keeps evolving (see Terrifier movies), which is one reason for more slashers. one more aspect is that I like to see "creative" writing, even if it's along the lines of "creative kills", with some luck also including some witty dialogue and really just overall creative script, I think there is still room for new slashers that amp these up. another would be is that I would like to see horror movies that capture the atmosphere in a way that makes you genuinely scared, I guess that is up to the talents of the director, but I always welcome new contenders in this area too.
Art piece? Negative space? A very backhanded Killing of a Sacred Deer (anybody in his way)? To commit to the movie, one commits to the nothingness of forest and hills for a time. I didn't like it or dislike it, it was just like any walk in the hills and mountains. Without a purpose, it was just a dumb walk (for me). For the nameless undead killer, he seems like a natural bit of old terror, out of place in the current time. There could have been drones, laser rifles, guardian robots, locked high defense Teslas, but there wasn't. You wouldn't even know it's further than the 1970s from the tech.
I thought it was generally a cool experience although a bunch of people walked out of the theater I was in. My biggest complaint is if your gonna make this type of movie, the payoff as horror fans has to be better; more specifically the kills should have been more creative. There was only 1 that was truly memorable, they had a chance to make them all like that.
I thought it sucked. Loved all the slow stuff - very Gus Van Sant at his best. And it seems dumb to complain about the acting in a slasher movie but it was SO bad, like why are these people not reacting like normal humans?
Skinamerink wishes it was In A Violent Nature. While both made unique camera choices that only serve the movie in that they made unique camera choices, In A Violent Nature actually develops its characters and story. I mean, it's a slasher movie that somehow turned into a walking simulator, but Skinamerink was a collection of RUclips analogue horror ARG videos that somehow got pieced together into a film. I'm also hoping they really weren't trying to set up that nature itself is violent because they really screwed that up in the beginning. If nature is the violent one then why have a shot of an animal that died after getting caught in a trap and what looked like a camera so that someone could watch its suffering. I think it's saying the nature of men (and lesbians) is evil. The final girl lived because she didn't solve the problem with violence, she walked (ran) away.
I was going to a 1pm show (I could throw $10 in the street, thought I'd give it to the Charles) Now I might just make some macaroni and play with the dog, instead. Thumb up, I guess???
We don't all have the same accent. They sound like your average Ontarians from where I live (I live about 2 hours away from where this takes place). It's like how not every American sounds like they are from Fargo.
This is what you and your generation have done to this world. This generation has managed to do what hitler, stalin, mao, or any other maniacal dictator wasn't able to do. And you accomplished it by saying, "Well, i guess this is it!" It's over! I'm not going to try and change it. It's too hard, and it hurts my feelings... When you said this movie was nowhere near terrifier 2, i totally understood. Art the clow in just that. A clown. You have to quit thinking that it's a good movie. Stand up and think of something more original. F13th is not the best movie, but at least it tried. You have to learn to call garbage, garbage. Then try to fix it.
I definitely don’t know if it’s the last slasher, but I hope it means we get smarter slashers afterwards.
I hope so too - I really don't like slashers because it seems like people don't really know how to make them scary without jumpscares which I don't personally enjoy. I don't really know how you would pull that off personally but yeah... just any amount of depth whatsoever would be cool
@@TheRainstorm97 the original Strangers had some pretty great scenes of terror with a lot of subtlety. Too bad it lost all of it as the series went on.
Sacrificing a fatted calf to the almighty algorithm.
Love the music, but it's nice to have the reviews back!
The end track is really great yeah! I love all of the ones may has used since ... when did she start doing this? Before her first album? It's really nice & they've all been good
i love all this recent content we’ve been getting. nice to see you so often
See, the mirror flashback scene near the start made me think of a video game, as does the camera perspective (which yea i know everyone is saying ofc). It reminded me of when you're walking around in a game, interact with an object and it triggers dialogue or a flashback or something....so I assumed they were REALLY trying to go for the video game thing....but then they never did that again...so yes it was wildly out of place.
But yeah, I had similar feelings about this film. Some really unique stuff here and there, not all of it consistent which definitely brought it down a little bit. But generally engaging (for me).
I really enjoyed how peaceful it felt despite the violence; even when the intense gore was happening, characters weren't screaming in anguish. They felt at peace in those moments, almost as if they understood that's just nature. That was honestly the most unique part to me.
That part felt like an FMV game from the 90s
Yes, I kind of got that vibe too. I don't think that's what was intended, but I could easily see a one to one shot of the movie only with the occasional player interaction.
That's pretty heavy thinking about things in terms of these being the last movies of their kind but I think you may be right and hopefully after the decay something new and beautiful can emerge. I think the last truly great slasher film to come out was You're next
1:52 May Leitz song reference. I love Death Machine, that song got me through many terrible shifts at my old job
You're Next is truly a GEM, sad that it's underrated tho but it's kinda becoming like a cult following.
All my life I been lookin for the magic 🎩 🎶 🎵
Love You’re Next! 🎉
There's probably gonna have a whole ass horror movie ressurgence the moment blumhouse goes out of business haha
i could see this ushering in a new era of slashers, a more arthouse approach and individuality of the killers like the pre-halloween types.
No way! I haven't released my Slasher movie yet! It's about a crazy Mormon who only wears his anti-native American underwear. He roams the woods collecting hallucinogenic berries and killing people with a bit of wood with a squirrel attached to it. The squirrel is rabid and also the man's only friend. Together they have to save his forest from being demolished by a giant conglomerate trying to build a site for a new hotel on top of an old native American burial ground. The man knows this will cause the vengeful spirits to rise and start the apocalypse. Some of the more memorable kills will be lashing a guy to bulldozer and setting it to run over a propane tank. Another will be the man summoning his dead ancestors to kill the CEO with a golden wheel. Oh and the squirrel is the only survivor at the end. It's gonna be called Mormon Bates Hotel.
When can I have it on my desk?
Hey I'm sold
You know I would not only watch but invest. Where can I sign my life savings of $5 over
I wanna hear your thoughts on “I Saw the TV Glow”!!
Me toooo
All I need to know: does he kill someone by repeatedly slamming them against a tree while they're inside a sleeping bag?
Jason X was my movie as a child!!
I felt mixed on it, like I really appreciate the presentation, the sound design, the crazy violent kills and just for how unique it actually was, but overall the actual experience of watching it was very dry at moments.
There's also that weird part with the mirror you mentioned and just how damn long the fireplace scene went on. I also got some mixed feelings on the ending in the car. I like how it connects the killer with the bear, and how we're basically trained to expect the killer to pop out and do something and he just..doesn't. But man, that monologue feels like it takes forever lol.
I’m genuinely so happy to see another video. Nyx you’re my favorite RUclipsr/ now author lol!
God we are eating well this week.
While I don't think it's the last slasher in a literal sense it does feel like the slasher as a genre feels incongruent in our modern age. It feels like the two types of slashers that can grab modern audiences are to either follow the meta approach of Scream or be a throwback to 80s gory excess, the fact In A Violent Nature threads the needle between these two registers reveals the limited ceiling to grow from. Keep thinking about a comment from a recent Red Letter Media video where Mike says that these movies used to be made by perverts trying to make a quick buck and the films reflected that but now they're being made by people who grew up watching horror movies and have a marvel easter egg approach to their filmmaking (paraphrasing a bit).
“A rizzing serial killer”
Almost as shocking as the gore I think was the calm beauty of some of these long, drawn out scenes of this Johnny guy meandering through the wilderness. Almost peaceful (aside from the killing lol) contemplative moments of wide-shot natural beauty sorta stuck with me
im just really excited to get to watch/listen to opinions and stuff. i like horror conceptually but am not a fan of actually watching it so yr videos really just hit
I had the same feelings after Cabin in the Woods 2011. I thought well I guess they don't need to make any more horror movies now, and then a few years later the remake of Evil Dead came out.
I liked both that one and Rise. Interested in what they do next, though I'm not familiar with the directors...
I went to see the movie a couple of days ago. I enjoyed it for what it was, though I thought it could have been helped by a little more editing. The kills were entertaining, I loved the look of Johnny, and the cinematography was on point. I hope this is not the end for Slashers as I am a Slasher fan. I guess that time will tell.
This movie has so much potential imo, if they were to make a sequel or successor or whatever using the highlights of In a Violent Nature it could be a breath of fresh air for modern horror movies. Personally im sick of analog horror and all that shit
I don't know that I agree with your notion that these films are to the be the death rattle of their respective genres. If anything I see them as something akin to lightning. Brilliant and one of a kind flashes that reanimate their stories into something new and perhaps stranger. Slashers may die, but I think we all know that death is not as final as it may seem.
I think I basically agree with this. I get where May's coming from, and I think she may be right in a sense, but also - slasher fans just like slashers. Something may have been (basically) done before, but if it's done well, or even just in a way someone likes, then some people will still like it, and consider it worthwhile. I think this is the same for films in general, and media in general.
Love the small gap between uploads and really enjoy this format, please keep making simple film critiques like this, I adore it.
I am building a cat tower and completely missed what movie you are talking about but I am still enjoying your descript review 😅❤
the strange thumbs up filter thing cracked me up so much i had to show it to my wife. this review rocks. watched the movie after your vid, and honestly, this movie made me really happy, and it was surprisingly goofy (the mirror scene AAAA..). lots of love in the horror genre. i really enjoy your videos and thoughts on horror, May! hope youre having a kind summer!
I think the movie lost me with the campfire scene being like 10 minute explanation and the entire ending , because the creative limitation of following the killer is basically broken . The first kill was so disingenuous to the rest of the movie and the build up to it was incredibly weak . Regardless I respect this movie as someone who isn’t a slasher fan .
Nyx Fears continues to be my favorite RUclipsr ever, and I like when she makes videos for me to watch on my phone or computer
This being compared to Terrifier 2 by anyone feels of a younglings first movie gore comparison , no disrespect to either party but yea there’s a difference
Great vid and analysis. Id love to hear your thoughts on Phil Tippets Mad God if you wanted to. Thanks!
that logging machine kill was tough to watch, him being paralyzed and helpless all while being dismembered. Yeah... that was a movie
Freaked me out a little which never happens so +1.
I dont know that there will ever be an end to a genre as popular and well loved as slashers, but i can definitely see the movie moreso redirecting the slasher genre in a different direction. Overall though i loved the video!
Chuck Palahniuk, in his memoir, had a section that he called "Books You Can't Unread".
I was only able to find a couple of them on Audible, but one that stood out was Lee H Whittelsey's "Death In Yellowstone." Read it or listen to it if you want, but it is so disturbing at points that you will want to throw it away. It is a reference guide to every recorded death in Yellowstone Park, and that is what this movie made me think of. I'm honestly a little bit sad that the filmmakers did not capture much of the ruthlessness of nature itself. Arguably, the two scenes that come closest are the yoga scene and the lake scene because if you are alone somewhere that you can't escape danger like a high place that you can't climb down or a large body of water, the beauty isn't going to comfort you while you die.
Seriously though, read Death in Yellowstone. It is unflinching.
Dropping an edit to humbly request that May read the book and review it.
Dropping another edit to say, I screwed up. Chuck's memoir had a section for fiction and non-fiction reading lists. He has a collection of short stories called "Stories You Can't Unread." My bad.
What other books did Chuck recommend?
(spoilers) There were things i liked about this movie. The gorgeous nature shots! The well done gore effects! The way it played with sound! But the film itself did not work for me. Now, part of that may be the expectations I had. We went because it was the movie that started next and the summary was, " The horror movie tracks a ravenous zombie creature as it makes its way through a secluded forest." This is not a zombie movie. This is an undead slasher movie. Johnny is not a "ravenous zombie", he's a revenant at best. It felt like somebody filmed their Friday the 13th fanfiction and had to change the names and details a little a la 50 Shades of Grey. The highlights for me were the moments at the ranger station with the ranger- the little details he shares (my father survived the first massacre, that ground's the only dirt that'll hold him, etc) and the scene with the woman in the car. I honestly was bored with the drawn out final girl running through the woods sequence and was starting to pick out specific bird calls in the background. I also feel there was a missed opportunity to mirror Johnny and the dead coyote in the trap at the beginning if we're going to be comparing him to a fox in a henhouse? Overall score 5/10. Made me want to take a walk in the woods.
A tsunami of great content lately!
omg may!! your vids didn’t show up in my sub box so i thought you stopped uploading :/ anyway i never comment on videos ever really but i’m having a tough time right now and seeing you review this film made me smile - i just had to leave a comment to let you know that. you are the definition of a comfort creator ❤ thank you very much ma’am
I miss you sooo much!! I'm glad you r making vids. Happy Pride consensual cyberhugs!!!
I'm not a huge fan of actually watching slasher horror, but conceptually I love the way it strips away our false notions of transcendence and reduces us to the lowly bags of meat and guts that we truly are. I think it helps keep us grounded and our heads at least partially out of our own asses. Thank you as always for your thoughtful art and commentary.
I am so interested with your perception, not just in this being the "last slasher movie", but that a lot of genres are reaching their "last leg". I don't know for sure if I agree, but I would love to hear you potentially delve more in-depth with your thoughts on the modern direction in cinema and if it is possible for things to reach a point that nothing new can be said.
Enjoying all the quick comments! And the thumbs up surprise was humorous.
Thank you for all the videos lately! Love to hear your thoughts and have missed your insights ❤
Glad you’re back! I can’t wait to see your Longlegs review.
God, the camp fire scene drove me nuts. I was getting dizzy through the whole sequence.
Every review has been like “Great, last 30 minutes ruined it” or “Boring, last 30 minutes saved it” so I’m excited lol
Super hard agree on the wild comparisons to Terrifier 2, that's completely out of pocket. What I didn't see coming was the Skinamarink comparison and that is thought provoking. But I think there is a very good conversation to be had about what read to me as a real tension between nature, "nature", and the purported conscious motivations of the killer. I saw it as a creative dissonance, not a confusion, even if I'm probably forced to agree that Johnny's mirror memory scene isn't the best. Side notes: the park ranger actor told us about how he worked with the practical effects lead on Pysho Goreman both in that movie and in this one, and the "final girl" Andrea Pavlovic pointed out to us that the woman delivering that final monologue was Vickie in Friday the 13th 2!
Let us know what could possibly follow up these movies if you think we've already seen the "last" slasher, the "last" spookshow?
A) I have that shirt, too!
2) I haven't seen this movie yet, but I'm so stoked for a different view of slashers cause lort knows we need one.
I really loved the things that were working in this movie... but damn, the things that weren't working made me think the perspective shift and all the opportunity for reflection on the genre it brought was wasted on this particular movie.
I wish they didn't invent the concept of parasocial relationship because our taste is incredibly similar and I wish I could make friends online.
Same, most of the people I follow I'd want to be friends with if I could be, not in an obsessive way just in a it would been cool to be able to just talk to this person and hang out on that level, but oh well
Got me so curious about this, I have a mighty need of a solid classic slasher a la Puppet Combo games
In a Violent Nature is my second favorite horror movie, Skinamarink being my first. I loved both completely. I can not understand any negative take about either movie that people say. I don’t think they’re wrong, everyone’s allowed to their opinions, I just honestly see absolutely nothing wrong with either film. I would love to have a 1 on 1 discussion with someone about both films, but sadly none of my peers are willing to watch either lol
love all your diary entry reviews lately may! even if i don't plan to watch x movie i always find your take on them super interesting. this is like slightly sideways topic wise but i'd be interested to know your opinion of the eyes of my mother (2016) if you've ever seen it or plan to, which is like on topic in the slasher sense, but your saying the slasher genre is kind of over reminded me of what i found were the failings of that movie, it's like half important to me because it gets very close to my kind of freakness but then what makes it special feels kind of dropped in the service of remaining respectably within the genre & not scaring the audience in too unconventional a way. to me it marks the ways i feel tired of the genre (even if its not like so overtly slasher in nature, more grounded ig), which is i think there are bounds around it wrt kinds of way violence & sex are married and the kinds of people you're meant to/allowed to feel empathy/sympathy/any-kind-of-kinship-with especially like how you say in a violent nature is from the killers perspective just as the eyes of my mother is, what taking the perspective of the killer does with the rship to the audience
I work at a movie theater, and I watched the film and loved it immensely, but every single person I've talked to walking out of it seems to hate it. One person even came out with two thumbs down at the ready.
I'm hoping this isn't the last slasher; I would love an adaptation of Stephen Graham Jones' Indian Lake trilogy.
Oh these uploads...... i'm so fed..
"Skinamarink demonstrates what it's going to do to you as you're watching it." Yes. Put me to sleep.
(Sorry for the rambling ahead i have Thoughts)
My theatre was laughing at the gratuitous violence throughout the whole movie and so was I. I really liked how well executed the effects were, but I felt like i was Missing something watching it. Like the themes were there and the commentary on the genre was clear enough to me, but the execution of the metaphor ultimately felt sloppy to me. I dont feel like it being "boring" is a problem, (which was the first thing i heard upon exiting the theatre) it established a ghoulishly peaceful atmosphere in my opinion, which really worked for me. What sucks is that one of the best parts of the movie (the titular Violent Nature with the gore and such) also is its biggest detriment. the fact that the killer is in theory supposed to be a force of natural violence while in practice is actively Consciously conniving and doing these elaborate kills, it just feels like trying to put a square peg through a round hole, and desperatly hammering it to try and make it fit. It really felt like i was watching the film makers figure out what the point of the film was As the film was rolling
ANyways good kills and lesbians were there so 10/10
i love the consistent may content!!!
Nyx fears? More like NYX FIERCE
She's gonna boots the haunted house down!
Obsessed with these videos you've been doing lately 🖤
I agree on nearly everything. Enjoyed the film and middle part could've been edited a bit more
I agreed with the point you were making and manifested that thumbs up with my mind
slashers make me physically uncomfortable because i can't help but put myself in the seat of the person who is being gored, so i don't watch them or they put me in a terrible headspace. but every time you upload a video about a movie with gore in it, i still click because you have such interesting opinions about things that i have so little knowledge of.
Hey it’s great to see you
Dig your perspective!
I love watching things through May haha😂 I'll never watch it but I love to hear your thoughts
Yaaay, Nyx!!! Let's go!!🎉
I adore this movie. I think it ranks up there as one of the best slashers. Not in recent years, of all time
we missed u ❤️
Hi May, I finished your review and then immediately went to my local theater to see this film! I thought it was okay, honestly wish there was a bit more space a la Elephant. Also, I think the film would have been elevated more with better acting. All the stilted dialogue hurt the vibe for me, they could have tried for a much more mundane, semi-improvised, naturalistic tone
so much may! best week ever❤
May is spoiling us ♥️
I don't think it's the last slasher. I feel like Behind the Mask was a better deconstruction of slasher movies and their tropes. This is more of an arthouse version of Final Girls or You Might be the Killer which both tackled camp slasher tropes but from more humorous spots. We'll still get slashers, but hopefully these sorts of deconstruction and metanarratives will push the next generation of writers to reinvent the tropes or come up with unique ways to make them fun (like Hush, which would be a generic slasher if not for the Final Girl being deaf).
So what you're saying is that it doesn't matter if I choose the man or the bear, I'm gonna die. 😢
Glad your back🫶🏻
I watched this a couple days ago and I've been stewing on it ever since. I mostly had a bad time with this movie, which sucks because i was onboard for the first 25-ish minutes.
everything up until we meet the college students i thought was cool (i did however completely forget that mirror scene though lol). i liked that first kill being off screen, and we dispassionatly waltz back through the scene of a mauling. that really felt like a thesis statement from the movie, only to be completely undercut by most fo the rest of the kills that felt too... creative, spiteful & out of character. like when he pulled that yoga-girls head through her stomach, it felt like the director was snickering and muttering "you see! she was so self obsessed and now she's really navel-gazing teeheehee". it felt like the writer was being spiteful to his own characters, and the slasher was just his tool to enact poetic justice on them, even if it went against the characterization that had already been established.
Also the diegetic score was relaxing to me. I was a boy scout as a kid, so i spent a lot of time in the woods, and all of the parts just listening to birdsong and cicadas was pleasantly nostalgic... and i don't think that was the intended tone. for me, that also made the scenes of violence (or god forbid, someone talking) really dissonant and frustrating.
I liked the log splitter. the closing monologue felt like it belonged in a better movie, truck lady also gave the best peformance hands down.
i agree, on the whole. the execution is interesting, but the everything else falls on it's assand drags the rest of the movie with it. I wanna see a better version of this movie.
I'm thinking the kills are to emphasize that the killer is, mentally speaking, a little boy. He's playing with his victims like he played with the toy car on the keychain. I got the feeling he was meant to a more realistic version of Jason Voorhees.
@@mysteriiis Legit i liked the scene where he playe with the toy car. i wanted more of that. i can actually read the log-splitter as him playing, or doing that thing where kids do something with an obvious consequence because they aren't 100% sure the obvious thing will happen...
but the mouth decapitation and navel-gazing kills both were such obvious metaphors that they have to say something about the killer, but at least in my reading they seemed to clash with the character established at the start. And even if we run with the playful child line, that clashes with the movie's other statement of him being kind of like an animal (closing monologue/title implications).
the characterization is inconsistent is all, it got under my skin in particular more than other people i guess
my fascination with slashers have always had a technical angle, as in how far they can push the gore and how realistic they can make the practical / visual effects, which always keeps evolving (see Terrifier movies), which is one reason for more slashers.
one more aspect is that I like to see "creative" writing, even if it's along the lines of "creative kills", with some luck also including some witty dialogue and really just overall creative script, I think there is still room for new slashers that amp these up.
another would be is that I would like to see horror movies that capture the atmosphere in a way that makes you genuinely scared, I guess that is up to the talents of the director, but I always welcome new contenders in this area too.
I love your TG shirt May❤
I actually watched "In A Violent Nature" and it's good.
Great vid
Art piece? Negative space? A very backhanded Killing of a Sacred Deer (anybody in his way)? To commit to the movie, one commits to the nothingness of forest and hills for a time. I didn't like it or dislike it, it was just like any walk in the hills and mountains. Without a purpose, it was just a dumb walk (for me). For the nameless undead killer, he seems like a natural bit of old terror, out of place in the current time. There could have been drones, laser rifles, guardian robots, locked high defense Teslas, but there wasn't. You wouldn't even know it's further than the 1970s from the tech.
Wanna watch this vid, but ive yet to see skinamarink and theres a lot of comparison it sounds so imma have to skip this one til i see it
love u nyx
What is this movie called?
Arthouse/Experimental? Absolutely. Analog? Eh
It was good movie
I'm gonna watch the shit outta this movie
Try not to fall asleep lol it's pretty boring
I love you may queen from midsommar
I thought it was generally a cool experience although a bunch of people walked out of the theater I was in. My biggest complaint is if your gonna make this type of movie, the payoff as horror fans has to be better; more specifically the kills should have been more creative. There was only 1 that was truly memorable, they had a chance to make them all like that.
took off my fursuit to watch this
Sigh when you said Skinamarink, that lost me.
I thought it sucked. Loved all the slow stuff - very Gus Van Sant at his best. And it seems dumb to complain about the acting in a slasher movie but it was SO bad, like why are these people not reacting like normal humans?
❤❤❤❤
Give us a decade or so off from slashers then instead of deconstructing them further, let's have classical revival
Skinamerink wishes it was In A Violent Nature. While both made unique camera choices that only serve the movie in that they made unique camera choices, In A Violent Nature actually develops its characters and story. I mean, it's a slasher movie that somehow turned into a walking simulator, but Skinamerink was a collection of RUclips analogue horror ARG videos that somehow got pieced together into a film.
I'm also hoping they really weren't trying to set up that nature itself is violent because they really screwed that up in the beginning. If nature is the violent one then why have a shot of an animal that died after getting caught in a trap and what looked like a camera so that someone could watch its suffering. I think it's saying the nature of men (and lesbians) is evil. The final girl lived because she didn't solve the problem with violence, she walked (ran) away.
I love you
Behind the Mask the Rise of Leslie Vernon... is better.
I was going to a 1pm show (I could throw $10 in the street, thought I'd give it to the Charles) Now I might just make some macaroni and play with the dog, instead.
Thumb up, I guess???
the thing that gooped me about this movie is that it takes place in canada, like where are the accents?
We don't all have the same accent. They sound like your average Ontarians from where I live (I live about 2 hours away from where this takes place).
It's like how not every American sounds like they are from Fargo.
May is feeding us hungry horror queers 🫶
So, where to go now from here on out? Absurdism?
This is what you and your generation have done to this world. This generation has managed to do what hitler, stalin, mao, or any other maniacal dictator wasn't able to do. And you accomplished it by saying, "Well, i guess this is it!" It's over! I'm not going to try and change it. It's too hard, and it hurts my feelings... When you said this movie was nowhere near terrifier 2, i totally understood. Art the clow in just that. A clown. You have to quit thinking that it's a good movie. Stand up and think of something more original. F13th is not the best movie, but at least it tried. You have to learn to call garbage, garbage. Then try to fix it.
Sorry could you go over that one more time? I couldn't hear you over the sounds of your brainworms writhing around.
How exactly am I personally responsible for this when I’ve spent my entire career getting off my ass and trying to change it?
And you aren't capable of changing shit?
Did you think this comment came out sounding coherent or reasonable? I'm baffled
this is giving very like. schizo-car owner vibes