"In A Violent Nature" - What does Jason do when he's not killing?

Josh
Sep 14, 2024
3 min read

Chris Nash (2024)

POV: You're playing as Jason in Friday the 13th: The Video Game.

Have you ever wondered what Jason was doing in the woods while teens where out banging, chopping wood or partying? Neither have I, but director Chris Nash answer to that question is something both oddly claiming yet a boring experimental take on the slasher genre. This was something I was intrigued by from the trailers as I find comfort in the slasher genre from the 80s. It’s like a cosy blanket because I’m bound to see some creative kills involving either an interesting weapon or an iconic mask. IAVN provides the audience with an interesting mask and weapon to hook the audience (pun intended) with some effective kills sprinkled throughout. But what really got me interested was that third-person video game like perspective. Answering that question, how does Jason navigate the woods?

We literally follow our killer, Johnny, in a third-person perspective in a beautiful serene natural forest. Set on a killing a group of teens through a pretty basic “I need to get what's mine” set up. The third-person perspective is the hook (no pun intended this time) for IAVN that makes this movie iconic and stands out above the rest, even though for me it got old rather quickly. At the 10 minute mark I had a clear idea on what we were doing and thought, "thank Christ its only 90 minutes." Even the movie gets bored of the concept as it doesn't fully commit to what makes it unique and breaks from it's perspective to focus on the bland campers.

Like a standard slasher flick none of the victims are particularly interesting but just act as means to an end for our sick enjoyment. While on the topic of, the kills in the movie are half and half for me. With a glorious use of effective practical effects, some of the kills I found to be pretty bland although some got elevated with some stylised camera work. Highlight example being the birds-eye-view crane shot tracking Johnny from kill to kill. But the most extreme and talked about scene is the yoga kill. And yes, it’s the highlight of the movie and has stuck with me since I saw it but sadly no other moment really topped that. So mid-way through it felt like I was on the downward slope to the end. I just didn’t find any of other kills that creative or memorable, despite the practical effects.

Now the ending. The final scene attempts a couple of things. The final girl escapes the forest and get's picked up her saviour (Played by Lauren-Marie Taylor who was a victim in Friday the 13th: Part 2) who begins to talk about an animal attack a family member creating a correlation between the killer and a wild animal. A creature just doing what is natural to them. Killing just a part of their nature. Their violent nature. Touching on how animals can just kill for no instinctual reason. Just because. We see this as the first kill was done with the assistance of a bear trap that was found on a rotting fox. Showing the carelessness of killing an animal, not for any practical reason. Just because.

Johnny as well has a connection to his environment, literally rising from the Earth to take out humans that happen to be in the woods. Whether the theses were the intended sub-text or it just needed to be the woods because that was slashers did (because aye, its free to shoot in the woods), it didn’t connect with me. And the ending monologue really attempted to sell these themes.

And to top it off, the film attempts a Halloween style ending. Jumping between empty shots of the woods trying to create the uneasy feeling of "his still out there". But the reason why that shot works for me in Halloween, is because we spent the whole movie from Laurie's perspective running from Myers in that house and down that street. So just when you think we’re safe from the bogeyman, we’re back to a sense of unease. The fear of having to look in dark corners and empty rooms. As I don’t think we hit that perspective in this movie, I instead just got to enjoy some nice beauty shots of the woods. And despite being the one stalking the killer for most of the movie, I couldn’t find a connection with him or anyone else.