In A Violent Nature 2
Writer: Chris Nash
Director: Nate Wilson
Cast: Ry Barrett, Lucas Nguyen, Olivia Scriven
In A Violent Nature stormed the horror world in 2024 with its perspective, its gore, and perhaps most enduringly, its contradictions. Blending gruesome kills with meditative POV shots and often achingly tense patience, the first film is a mix that's decidedly not for everyone, but for those of us on which it worked, it's unforgettable.
I loved In A Violent Nature, so when Fantastic Fest revealed that its first Secret Screening of 2026 would be the much-anticipated sequel, still a slight work-in–progress, I was thrilled yet apprehensive. How could creator Chris Nash, teaming this time with director Nate Wilson, replicate that sinister alchemy while also delivering the slasher sequel goods? The answer is a delicate, occasionally off-balance blend of sticking to the formula and introducing more tried-and-true slasher modes, and the results mostly pay off, even if they can't quite recapture the thrill of the original.
Picking up in the immediate aftermath of the original film, masked undead killer Johnny (Ry Barrett) wanders off into the woods in search of more victims, and finds them at a nearby summer camp celebrating its last day of the season. It's here that we meet Alex (Lucas Nguyen), a bullied, awkward tween who spends his days pining for attractive, kind counselor Olga (Laurie Babin) and shrugging off his sister Julie's (Olivia Scriven) efforts to protect him. When his bullies lock him in a trunk on the last day of camp, Alex is rescued by the counselors just as they're set to begin their kid-free closing night party, leaving him feeling like the odd man out among the adults (or near-adults). But as the night goes on, the counselors discover they're not alone, setting in motion another orgy of ultraviolent slasher mayhem.
Alex's presence as a new central character means that, early in the film, In a Violent Nature 2 ditches its "killer's POV" gimmick in order to morph into a kind of hybrid experience, merging the slow camera moves and fresh perspective of the original with some classic slasher trappings. If you're the kind of person who wants to watch this movie, there's a good chance you've already seen your share of summer camp slashers, and the film delivers on everything you'd expect on that front. We meet a whole house full of horny, drunk young people, all of them carefree and ready to party, all of them ripe for victimization by Johnny. And in the middle of it all, you have Alex, the kid who doesn't quite belong with his older sister and her friends, but who doesn't quite belong to the woods either.
And yet ... Alex kinda does belong in Johnny's domain, which is what fuels the most interesting narrative aspects of this sequel. Johnny's origin story, helpfully repeated in the sequel for viewers who are hazy on the details, establishes that he's not unlike Alex, a bullied kid who died in the midst of a prank gone wrong, forever in a kind of limbo. Alex is, of course, not an undead butcher in antique fireman's gear, but he does feel like the kind of adolescent boy on a precipice, whose anger could still tip him into the kind of darkness that could form a new Johnny somewhere down the line. Those parallels are striking, psychologically complex, and the best narrative weapon in the film's arsenal, and they offer a good reason to deviate from the original movie's formula … right up until they don't.
Beyond these intriguing thematic lines drawn quite eloquently in the first two acts, this is a film that knows people will come to it expecting jaw-dropping gore effects, and the film truly excels in that department. Nearly every kill feels like a showcase for the visual effects team, from straightforward executions to stunningly elaborate deconstructions of the human form. Together these moments add to the feeling that we are watching a killer who views human flesh more like a toy, like building blocks for murder, than anything resembling a person standing across from him. There's something childlike to the way Johnny experiments with his victims, and it adds an extra layer of menace to the movie. Throw in a better grasp of humor and a higher body count, and this is every bit the slasher sequel you'd expect, with the same In A Violent Nature cadence.
Where the film loses me is in something I can't really spoil for you, because it happens in the final minutes. There's a reason the film swerves when it does, and you'll understand that when it arrives in a theater near you, but for me, the film's final ten minutes or so squanders much of the narrative potential of the rest of the story. All of those juicy parallels between Johnny and his would-be victims seem to evaporate, and the first film's more contemplative closing act is replaced by something that feels, well, a little more commercial and mainstream. It's not bad exactly, and it certainly doesn't spoil the movie, but it feels to me like the film didn't really know how to resolve its headier ideas, and so just sort of kicked them aside.
Despite that, if you're ready for more of In A Violent Nature's patient, lyrical camerawork, unflinching gore, and postmodern slasher storytelling, you'll get what you're hoping for with Part 2. It's a bigger film in every way, I'm just not sure it's a better one.
In A Violent Nature Part 2 is coming soon to theaters.
