Stephen King spends a lot of his time writing ... and by a lot I mean a a lotjudging by the towering stack of Jenga-like novels, novellas, and short stories the King of Horror wrote during his lifetime (the good, the bad, and "Dreamcatcher" ditto). And when he's not writing, he probably has his nose in a book somewhere, whatever that is a surefire future bestseller by Liane Moriarty or some niche topic that piqued his interest. But when he does neither of those things, Probably, King will either stream that critically acclaimed TV show your closest sibling won't shut up (hi, it's me, your closest sibling) or renew their cineaste card by watching one of the most confused indie or non-franchise films of the year.

The man didn't take 2024 easy on that front, either. Did you sing the praises of Jeremy Saulnier's suspenseful action thriller First Blood or admire the the many subversive twists and turns JT Molner's serial killer film Strange Darling takes with its non-linear Pulp Fiction-esque chapter format, King had a lot to say about movies that, to the more casual moviegoer, might have flown under the radar or been buried under the mountains of Netflix titles. And never mind In a Violent Nature fans, the horror maestro also had kind words to say about Chris Nash's unconventional film festival favorite (and Canadian - props to our neighbors to the north!).

What if Gus Van Sant, who works in the quasi-abstract, experimental filmmaking mode of "Gary" inspired by "Tomb Raider" and the other movies in his themed "Trilogy of Death," made Friday the 13th Part 2 (the F13 movie where Jason Voorhees emerged as the big bad of the franchise, but had yet to get his trademark hockey mask and had to to do instead with a barrel bag on his head)? You might have ended up with something like In a Violent Nature, a horror film that takes place entirely from the point of view of its supernaturally animated masked killer. The camera even lingers on him for a long time as he moves slowly but steadily through the forest stalking his prey, with a strangely calming and even hypnotic effect.

That is, of course, when he's not butchering his victims in sadistic and twisted ways. As King once wrote a since-deleted Twitter post (only Jason's rival Freddy Krueger would call him X):

VIOLENT IN NATURE: If you need a slasher movie, this one will do the job. It's casual, almost lazy, but when the blood flows, it flows in buckets. The masked killer looks like the scariest Minion in the world.

Johnny (Ry Barrett), the film's lead assassin, admittedly looks a bit like one of Gru's henchmen from the Despicable Me movies thanks to his smokescreen helmet (which itself feels like a nod to the gear for mining worn by the killer in "My Bloody Valentine"). At the same time, he's like Jason in that, contrary to the apparently unpleasant ways in which he kills mortals that unwittingly put him on a warpath, he's an animal force driven more by instinct than by willful malice (unlike Mr. Kruger). . I'd argue that In Violent Nature actually invites you to ponder deeper notions like these during extended ASMR-y sequences punctuated by its moments of pure visceral ultra-violence—including a now-infamous death that it very much deserves to be named the worst horror movie kill of 2024. Who says a cleaning machine can't hold a crowd?

"In a Violent Nature" is now streaming on Shudder.