Warning: This article contains imagery of violence and gore that may be disturbing for some readers.
Similar movies toIn a Violent Naturedeliver the brutality that horror fans love and that will likely be too much for some viewers. The new horror offering premiered at Sundance in 2024 before coming to theaters on May 31. Helmed by director and special effects supervisor Chris Nash, the movie, which stars Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Liam Leone, and Reece Presley, has turned out a solid performance on Rotten Tomatoes, earning a Certified Fresh score of 83% aggregated from reviews written by more than 100 critics.
The movie hearkens back to many classic slashers, particularly theFriday the 13thfranchise, with antagonist Jason Voorhees providing a major inspiration for the 2024 movie’s hulking, silent killer. The movie even pays homage to this inspiration by featuring a performance from Lauren Taylor, who played one of Jason’s earliest victims in 1981’sFriday the 13th Part 2. WhileIn a Violent Nature’s brutal killsput it a cut above many other horror movies in terms of intensity, for viewers who are hungry for more, there are quite a few earlier slashers that match its extreme approach.
Thanksgivingis the latest horror movie from Eli Roth, a filmmaker known for his grim take on the genre thanks to theHostelmovies.Thanksgivingbegan as afake movie trailer attached toGrindhouse, but decades later, it grew into its own wild slasher flick. The movie is set in a small town around the holidays that is still reeling from a tragedy during last year’s Black Friday sales event that left several residents dead. With the holidays approaching once again, a killer in a pilgrim outfit begins targeting those who were involved in the incident.
Thanksgivingmight seem like a comedy-horror movie that follows the trend of holiday horror films, but it actually takes a lot from the giallo horror genre, with Roth clearly being a fan. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which separates it somewhat from the more gritty feel ofIn a Violent Nature. However, it does take its kills seriously with this silent killer in a silly costume, dishing out some shocking amounts of gore.
Horror movie director Alexandre Ajamade his debut in the genre with what many fans still consider his scariest movie to date.High Tensionfollows two young women on a road trip who stop to spend the night at one of their family’s farmhouses. However, when a mysterious stranger arrives in the night and begins murdering everyone inside the house, the girls are sent on a desperate chase to attempt to escape the sadistic killer on their trail.
High Tension’s controversial twist ending helps to connect it more toIn a Violent Natureand the bold approach of putting the audience in the mind of the killer. However, while enjoyed as a simple, gritty, and brutal horror movie,High Tensionmore than delivers. Aja packs incredible suspense and nerve-wrecking tension in several standout sequences while also depicting the violence in an unflinching way.
Michael Myers is obviously one of the most iconic horror movie killers of all time, but the character was changed from an emotionless and relentless masked murderer to a monstrous and unstoppable killing machine in Rob Zombie’sHalloweenmovies. While the first movie certainly showed this controversial side of Michael that not every fan enjoyed, Zombie’s sequel is an even more gruesome and bleak take on the horror icon.
Former wrestlerTyler Mane plays Michael Myers inHalloween II, and his imposing figure adds to the feel that he is an inhuman monster more similar to Johnny inIn a Violent Naturethan otherHalloweeniterations. LikeIn a Violent Nature,Halloween IIalso examines Michael in a way that seeks to make him more sympathetic, even when he is delivering some of the most brutal kills in the entireHalloweenfranchise.
A horror movie killer like Johnny inIn a Violent Natureis so disturbing, partially because there seems to be no reasoning with him. Once he is awakened, he is on a relentless mission and will kill everyone he comes across. However, this inability to reason with a killer is even more disturbing when it is not a mindless supernatural killer, but rathera real human being who is simply driven by their own sadistic desires to torture and kill.
Wolf Creekis a fine example of this, with the introduction of the terrifying horror movie killer Mick Taylor. The movie follows a group of friends who are backpacking through the Australian outback only to come across Mick, who presents himself as a friendly stranger, only to begin hunting the innocent friends for no other reason than his own amusement. It is a truly harrowing movie, especially with the suggestion thatWolf Creekis based on a true story.
In a Violent Natureis a bold and experimental approach to the slasher movie, giving audiences something that is entirely from the perspective of the horror movie killer. The fact thatIn a Violent Nature’s Johnny is a mindless and silent killer like Jason Voorhees makes it an especially bold move, butIn a Violent Natureis not the only movie that puts the killer as the protagonist and shows his brutality firsthand.
Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killerwas an early movie to take this approach, with Michael Rooker delivering a chilling performance in the lead role as a man who meets up with an old acquaintance and begins showing him the methods by which he has become a prolific and unrepentant serial killer.Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killeris not as gory asIn a Violent Nature, but it disturbing to spend so much time with such a dark character.
10A Bay Of Blood (1971)
An Influential Italian Giallo
The brutality of Mario Bava’sA Bay of Bloodis perhaps best exemplified by one of the Italian movie’s many alternative titles, which isTwitch of the Death Nerve.A major inspiration forFriday the 13th, the murder mystery’s lakeside setting, high body count, andAnd Then There Were Noneapproach to murder and mayhem laid the groundwork for many slashers to come.
The movie is also notable forfeaturing some of the goriest murders of the early 1970s, a period in cinema that birthed a series of intense horror movies includingThe Last House on the LeftandThe Texas Chain Saw Massacre. These murders include a grisly decapitation, a billhook splitting a man’s face in two, and a sequence where a couple is impaled simultaneously with a spear while mid-coitus, a kill that was later recreated inFriday the 13th Part 2.
The Brutal Horror Movie Friday The 13th Copied (Not Halloween)
You likely know about Friday the 13th’s American influences, but an earlier Italian horror movie called A Bay of Blood also inspired the 1980 slasher.
9Anthropophagus: The Beast (1980)
A Violent Video Nasty
Another Italian offering, the 1980 movieAnthropophagus: The Beastwas directed by Joe D’Amato, who was best known for his lurid horror titles and adult films. This movie wasone of 39 titles that were successfully prosecuted in the UKfor being in violation of the Obscene Publications Act 1959, a group of titles that subsequently became known as “video nasties” that also includesA Bay of Bloodand D’Amato’s later movieAbsurd.
Anthropophagus, which stars George Eastman and Tisa Farrow, the sister of Mia Farrow, is a grotesquely violent movie that follows a group of vacationers who stumble upon an abandoned Greek island where they are stalked by a cannibalistic murderer.The violence and gore in the movie are almost unparalleledas the murderer’s violent nature threatens to consume everything and everyone around him, including himself.
The Prowler
Cast
A mysterious killer, dressed in World War II U.S. Army fatigues, terrorizes a small town during its graduation dance, echoing a gruesome double murder from 35 years ago. As the killer stalks the town’s youth, the community faces a terrifying night of bloodshed and suspense.
The most important contributor to the potency of the early ’80s slasherThe Prowleris make-up effects maestro Tom Savini. Savini, who is also an actor known for movies includingFrom Dusk Till DawnandThe Perks of Being a Wallflower, cut his teeth as a guru of gore on early genre movies made by director George A. Romero, including the 1978 zombie classicDawn of the Dead. He went on to set the gold standard for the 1980s slasher film bycrafting the kills for the originalFriday the 13th.
The Prowler, released one year afterFriday, showcasessome of Savini’s most grotesque and convincing effects of all time. The kills enacted by the movie’s army fatigues-clad killer include pitchfork impalations and a brutally detailed glimpse at a character being stabbed through the skull with a bayonet. Naturally, the movie was also targeted as a video nasty in the UK, though it avoided full prosecution.
The Burning
In “The Burning,” a horrific prank gone wrong leaves camp caretaker Cropsy horrifically disfigured and burning with vengeance. After years of recovery, he returns to the familiar campgrounds, now filled with new, unsuspecting campers. Wielding a pair of deadly garden shears, Cropsy embarks on a brutal killing spree, targeting the campers one by one.
Another Tom Savini title,The Burningwas another movie likeA Bay of BloodandAnthropophagusthat was successfully prosecuted as a video nasty. A summer camp slasher in the same vein asFriday the 13th,The Burningups the ante by putting younger characters in the path of the killer and featuringbrutal slayings by a killer wielding a pair of hedge clippers. One of the movie’s most memorable sequences involves an entire raft full of campers being massacred in a melee of bloody violence.
The Burningis also notable for featuring early performances from a cadre of well-known actors including Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and Holly Hunter. While it does not enjoy the same reputation as a household name slasher title likeFriday the 13th,the movie has retained a sizeable cult followingand is available on Blu-Ray and 4K UHD via Scream Factory.
30 Best Horror Movies Set In The Woods
Horror movies set in the woods have existed as long as the genre itself, but only the best know how to make forests truly terrifying.
Friday The 13th: The Final Chapter
The third title in a row to feature gore effects by Tom Savini,Friday the 13th: The Final Chapterproves just how influential the make-up wizard was over the slasher genre’s Golden Age in the early 1980s. This movie, which was intended to end the slasher franchise that has since gone on to include eight more installments at the time of writing, featuressome of the most intense and shocking kills ever perpetrated by Jasonor any otherFriday the 13thkiller, a roster that also includes his mother Pamela Voorhees and a later copycat.
Jason’s kills in the movie include crushing a man’s skull against a shower wall, impaling a young Crispin Glover’s hand with a corkscrew, throwing an axe through a doorway into a woman’s chest, and much more. However, what is perhaps thepièce de résistanceof the movie isJason’s own violent treatment at the hands of the young Tommy Jarvis(Corey Feldman).
Every Friday The 13th Movie (In Chronological Order)
The chronological order of the Friday the 13th movies starts off simple enough, but it gets more complicated further down the road.
