Spoilers follow for In a Violent Nature, in theaters now.
A great kill scene in a slasher movie inspires more than shock, terror, or disgust. It gets you high on the sheer audacity of the violence. Gasps become winces. Winces crack into laughter. Clapping greets the electric current of stunned disbelief that passes through the audience. Whether taking in the borderline-comic killing sprees of Jason Voorhees or the proudly obscene rampages of Art the Clown, what midnight moviegoers applaud is a filmmaker’s willingness to go there — to push the limits of good taste and gallows humor, and to drag us with them over the top.
There’s a kill of that caliber lurking near the midway mark of In a Violent Nature, an arty, unconventional new addition to the canon of thrillers about masked maniacs trudging…
