after two months, almost 50 hours of work in total, it is finally here!!!!
my part of harrykim art trade with dear @lisqotch! i hope you all enjoy 🧡💚
during the process, i searched and tried a lot different techniques to render it exactly as i intended, redrew it many times, and i am very glad that it turned out the way it is!
i swear, absolutely every 49.5 hours of work was worth it, i enjoyed spending time with it so much that i would repeat it from this moment on.
i was comforted by so many people while working on this, thank you sooo much! this is for all of you, from 0039pf with lots of love 🪩🕺
GOD there was a reddit thread talking about the extreme ways people were trying to save their true ending eternally so it could never be touched and reset and everybody would live on in their own digital universe
shit like copying the save to a flash drive and hiding it or locking it in an archive with an incomprehensible password
real talk its so interesting and cool that the undertale world and characters resonate so much to some that people go to such lengths to preserve their ‘existence.’ i just think thats so cool that the game does such an awesome job of making their existence seem real and important to you to the point where you refuse to replay the game
It is honestly the most compelling mechanic I have encountered.
I initally had plans to attempt the genocide ending. I had already been throughly spoiled and decided I wanted to experince it all for myself.
For some reason, I never recalled what happened after the true-pacifist credits.
What changed my mind was Flowey, as his plea at the end to leave them be, felt like he knew I was on the other side, and he knew what I was thinking of doing.
It tugged at my heart in a way no game has done since, as it knew I had the power, but it pleaded with me not to touch it. Even though I had the ability, I had the choice to NOT use it for the good of the world I had improved.
This caused me to second guess what I wanted and I chose to keep the true-pacifist ending.
I think that is the beauty of it. While the game can’t stop us, it can look us in the eye. It can call us out on our very nature, and it encourages us to be kind. How we use power is not always kind, but we always have the choice to be kind, and that in of itself is an exercise of power.
The ability to withhold power is powerful, and I couldn’t be more grateful to Undertale for teaching that.
As for the save itself, I had all of my data (unknowingly) on a faulty terabyte drive, and I was content to leave the game be, satisfied with my experience.
However, that faulty terabyte drive finally gave out, and I lost that Undertale data.
While I never went to the extent of other players, I like to think that that particular save is somewhere beyond where anyone can touch it. Now, wherever it is at, all the characters can now remain in that true ending and are able to live their lives without worrying that something will pull the plug.
wait this doesnt explain what i meant at all with this holy shit no. was trying to do bigender practice i.e touching the gender binary, for me being bigender can be most easily understood, at least as a cognitive act or practice, as the inversion of agenderness; rather than a rejection of gender binary/the embracing of what it is to be a human or to live or to present outside of gender, it is a facisnation with the gender binary, with how a binary itself works and what the two binary genders mean to live as or to look at or as metaphysical social objects and then to explore the duality of them intimately. so i thought lol im making a binary of that.
i read harry as bigender because of his characterisation as the sensation guy, the thing that feels and sees and is greedy and curious and desperate for experience and humanity- the addict- what it is to live as a person in many many ways (see the motif of multiple identities, the gameplay structure around choosing who to be, around naming and clothing and choice of language and choice of ideoogy and choice of framing), i read him as someone who wishes to touch the nervous system/the sensation of the world around him, to experience it.
i am contrasting him with the emcee from cabaret because the emcee is a non human character, it explores binary gender presentation through sexuality, by being a non feeling, non craving participant. it presents the absence of meaning and sensation in gender binary in it's broader statement on facism- the removal of the organic and of life and sensation from the world as it is abstracted and flattened and distorted, it is the pusuit of a non thing, of imigary and symbolism without cause, you will be killed by a concept, not a person, and that concept is that of nationhood. the emcee, rather than *being* the audience and the act of playing (like harry is) talks directly to them- he does not touch others meaningfully because he does not experience or exist as a thing in the world, he instead is a performance (not gender performantivity) but the removal of meaning from category- it presents the abstraction or dissolution of a binary gender and of meaning, rather than the engulfment of it or the experience of it. this is why i find it interesting that cabaret is so bodily, while so devoid of sensation, it seeks to abstract the human form from a thing to be occupied to nothing at all. that being said, straight up not writing an essay. not thinking here. only talking. monlogue style in this ho. got my adhd meds back. on the ipad. straight up do not question. i am engaging in language zeitgeist here. hate hate let me tell you.
It happens a number of times within the film. Facing a choice or a disappointment, Johnny’s shoulders rise and fall in the act of taking a single deep, distinct breath. Then he’ll move, towards the next goal or the sound of muffled voices off in the woods, with a slow gait and little sense of urgency. It’s as if he knows it’s a long walk, but that he’ll get there eventually. Watching the film, you take that walk with him. If there was ever a horror movie to give you time to breathe, In a Violent Nature is it. Set in a remote, woody area of northern Ontario, it’s the story of a group of teens who remove a locket from a rotting fire tower and re-awake the violent entity that it was keeping dormant. And this time, the camera is solely focused on the undead monster that claws itself out of the earth to track them down and slaughter them.
There’s a certain kind of bravery in making a slasher film that takes its time to move from one stunt to the next, as the classic slasher fan may find themselves bored by the long periods of time spent engrossed in the simple wild. And it’s brave to make a contemplative, slow-burn horror film into a slasher, as the arthouse fan might find the premise too simple. A fan of both, or someone who walks into the theater simply knowing what to expect, will find something clever, thoughtful, and eerie. One standout element of the film is found in its sense of choreography; despite a lack of musical score, there is a rhythm to the entire film. Johnny’s heavy, lumbering steps. The repeated swing of an ax, the perfect way in which the characters move around each other in order to catch or miss a glimpse of one another. Some of its best moments are when you realize that you- and Johnny- can see the next victim up ahead, but they remain oblivious.
In many ways, this film is a spectacle. Shot with a 3:4 aspect ratio and making full use of the Canon EOS C70’s Super 35mm Sensor, In A Violent Nature couldn't be more gorgeous. For a horror film, there is no shying away from daylight or color. Every detail of the landscape found in northern Ontario is laid out for the viewer to take in, from the distant, rolling mountains to the bright greens and yellows of the forest itself. Night time scenes are shot with minimal lighting gear, as the crew attempted to minimize what they would need to move through the location, which creates perfectly stark contrasts between bonfires, porch lights, and the inky darkness of the woods beyond. You are always immersed in this place. Of the look of the film, director Chris Nash says they wanted to create an environment “where you almost feel the threat of being alone in the woods by itself, without a big, old monster man with an axe hunting you down.”
This effect is honed in on in the lack of a musical score. The only thing you hear in the film is what Johnny hears. The crunch and brush of leaves, the flow of water, the whistle of birds. The revving of a truck, the distant argument between the cast of survivors, and muffled music coming from the radio inside their cabin. Or, of course, the crunch of bone.
Word-of-mouth says that in the screenings of this film, audience members vomited from the gore. It’s an age-old rumor that accompanies any film with a body count, but it might be understandable, if true. With a director like Nash- who has a slightly longer history in special effects than he does directing- the film could only turn out adequately gory. The kills are brutal, disgusting, sometimes absurd, and a fantastic time all the way through. Anyone with an appreciation for the practical side of gory special effects will get a kick out of the moments that Johnny settles on a weapon and gets to work.
The other joy of In a Violent Nature is in its performances. Caught only through brief glimpses of stories around the campfire or conversations out on a dock, the core cast of survivors (played by Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Liam Leone, Lea Rose Sebastianis, Alexander Oliver, Charlotte Creaghan, and Sam Roulston) share an incredible chemistry that instantly gives a sense of their relationships and their corresponding parts to play in the slasher narrative. The roles filled by Timothy Paul McCarthy, Lauren-Marie Taylor, and Reese Presley are no less fantastic when they step onto the scene, conveniently looking elsewhere until it’s their time to face down Johnny.
And speaking of Johnny, Ry Barrett never says a word in the role, but never does the character fall flat. There are sparks of personality hidden underneath his mannerisms, from the things that catch his curiosity to the casual way he slings an ax. The way he carries himself is both imposing and perfectly natural-- for him, if not for anyone else. Barrett was recast in the role after the previous star had to step back, and a large chunk of the film had to be reshot. Nash states in an interview for Points of Reviews that there was an initial belief that, because the character is in costume and rarely viewed from an onwards angle, that some of these shots could be worked together, but that wasn’t wholly the case. He says, “There are so many things with the performance that are important, in just how they carry themselves, the gait of their walk, just the weight of their footfalls.” That importance shows through in the final cut of the film, which is a phenomenal piece of performance on the part of Barrett.
In a Violent Nature is, in many ways, exactly what it calls itself. The concept of a slasher film from the slasher’s point of view might be a simple one, but in its execution, it becomes a standout piece of filmmaking. The care put into every second of its runtime shows through in a viewing experience that will leave you looking a little closer at the woods you drive through on your way home from the theater; partly because they’re beautiful, and partly because you never know what they could hide.
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Some articles referenced in this review (that I recommend reading!):
In a Violent Nature Film Review (with Director Chris Nash)
Sundance: DP Pierce Derks on In a Violent Nature
Sundance Slasher In a Violent Nature puts Northern Ontario Front and Center
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