“In a Violent Nature: Part 2” Sets Valentine’s Weekend Release

“In a Violent Nature: Part 2” will reach theaters Feb. 12, 2027, putting the masked slasher Johnny on screens over Valentine’s Day weekend. Ry Barrett, who returns in the role, surprised fans with the date at Shudder’s New York Comic Con panel on Saturday. The sequel opens against Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” movie.

The story picks up right after the first film and follows Johnny to a summer camp. There, a young outcast is forced to spend the night with his counselor sister and her friends during their annual end-of-season party. IFC Films and Shudder say the sequel expands the killer’s lore and pushes its extreme kills further.

Nate Wilson and Chris Nash co-direct, and Nash wrote the screenplay. Nash wrote and directed the first film. Peter Kuplowsky, Shannon Hanmer and Nash produce.

The date follows a quiet test run. The film had a surprise world premiere as a secret screening at Fantastic Fest last month. It was first teased in February.

The 2024 original earned its sequel by doing something unusual with a tired genre. It opened on 1,426 screens, the widest release in IFC Films’ history. It grossed about $4.5 million worldwide. The film stuck with the killer rather than the victims. “We always wanted to treat this almost like a nature documentary,” Nash said of its approach.

Early reaction suggests the sequel departs from that template. One critic said the film takes a more straightforward approach and shifts the story to its young protagonist’s viewpoint. Another reviewer said the camp setting fleshes out the world and makes comparisons to “Friday the 13th” more apt. Whether the slow, observational style that won over horror fans survives the move is the open question.

The film arrives in crowded territory. Peacock’s “Crystal Lake” and “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” also send killers into summer camps.