Writer/director Josh Giuliano has just three rules for any good slasher movie:
- It must have characters that you care about.
- It must be set in an interesting location.
- It must feature a great killer.
Luckily, his feature directorial debut River fits all the criteria.
Audiences will immediately care about his main trio of characters — three grieving siblings who reunite on their childhood boat to dump their late father’s ashes into the water. Jane Levy (Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead), Jessica Rothe (starring in her second of three films playing at this year’s Fantastic Fest), and Max Mattern (Cape Fear) are incredibly believable and sympathetic as a family unit.
Levy’s character is the one mourning her dad the most, wearing his old, oversized clothes like a draped blanket. The oldest sister, played by Rothe, had fled home in favor of the big city and is now struggling to find any sympathy for her drunkard deceased daddy. Mattern’s aquaphobic little brother is the glue between the two sisters, despite his refusal to leave the boat under any circumstances.
The “interesting location” is the titular river, an unpredictable place steeped in grainy family memories. It can be calm and shimmering, or as black as a sinkhole. As one character says: “This river exists outside of space and time.” And so when the boat runs out of gas in the middle of its canal, everything goes to hell. No gas. No phone signal. And that’s where the “great killer” appears.
An imposing man and woman appear on opposite sides of the river, taunting the siblings. The man, played by Dane DiLiegro (Prey, Imaginary), is clad in nothing except tight yellow shorts and a mask of his own face molded to his face. It’s a bit of The Strangers, a bit of In a Violent Nature, and a bit of You’re Next. Dane and his female counterpart serve as an almost proto-Adam and Eve, towering over both sides of the river like the gatekeepers of the Tigris and Euphrates.
It is an exciting and exceptionally well-cast role for DiLiegro, no longer encumbered by immense prosthetics and heavy costuming. Giuliano's goal for DiLiegro’s character design was to have him both stand out (like a poison dart frog) and blend into the forestation, and the juxtaposition hits all the marks. Filmmakers, horror or not, are finally starting to realize that DiLiegro is a true not-so-secret weapon for any project.
While the movie takes about forty minutes to kick things into high gear, that slower period effectively lays the groundwork for the siblings’ dynamic, with some strong character beats. (Mattern’s delivery of a George Clooney monologue from The Perfect Storm was a personal highlight.) But at any point in its runtime, it is nevertheless quite well-shot, often spotlighting the rugged beauty of the West Virginia wilderness.
It is a real breath of fresh air to have a horror movie mostly set at night, but filmed so beautifully that there's no squinting required. And–I can’t believe I have to stress this–it is actually scary, a movie that sticks to the back of your brain when you head back to the parking garage at 1 AM.
In addition to the previously mentioned performances by DiLiegro and Mattern, Levy and Rothe's performances are nice reminders of why they are genre stalwarts. Levy’s very expressive, sometimes crazed blue eyes tell a story on their own, especially amid the bloodshed. Rothe effortlessly paints her city-sister character into a three-dimensional, captivating role, and delivers the screams, too.
River is already getting rave reviews out of both TIFF and Fantastic Fest, as well as breathless industry announcements about its multi-million dollar acquisition by Blumhouse. For Giuliano, it was a project that took seven years to come to fruition (it was first announced to be in production in 2019, but the pandemic, strikes, and the like took its toll). At its heart, it is a poignant human drama that is also very, very scary.
So don’t be afraid to dive in when it finally hits theaters.
