Get Swept Up in the Terrifying Current of River, Horror’s Next Big Thing

The programming of Toronto’s Midnight Madness section has always been excellent, but over the past couple of years the genre-focused sidebar has become a king-making destination as well. Last year, Obsession sold for an eye-popping $15 million at the festival, and went on to become such a hit that the narrative around this year’s TIFF has largely revolved around the search for “the next Obsession.” Now, River is set to inherit that title, as it also just sold to Universal/Blumhouse for a $10 million-plus sum. It’s a lot of pressure, both on the festival programmers and on the filmmakers. And while the success of Obsession is a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon that can’t be neatly replicated, River absolutely deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

Like all good slashers, Joshua Giuliano’s debut feature keeps it simple, focusing on one awful day and two horrible nights in the lives of three estranged siblings. Lucy (Jane Levy) and Drew (Max Mattern) are the ones who stayed home, caring for their alcoholic father while Carla (Jessica Rothe) went off to the big city to pursue her dreams. Now Dad is dead, and Carla has reluctantly returned to spread his ashes at his favorite fishing spot with her brother and sister. Lucy resents Carla, and feels that she betrayed the family by moving away. Carla still hasn’t forgiven their dad for how he behaved when their mother was dying, and insists that Lucy will never understand. And Drew is so passive that he just sits there, paralyzed by anxiety, while his sisters fight.

These dynamics will all come into play once the siblings’ interpersonal nightmare becomes a literal struggle for survival out on the titular river. The horror begins subtly — “is that hair?,” Carla asks as Lucy cuts away a tangle of debris that’s clogging the propeller on the family fishing boat — before announcing itself with the appearance of a tall, muscular man wearing nothing but swim trunks waving at our protagonists from the shore. The image is shot from far away, and while it’s hard to make out at first, something is definitely wrong here. Then the camera moves in a little closer, and the heart-stopping truth is revealed: The man’s legs are covered in blood, and he’s wearing a creepy featureless flesh-colored face mask.

At first, Giuliano’s screenplay hints at some kind of occult connection between the man — played by Dane DeLiegro, who also portrayed the Predator in 2022’s Prey — and a female figure, also covered in blood, standing on the opposite shore. And this may well be the case. Eventually, however, an even sicker motivation for the crimes is revealed when the siblings manage to get to shore. (I’m not easily rattled, and I found this movie’s big twist disturbing.) In the meantime, however, we spend a torturous night on the water with Lucy, Carla, and Drew, whose boat is out of gas and who are attacked by these psychopathic weirdos every time they attempt to swim towards the shore.

Cinematographer Nicholas Matthews does stunning work under difficult circumstances, turning the river into an inky black void that seems to exist outside of space and time. (The film was shot on location on a real river in West Virginia, making it impossible for Matthews and his crew to light scenes up close.) In-camera practical effects also add to the production value of this low-budget effort, particularly in a shocking, yet beautiful image of a burning body hanging over the side of a railroad bridge. Giuliano also shows ingenuity by pairing long shots of empty houses and sunny forests with upsetting audio of the murders that were once committed there, further blurring the boundaries of past and present.

But the thing that really makes River so impressive for a first feature is the sheer ingenuity and intensity of its violence, which starts shortly after the appearance of that tall, bloody man and doesn’t let up through multiple escape attempts by the tough and resourceful characters. Even Drew has to learn to act decisively under these life-and-death conditions, a character beat that feels as earned as the jump scares. (The film produced actual, unforced screams from the audience, as well as gasps and giggles, at the TIFF midnight premiere.) The dynamics between these siblings are nothing that we haven’t seen before, but it’s a testament to both the cast — Levy and Rothe have both starred in their share of horror movies, and that experience shows here — and Giuliano’s skill as a writer-director that they feel like real people worth rooting for.

Once issue with River is that the standalone sequences that bookend the film aren’t quite as strong as the core storyline: A cold open that tries out that past/present divide by playing audio of people getting murdered over tableaus of the aftermath isn’t up to the standard of the otherwise excellent cinematography and sound design, and an extended coda almost explains too much about the killers and their backstory. It’s refreshing to see filmmakers taking formal risks in the horror space, however. In this way River is a spiritual sequel to 2024’s In A Violent Nature, another movie that pushed the slasher subgenre forward artistically while still satisfying its most elemental purpose: To take you for a bloody, shocking, and very fun ride.

River premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and will screen at this year’s Fantastic Fest.