Joshua Giuliano’s debut film, River, is a wonderfully brutal and emotionally draining experience, showcasing how sound and visuals can be used as distinct elements to create something both fantastic and bleak.
Estranged siblings Lucy (Jane Levy), Carla (Jessica Rothe) and their younger brother Drew (Max Mettern) are on their deceased father’s boat to scatter his ashes on his favourite river. When their boat runs out of gas, they find themselves stuck, isolated and very much not alone as a masked and bloody killer lurks in the treeline, waiting.
As tight and lean as you can envision for a horror film, River has something for everyone who loves the genre. With gorgeous cinematography from Nick Matthews (that bridge scene will stick with you) and sound design from David Barbee, this film does everything right. Bolstered by an excellent cast, Joshua Giuliano’s feature debut is brilliant.
Bookending River with the experimental use of sound of the lead-up and the events of a murder, with the visuals of the scene after the fact that he utilised in his fantastic short film In Sound, We Live Forever, is a great touch, even if the opening is effectively an updated and bloodier iteration of the short. It’s even better to have that concept brought forward in a feature, even if it isn’t the entire gimmick of the film à la A Violent Nature. The ending to that bookend, though? Utterly heartbreaking.
The brutality that runs throughout River is the kind those who love the grimmer side of horror will absolutely love. Giuliano has endeavoured to make sure any onscreen deaths are as gnarly as he can get away with. Two of which are standouts not only for how grim they are, but for how soul-destroying they are, with one on a bridge shot in such a gorgeous manner that you almost forget what is causing the scene to look the way it does.
What makes River work so well is how stripped down it is. We hang out with a trio of siblings who typically all have issues with their dead father. The eldest, Carla, cannot get over the cheating and drinking that he kept up, so she promptly left when she could. Youngest siblingDrew still struggles with water after being tossed in as a child to learn to swim (something I relate to horribly), whereas middle child Lucy is the one who had to stay to keep everything going, so her bubbling resentment is due for a release.
Yeah, it’s three people in strife, but it’s an understandable one, and one that has them all so tightly wound that they make the simplest of mistakes as they take their trip down the river. What makes the stripped-down story work is how nothing is ever really explained. We never learn the dark motives of our mysterious masked killer. All we know is that he seems to have a lot of experience hunting people on rivers and in the forests.
It is the hard, unnerving work of the opening half of River that allows us to “enjoy” the utterly wild and often darkly funny second half. The first half uses that cold open differently once the group is on the water. The sound design has us leaning as much towards the speakers as we are to the screen. We know that someone is out there watching and waiting for them. But we don’t know when they’ll attack, so naturally we assume it will happen in the dark. Is it a horror movie after all, right? Giuliano has different ideas and throws us a heart-thumping scene that has you clenching. He even tosses in (literally) a comedic moment to relieve us from the tension.
At times, set-ups or sequences feel familiar to horror fans, as Giuliano comfortably retreads ideas we have seen before. But he gives them just enough of a twist to keep us on our toes. Some are little twists that work well on you. Then there are some that outright pop you with how great they are, and not solely great in a gore fashion either. The film pops you with the lighter moments, the emotional ones, and the terrifying ones. You try to figure out how exactly you would navigate a similar situation.
Jane Levy does a lot of the heavy lifting in River; Lucy is a character we have seen from the actress before. Someone who is just not prepared to accept her fate and keeps fighting on to the bloody and violent end, no matter the damage she takes. It also helps that, like her castmates, Levy can handle the emotional and dramatic sides of the script so well. There are multiple moments throughout River that a lesser actor’s responses would have sunk the film. But her fear, anger, and hopelessness about her situation let us go all in on her.
Equally, Jessica Rothe has a strong turn here as the eldest sibling, Carla. Not as pragmatic as Lucy, Carla is full of resentment, and sadly for Lucy, she gets the brunt of it now that their father is gone. Rothe’s character goes through it here; the scene in the water where the cockiness of her character dissipates into actual fear was so good. Like Levy, when the moment comes for her to be physical in the role, Rothe is all in, and it makes the film much stronger. Giuliano’s choice to cast two actresses known for horror, who can also pull off convincing dramatic turns that make everything feel as believable as River feels at times, is a testament to the script.
While both Levy and Rothe take centre stage and most of the plaudits, Max Mattern is fantastic in River. He wants his two sisters to get along again desperately, but at the same time he needs the hell off that boat and on dry land. It is such a great touch to have him be most of the (dark) comic relief throughout the film. He also pulls off that nervous, almost erratic fear he experiences, for example, when he eventually has to get into the water. (As someone terrified of swimming, I felt Drew’s fear tremendously.
River doesn’t reinvent the masked slasher in the woods sub-genre, but damn if it doesn’t give it a hefty punch in the arm to show others what exactly is possible. With twists aplenty, River has multiple ways of keeping you on your toes. Mostly, though, you will find yourself leaning forward, compelled by the characters and how Giuliano has decided to present his world—a tremendous 90 minutes. By the way, stay for the mid-credit scene.
★★★★★
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