In Joshua Giuliano’s delightful horror gem “River,” three troubled siblings go on a trip down the river to mourn a recent loss. But they find only more death as they stumble upon a murderous force that will stop at nothing to kill them and send them to their final resting place at the bottom of the riverbed.
It’s an aggressively simple premise, but one Giuliano executes with both visceral finesse and, when his feature debut increasingly calls for it, bloody flair. While initially refreshingly restrained, it’s also willing to let everything rip once all the cards are on the table. This is a film that never once rests on its laurels, continually pushing things further and further without losing a handle on its craft. Imagine the killer from Tobe Hooper’s enduring genre classic “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” took to the water, and you’ve got a pretty good starting point for what’s unfolding here.
It’s an energizing experience that marks Giuliano as a name to watch in horror.
Kicking off the Midnight Madness section at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film centers on three siblings, played by the great trio of Jane Levy, Jessica Rothe, and Max Mattern, who are reuniting under sad, quite messy, circumstances. Their father, with whom each had a fraught relationship, has recently passed, so they’ve gathered to spread his ashes on the remote river where he used to drink and fish. This already strained procession will soon take a turn for the worse when they find themselves stranded in the middle of the river with an ominous, imposing figure staring back at them from the shore. From the very first moment we see this figure from a distance, Giuliano and his cinematographer Nick Matthews instill the scene with dread. As “River” becomes about the siblings battling for survival, each sequence is so uniformly well-crafted that you can’t help but lean in to see each new and distinct terror as it unfolds before you. When it then takes some bigger swings, both in terms of the bloody blows it lands and the surreal visual flourishes it deploys, you’re locked in for all of it.
Much like another recent horror gem, “Hokum,” which also used mourning as its initial entry point, “River” feels like a more classic genre throwback. It’s not quite as consistently captivating as that, stumbling a bit in some rather stilted, exposition-heavy dialogue scenes, though you’re more than willing to forgive any missteps when the rest of the experience is such a thrill. It’s lean and mean, running just over 90 minutes.
When we get to the ending, which boasts plenty of satisfying subversions, you’re even willing to go along with the explicit, joyously cheeky tease it offers for more. Whatever Giuliano decides to do next, if it has one iota of the craft and confidence of this feature debut, you’ll travel along with him anywhere.
Read all of our Toronto Film Festival coverage here.
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