You must have seen it by now, a mysterious eye peering out at you in the dark through green leaves.
”From Oren Peli, The Director of Paranormal Activity,” reads the tagline, and the show will debut February 7 at 9 central time. That’s about all many of us know about this upcoming show, but right before its debut, it seems The River’s building a pretty good buzz so far.
The headline in The Huffington Post asks, “Scariest New Series on Network TV?,” and Maggie Furlong writes, “If you liked the mysteries and the gorgeous scenery of Lost, and the jump-out-of-your-seat scariness of Paranormal Activity, then ABC’s goosebump-inducing new thriller will be right up your alley.”
The horror website Shock Till You Drop wrote, “From what I’ve seen of The River things are looking really good. I’ve caught a few decent chunks of the first episode and I was impressed.” And TV Guide warned, “Might want to watch this one with the lights on.”
The Hollywood Reporter also termed The River ” a successor to Lost with potential,” and as we’ve seen with many recent movies, this show uses the “found footage” concept that was first popularized in The Blair Witch Project, and is also being used in the superhero flick Chronicle, and the upcoming comedy Project X.
Similar to Cannibal Holocaust, the sleazeball horror flick that first did the found footage idea, The River is about a search for a man who disappeared in the Amazon, and those searching for him discover supernatural forces in their quest.
The River will debut with a two-hour episode, and so far there have been eight shows committed instead of the usual twenty-two, although of course if the show takes off, there will be more episodes.
As Peli told TV Guide, “I think the first couple of episodes set up the tone very nicely. It gets pretty nutty near the end of the season.” And the Guide also gives us a little peak of what to expect from The River: “With its carnivorous flying specters, homicidal vines and possessed crewmembers, this thing is like Lost off its meds.”
