One of the films we can’t wait to see at the Toronto International Film Festival this week is River, which features genre favorites Jane Levy (Evil Dead) and Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day).
The upcoming River follows three estranged siblings who reunite in their hometown after the death of their father. They set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river, but when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.
Stranded miles from help with no cell service, they soon realize they’re being stalked by a faceless killer who has emerged from the woods. To survive the night, the siblings must put their long-standing grudges aside and fight together against a ruthless, almost mythic terror.
Variety has an exclusive preview of River ahead of the film’s TIFF premiere, and it features brand new images (below) along with fresh insights into the “beautiful, brutal” slasher movie.
The outlet previews, “Finding a taut balance between echoing the beats of classic slashers and intentionally subverting expectations, it’s evocative of some of [director Joshua Giuliano‘s] favorite ’70s films, like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Halloween, without feeling redundant.”
“I wanted to make the kind of slasher film that I wanted to see,” Giuliano tells Variety. “Something that was stripped down to its core elements. For me, slasher films at their very essence are simple and primal. It’s about a cast of human characters being hunted down by a killer. It’s about the relentlessness of death, the pursuit of death, sometimes the inevitability of death.”
Max Mattern (“Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy”) and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) also star in the slasher film, which marks the feature debut of writer-director Joshua Giuliano.
