The River: Series Premiere

Written by Meredith Alloway Sunday, February 12, 2012, 10:14 AM

The Paranormal Activity movies have made something quite obvious: hand-held camera horror is the next big thing. And with the success on the big screen, why not take over the small. The River is ABC’s attempt to present its viewers with some scary fun, the series created by Paranormal’s Oren Peli and Michael R. Perry. The two-hour premiere couldn’t be more jam-packed with the undead; let’s just hope the eight-episode series can keep up the pace.

The River centers on missing Amazon explorer-turned-reality-TV-star Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), whose family attempts to track him down after his beacon sounds from the jungle after years of silence. The idea from Peli was originally for a film, but when Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks approached him for a TV show pitch, his vision morphed into a different path.

Along with Perry, they decided each episode would give the crew a chance to discover something new and mysterious about the river, still allowing for the ultimate mystery, the disappearance of Emmet Cole, to keep the show’s through-line.  There’s no doubt the Amazon can provide plenty of magical, paranormal possibilities, but the characters within the show are what will keep it believable, and that’s the horror we’re aiming for.

Clark Quietly (Paul Blackthorne) sees the resurrection of Emmet Cole’s beacon as an opportunity… for cash. He decides to fund a mission to return to the Amazon, propelled not only by the opportunity to use the footage for a promising TV show but by Cole’s wife Tess’ (Leslie Hope) ambition to uncover her husband. The crew is a colorful, contradictory mix of hardheaded recruits. There’s Emmet’s son Lincoln (Joe Anderson), who fosters a love/hate relationship with his father, Daniel Craig look-and-act-alike Captain Brynildson (Thomas Kretschmann), the attractive voice of reason Lena Landry (Eloise Mumford) and of course two natives of the land who recognize the true danger of the mission.

And then perhaps the most important character of all is the Amazon itself.

Unfortunately, much of the character interaction in the pilot is expositional and ordinary. It’s no surprise that Joe and Tess have their family secrets. Through dialogue dense scenes, they make it quite obvious that their relationship with Emmet is both intimate and distant. The scenes might prove compelling if Joe wasn’t so angsty (isn’t he supposed to be an adult?) and Tess didn’t seem so naïve about the mission (hasn’t she spent her life traveling in dangerous waters?). Luckily, there’s potential in the interactions between Lena and Joe. Childhood friends, they’ve been through it all together and their moments of tenderness are what give the show weight. These are real people dealing with real situations. That’s what will make the ghouls and ghosts all the scarier.

And you’ve got to hand it to Peli, the premiere is no short of shock factor. It guarantees to provoke at least a handful of verbalized, “What the hell?!” and there’s no doubt a big “What the F*** is that?!” in store. I know I had a few. There’s a spirit that feeds on human blood, a ghosts that lures its victims into the river to drown and of course the standard possession of a crew member.

If you’re game for the mystical, the River delivers. But with such an intense premiere, the show will have to muster a legendary climax mid-season. Let’s hope packing so much action in the beginning won’t hurt their chances for a wonderfully horrifying end.