![River Review: Unoriginal Slasher Doesn't Recover From Early Stumbles [TIFF]](https://static0.srcdn.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/jane-levy-frightened-and-floating-in-water-in-river.jpg?w=1600&h=900&fit=crop "River Review: Unoriginal Slasher Doesn't Recover From Early Stumbles [TIFF]")
A member of the Hollywood Creative Alliance, Chicago Indie Critics, Online Film and Television Association, and the Internet Film Critic Society, George has covered major industry events as credentialed media, including D23, CinemaCon, SXSW, Fantastic Fest, Star Wars Celebration, Tribeca Festival, and more. He also regularly writes reviews and contributes articles to ScreenAnarchy, BRWC, Film Obsessive, TV Obsessive, and Under the Radar. George's work has been featured in various esteemed publications, including the BBC, Associated Press, Forbes, and The New York Times.
River Sluggishly Swims Through A Conventional Slasher Story
The cold open of River borrows heavily from Giuliano’s aforementioned short in allowing the audience to witness the aftermath of a masked killer’s reign of terror with audio of the actual massacre. Stilted voice acting aside, the beginning admirably does something different from the average slasher fare, although that’s about all the novelty that Giuliano’s feature film has to offer.Taking far too long to introduce the masked killer and let him loose on the three unsuspecting siblings, River moves at a painfully sluggish pace through a dull first act. Giuliano tries to earn audience investment in the strained relationships of the siblings and the different ways they approach the death of their alcoholic father, but the dialogue proves so stiff, trite, and uninspired that it’s difficult to care much about what’s happening.
River’s Masked Killer Eventually Injects Much-Needed Thrills Into The Mix
Thankfully, the film finally kicks into gear when the masked killer lurking in the woods begins to torment the siblings trapped in the boat. Giuliano exhibits a strong handling of cinematic geography to render open waters an unusually claustrophobic setting for a slasher film, while methodically amplifying the tension with a number of punctuated visuals. None of what unfolds on screen is particularly unique – shades of Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Deliverance are all over this film – yet it’s all handled with enough craftsmanship to make for far more compelling viewing than its grating start.More bloodthirsty horror hounds will likely come away satisfied with what this movie has to offer. Although the body count is far lower than the average slasher, Dane DiLiegro’s masked killer serves as a formidable, unsettling threat and is responsible for a handful of harrowing frights – one of which is one of the better jump scares of the year.
Making DiLiegro’s killer all the more striking is the fact that he is naked, except a tiny pair of shorts and a plain mask that resembles a human face. In designing his killer in such a way, Giuliano seems to be suggesting that he is stripping down the slasher, both literally and figuratively. It’s a potential interesting approach to an overdone genre with plenty of untapped potential, but even DiLiegro’s foreboding screen presence doesn’t make up for just how clichéd and trope-ridden River is.
Despite the promise of its inventive filmmaker, whose first venture into this genre was a welcome breath of fresh air, River is about as
- Release Date
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September 10, 2026
- Runtime
- Director
- Writers
- Producers
92 minutes
Joshua Giuliano
Joshua Giuliano
Steven Schneider, Alex Hedlund, Nick Antosca
Cast
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Jessica RotheUncredited
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Jane Levy