Surprisingly, my 2011-2012 TV seasons ended up featuring some horror titles, which I've mentioned time and again as a genre that I don't actively seek out.
So far, I've found a couple of supernatural themed TV series from the succeeding fall and winter seasons. Add that to an anime title that premiered a couple of months ago that was just one heck of a creepy head scratcher, and I've pretty much exceeded my quota of scary TV programming.
Normally, I wouldn't have watched The River. The first reason is that I avoid horror titles because I surprise easily. Not scare. Surprise. You're reading the words of a person who screams when people suddenly fall from high places in action films. I even utter profanities when somebody trips in comedy programming. I am apparently too excitable. Second, The River is filmed in the found footage format. I still have motion sickness every time I remember The Blair Witch Project.
I ended up watching because of four words. Steven Spielberg, Paranormal Activity. The collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Paranormal Activity creator Oren Peli was enough to get me interested to watch, even if I was afraid that it might be surprising enough to cause me to throw something at the TV. I will watch anything connected to Steven Spielberg (number one reason for watching Terra Nova), because my fangirl love for the man will make me endure even the most dubious sounding productions. And, despite the genre and format, Paranormal Activity was great fun to watch (though I didn't care much for the sequels). It helped that the video camera used to tell the story in the film was always mounted on a tripod.
The River tells the story of the search for the missing Dr. Emmett Cole, a famous explorer whose show The Undiscovered Country was watched and beloved by many viewers around the world. His wife Tess and son Lincoln team up with a documentary team in order to fund the search to find Emmett when his beacon goes off in the Amazon six months after his disappearance. Producer Clark, camera man AJ, security expert Kurt, mechanic Emilio, Emilio's daughter and assistant mechanic Jahel, and camera man's daughter Lena, joins them on the journey to search for Emmett, his crew and the ship Magus.
Their search leads them to travel on the Boiuna, a stretch of the Amazon river that is not found on the map and where any self respecting superstitious person will avoid at all costs. Unless you're a teenager mechanic who can't convince your father nor the people who can't understand a word that you're saying. Of course, nobody will listen to Jahel, who can only speak Portuguese and whose psychic powers will seem unbelievable until various forces try to kill them in every episode.
Really. Every episode. It would seem that traveling on the Boiuna will pit you against souls that even hell wouldn't take, eternally hanging men, tribesmen with no eyes who will steal your sight and test you, zombie like creatures, ghost ships, entities that flay your skin, and angry river demons.
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What creeped me out the worst, though, was the doll tree. It's a damn creepy tree with damn creepy dolls hanging from it. The legend is that the dolls were tied or hung on the tree as tribute to a little girl who drowned in the river because her mother wasn't watching her. You just know something bad is going to happen. You just know something is going to move, blink or maybe jump on you. I knew it. And I was right on all but one account. I will not be re-watching that episode anytime soon.
I'm usually a skeptic of the found footage format, because I always wonder why the cameraman would still lug around what could weight him down enough so something absolutely monstrous could eat him. The River overcomes this in a variety of ways. First, the people holding the camera aren't amateurs who think it's just fun to film something. This also means less shaky camera movement unless they're running for their lives or being dragged somewhere. The crew led by Clarke employs not just cameras that they have to carry, but additional camera units they set up every time they camp. Second, they eventually found and used the abandoned Magus, which was used in The Undiscovered Country and came with a plethora of installed video cameras that explain why everything on board the ship is filmed. I say the tactics are a stroke of genius, because they saved me from the horrible motion sickness that most media in the found footage format are apt to make me suffer from.
Really, you should watch The River.
Because the cast is great.
Because the horror of the week will keep you entertained.
And because why would you want to miss out on watching this?
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"There's magic out there." was a catch phrase used by Emmett in The Undiscovered Country.
Yes... There really was magic out there.
And I mean that in a terrified way.
Happy viewing!!Labels: ABC, Drama, Found Footage, Horror, Must-Watch, Supernatural, The River, TV, TV Series
