The Paranormal River – Impressions of ABC’s New Survival Horror

 

 

It’s spoiler-free! The trailer actually does more spoiling.

 

What’s ‘The River’? Watch this!

 

 

Now that you’ve watched that trailer above, if you missed the premiere last Tuesday night on ABC, the trailer is the abbreviated version of those first 2 hours. Seriously.

No doubt, ‘Paranormal Activity’ creator Oren Peli’s name on the credits gives you the visual cue you need to prepare yourself for the rest of the trailer’s scares.  For folks who don’t find the ‘Paranormal Activity’ films scary and under-budget looking, I think you’ll find much better visual quality with ‘The River’.  As a matter of fact, the depth of the back story that includes actor, Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek, Thirteen Days), who looks like he’s half Indiana Jones and half Crocodile Hunter – is indeed brilliant.  While we can draw some parallels with Peli’s more popular franchise with the time-lapse footage and camera trickery, there’s a uniqueness about visual style found in ‘The River’.  Amazonian wildlife, mainly the insects, look as if they’re computer generated and are brightly-colored on purpose. This is most likely to give the viewers a visual cue to associate with the waters of the Amazon as their constantly flashing back and forward in time.

As you can already tell from the trailer, the story follows the family of celebrity explorer Emmet Cole.  He’s gone missing in the Amazon and his grown-up resentful son and stubborn mother lead an expedition to find him.  They eventually find what’s left of the ship they once called home, The Magus.  What happens next are a series of supernatural elements with the sole purpose of providing scares and no regard to pacing the story.

Often times, when shows deal with supernatural elements, some limitations have to be imposed on those elements. The zombies in ‘The Walking Dead’ are mindless eating machines with no real intelligence. Walkers are not going to fly or do anything out of the ordinary than what we’ve already seen.  When you don’t impose limitations in horror, you’re left with Tim Kring’s ‘Heroes: Season 3′, when the elements are just out of control. In the case of ‘The River’, the supernatural elements aren’t really well-paced as the characters are subjected to them almost immediately upon arriving to The Magus.  What’s even more lacking is that there’s no real explanation offered up by the Greenwood back story for these supernatural occurrences except that renowned explorer Emmet Cole didn’t just talk about magic in a figurative sense, but also in a literal one.

It really felt like the similarities with ‘Paranormal Activity’ are at-times forced.  The use of the time-lapse, I didn’t mind so much. The engineer’s daughter, Jahel, possessed as a result of a blue bug flying in her mouth, felt like it needed some more time to develop.  The dolls in the second hour of the premiere felt a little too early to introduce after I’m already trying to process the supernatural elements from the first hour.  It felt very Chucky-esque and was also the most annoying scene in the first 2 hours of the show.  A part of me wanted to turn the show off after the failed attempts of hanging the doll on the tree.  It was a definitely a ‘WTF’ moment for me.  We needed the second hour to explore that first attack on The Magus with more depth and investigation.  The dolls and the sudden recollection of an Amazonian folktale to explain them was way too rushed.

In terms of performances, Bruce Greenwood as the constant star of the back story is going to help this series moving forward.  He looks younger and a bit more spry, with the ability to really showcase his acting range.  I’m happy to say that he’s no where near an Oval Office. The character types making up the explorer team are appropriately written-in, but I think that the casting of Joe Anderson in the lead role as Lincoln Cole, is what’s going to make or break this show.  Anyone who reads my TV impressions knows that I’m big on likable characters with range that we can rally behind. We need him to be good looking to have romantic interests and be our hero as the show progresses.  In short, I’m always on the lookout for the next Matthew Fox / Jack Shepherd casting. Although we knew right from the J.J. Abrams-directed pilot that we wanted to root for Matthew Fox, I’m not so sure I’m getting that vibe from Joe Anderson as Lincoln Cole. That’s not to say that Joe Anderson isn’t going to grow into that character, but I can’t help but think of his role in’The Crazies’ as deputy sheriff Russell who plays second fiddle to Timothy Olyphant.

I’m hoping a balancing comedic element rears its head to the currents of ‘The River’.  It seems like the lead camera man, A.J., is the closest thing to it. I’ve always been a proponent that a comedic character goes a long way to balancing out the uber-serious tone we’ve already gotten in the first 2 hours.  The character Sawyer from ‘Lost’ and Daryl from ‘The Walking Dead’ are proof of my point.

‘The River’ will hopefully start to pace the supernatural elements into its story and not just for the sake of scaring for scaring’s sake.  I’m hoping with this latest of the Spielberg marathon of TV production credits, there’s longevity. Who knows? A second or third season may just make its way out of the Amazon and into a different global locale so we don’t grow sick of the Amazon.  I’m tired of my wife asking me where the giant snake is as I’m trying to watch ‘The River’. Cue the Sir Mix-A-Lot track.

Overall, ‘The River’ has promise.  Plus, it’s survival horror on TV and we need more. Why? Survival horror as a mainstay on television programming makes for a good balance with my wife’s reality shows.  Darabont is currently proving that with ‘The Walking Dead’.