Forums Television
Paranormal Activity Meets Lost? THE RIVER (Review)

ABC just had a two hour premiere of a new action, horror, thriller show called The River, which was created by the director of Paranormal Activity. To be honest I wasn't waiting or was too excited for this show to come on. I made no plans to watch it, but I ended up just stumbling upon it at 9pm on ABC last night, and I must say that I actually kind of liked it. I was a huge Lost fan so when Lost ended I feared no show could live up to the awesomeness of it, but The River has definitely stepped up and got me feeling the same excitement like I did for Lost. Although I must admit, Happy Town, another ABC show which was cut after two episodes, did have the great potential to live up to Lost as well, but I guess no one liked it bedes me... :/

Now what is interesting about The River is that it is all "found footage." Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe this is the first TV show to attempt doing a full series with "found footage." There is definitely a lot of obvious touches from the Paranormal Activity movies in this TV show, but the Paranormal touches seem to work very well with this show. The River has the mysteriousness of Lost and the spice of Paranormal Activity. Will the show last? I sure hope so!

What did you think of the show? Do you think it will last?
BloodyAdored Wednesday 2/08/2012 at 12:04 PM | 90272
Great review and I couldn't agree with you more Malison on it being sooo much like LOST and PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. I was very skeptical about this show and while I wasn't completely blown away with last nights premiere I am interested to see where it will go. A couple of things that annoyed me was I felt they overly tried to use the whole horizontal line "bad" camera reception mounted camera look. It just looks so fake, it's probably because everyone uses that filter on YouTube videos, it just looks cheesy to me.

I also thought the main guy looked a lot like Chris Elliot the comidan actor, that has nothing to do with the show but for some reason took me out of a few scenes for that mple fact (nitpicking big time I know). But when the shoe finally kicked into high gear I loved the Paranormal Activity shots of bodies flying and moving quick, etc. It isn't anything new to movie goers but maybe televion viewers will stay tuned. I am just not sure how much life the show has. We shall see.

Coming in with low expectations I have to say I was pleasantly surprised and will continue to tune in. I'm all for seeing as much horror on televion even if this is right on the edge.
Horror Domain - Cursed Evil Overlord Wednesday 2/08/2012 at 04:28 PM | 90277
"I'm all for seeing as much horror on televion even if this is right on the edge."

Couldnt agree more boo man. I haven't got to see The River yet but I have it recorded. With The walking Dead and American Horror Story being as succesful as they are, im interested to see what other horror related shows will pop up next.
kizzle Wednesday 2/08/2012 at 10:35 PM | 90300
Gosh I want to watch this, Dish Network dropped ABC... ='(
haloboyvash Thursday 2/09/2012 at 11:28 AM | 90326