Fantastic Fest Review: River

River starts with what seems like a gimmick. The camera glides through a woodland clearing and slowly reveals the aftermath of a bloody murder. But what the audience hears is the crime itself: the nervous fumblings of horny teens, the discovery of an intruder, and the sound of knife going into flesh.

But rather than merely a gimmick, it’s writer/director Joshua Giuliano establishing a central component of his intimate reinvention of the slasher. Memory and perception are tricky and subjective, especially when it comes to our own history. As three estranged siblings float on a stranded boat in the middle of nowhere in West Virginia, menaced by the same murderer whose violent acts were heard in the opening, they all have their own version of the truth.

Jessica Rothe (who, between Beware Boiúna, Pathetic Fallacy, and River, pulled off a triple hitter this year with appearances in three Fantastic Fest films) plays avowed and self-described girly-girl Carla. She’s back home at the family home for the spreading of her father’s ashes. There’s an inversion here: In most horrors, it’s characters like Carla who would be daddy’s favorite, but here she’s the outcast, as wanting to wear dresses rather than plaid shirts and overalls was just the first of many clashes that set them at odds.

Although never seen outside of old home movies, through her reminiscences her father becomes a clear and overbearing figure. Or rather, her version of him is. To Carla, he was a drunk, a bully, and a cheater. To her tomboyish sister, Lucy (Jane Levy, Don’t Breathe, Evil Dead, The Toxic Avenger), Daddy was simply a rough-and-tumble guy, and Carla just needs to see his side of things. This leaves their milquetoast brother, Drew (Max Mattern), caught between them, desperate for everyone to get along like they did in the fantasy version of their happy family he knows never existed.

River is at its best when Giuliano leans into the mumblegore flow of his script. Contrary to popular belief, that melding of horror and lo-fi arthouse wasn’t simply about understatement or griminess, but an undeniable naturalism and an emphasis on character. That’s why the subgenre can go into wilder corners and still retain its allure. So even when something as fantastical as an occult element enters the family’s plight, River still remains captivating and chilling. It’s when it falls back on some slasher tropes that it simply falls flat, if only because they seem trite by comparison.

That’s a shame, because much of what Giuliano constructs is riveting, especially the intimate family drama between the trio. In too many movies the scattering of the ashes would be a narrative afterthought, just an excuse to get the three potential victims on a boat together. Instead, it’s the gut-wrenching heart of the film, fashioned in such a manner as to remind the audience that the people come first, and the savage attack by the nameless, silent, masked killer is not the only reason that they’re onscreen.

Those glitches into standard slasher tropes are doubly disappointing because Giuliano is so adept at subverting those same conventions. His take on the classic silent masked killer in the woods (played with muscular restraint by Prey star Dane DiLiegro) isn’t just revisionism for revisionism’s sake, but a thoughtful reinvention that makes the final reveal even more bleakly terrifying. The director also has a rare skill for evoking an almost overwhelming sense of doom and dread, invoked in no small part by some truly stunning images of carnage and bloodshed. His nightmares are juxtaposed against the lush river systems of Monongalia and Marion counties, making them even more unsettling. His moments of horror relief aren’t delivered as jump scares but as a counterpoint to the family drama drifting below, and in such scenes River is a perfect melding of emotionally intimate and graphically gruesome.

Fantastic Fest runs Sept. 17-24 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar. Badges and info at fantasticfest.com. Follow our coverage at austinchronicle.com/fantastic-fest.

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