'The River' Premiere: What Evil Lurks In The Panic Room Of The Magus? (VIDEO)

ABC debuted its bold new horror-mystery series "The River" (Tue., 9 p.m. EST on ABC) with a two hour premiere. The series features the found footage format popularized recently in the "Paranormal Activity" films, among others. It's a very effective tool in keeping the viewer in the same sense of panic and uncertainty as the characters. And with a multitude of cameras in use because they are filming a show within the show, things aren't as tight and jerky as what was seen on "The Blair Witch Project."

In other words, the cameras are shaky -- except for several mounted cameras on the boat and in the trees -- but there are more vantage points, and with professionals at the helm, there's a feeling of controlled chaos.

HuffPost TV critic Maureen Ryan listed several reasons to tune into "The River," along with several to avoid it. Viewers who tuned in likely were coming up with their own pros and cons. As Ryan pointed out, though, this is only an eight-episode season, so it's already a quarter of the way through its run after this premiere.

The opening hour established the players of the drama: a mother and son looking for their husband and father who's lost in the Amazonian jungles. He was a beloved nature show host named Emmet Cole, who, like Steve Irwin, got mixed up with the magic of the river and its region. In the premiere, the search team found the Magus, Cole's ship, which became the central point for their ongoing search.

In the ship, they discovered a strange evil spirit trapped in the panic room. They accidentally freed it, which lead to the show's first casualty. In both episodes, the primary "evil thing" they encountered was taken care of by the end of the hour, a signal that the show is following an odd procedural horror format, complemented by the larger story arc of the search for Emmett Cole. Will they find him by the end of this first season?

Find out as "The River" continues Tuesdays at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.

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Comments

[cameo2012]

07:25 PM on 02/08/2012

I am an avid fan of good science fiction, mystery, and LOTR quality fantasy. Not very impressed with the first hour, and ran out of patience shortly thereafter. I turned the TV off when they figured out within a couple of minutes in the midst of panic in a dark unfamiliar jungle that a spirit had seized Emmet's wife but would trade her for the dead mother of the spirit (ya think??), so off they go to unerringly find the grave and start digging up this dead mother for the swap. Good grief! This show calls for waaay too drastic a willing suspension of disbelief. I found the show too annoying to bother with. Hard to believe someone actually spent money making this.

[cellarette]

05:19 PM on 02/08/2012

I watched the whole 2 hours and all I can say is I kept thinking of that cereal commercial with the little girl who keeps saying "That's for babies." How is anyone over the age of maybe 12 scared by this stuff? Like with Blair witch I'm already wishing whatever the "monster" is would kill these stupid people off already so they'd stop boring me. As for Steven Spielberg, I only hope whatever $$ he makes on this will go into making something worth watching. Junk food TV.

[Kathleen Morse]

01:31 PM on 02/08/2012

Well, I'm one of those fortunate TV viewer's who is able to suspend her disbelief and enjoy TV without looking at every frame and intellectualizing and comparing. I LOVED the program. It's Steven Spielberg for gawds sake. He seldom makes a mistake. I watched "Lost" way past the point when I figured out the writers were indeed Lost. Try to watch this and suspend your disbelief, you have to do that to enjoy horror and really just about any genre. If I'm wrong I'll go on Stephen Colbert and say so.

[wokndadog]

10:24 AM on 02/08/2012

The story line for the River has a nice hook, but the cinematography makes the RIVER seem like a CHEESY Blair Witch WANABE.

ABC touted this show as its next "LOST". when in fact it will probably be their next "LOSS".

We were avid viewers of LOST who anxiously awaited each new episode. (We even endured the ridiculously long breaks between episodes ie. one or two episodes, then a six week wait... this alone almost cost ABC our viewership.)

As for the comparison to Lost; There is no way the RIVER will ever measure up to LOST, much less make it through this season unless they wise up and get away from the CHEAP camera tricks. (Couldn't have been worse if it were filmed by elementary school kids suffering from ADD) I/we will give the show another chance with the next episode, but am inclined to believe there is NO WAY the River will ever last unless they wise up and cut back on all the Blair Witchery and get back to the basics of good cinematography.

What was your opinion of the ABC Premier of the River ?

[El Saltine]

09:44 AM on 02/08/2012

looks annoying.

[Bobio]

07:14 AM on 02/08/2012

The River was so awful it made me sick. It was like watching "Jersey Shore" on a house boat. What's next are they gonna find Snooki in the jungle?

[ModerndayJohnnyappleseed]

06:49 AM on 02/08/2012

I was trying to watch river and that NG show Preppers at same time. River was good and also Preppers was a good show too.