River Trailer Strands Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe With a Faceless Killer
The water isn’t safe in River, the new survival slasher that brings together two of modern horror’s most battle-tested leading ladies. Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe head into the wilderness for writer-director Joshua Giuliano’s feature debut, and the newly released trailer suggests their supposedly peaceful family trip is going to end with considerably more than wet clothes and a broken boat.
Universal will release River in cinemas on January 15, 2027, following an enthusiastic reception on the festival circuit. The film premiered as part of the Midnight Madness programme at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, where its combination of family drama, isolation and bloody survival horror helped generate considerable attention. Blumhouse Atomic Monster subsequently acquired the film following its Toronto appearance, with Universal now putting it into cinemas at the beginning of next year.
The premise begins with grief rather than murder. Three estranged siblings return to their hometown following the death of their father and decide to honour his wishes by scattering his ashes at his favourite location on a remote river. Levy and Rothe play sisters Lucy and Carla, with Max Mattern playing their younger brother Drew. Whatever problems have developed between the siblings haven’t disappeared simply because they’ve been reunited by a funeral, leaving the journey carrying plenty of emotional baggage before anyone starts hunting them.
Then their boat fails.
With daylight disappearing, no mobile phone service and miles separating them from help, the siblings realise they’re not alone. Figures are watching from the riverbanks, and a faceless killer has emerged from the surrounding wilderness. Suddenly, a difficult family reunion becomes a fight to survive the night, forcing the three to put their grudges aside if they have any chance of getting off the river alive.
The mysterious threat is played by Dane DiLiegro, whose physical presence should already be familiar to genre audiences even if his face isn’t. The 6’8″ former professional basketball player portrayed the towering Feral Predator in Dan Trachtenberg’s Prey and has subsequently built a career playing imposing creatures and characters beneath extensive make-up and prosthetics. Putting someone with DiLiegro’s physicality on the riverbank should make the simple sight of the killer standing in the distance considerably more unsettling.
Two Horror Survivors Get Back in Trouble
Casting Levy and Rothe together also gives River an immediate horror pedigree. Levy memorably endured an exceptionally unpleasant night in a woodland cabin as Mia in Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead in 2013 before returning to the genre for Álvarez’s Don’t Breathe. Rothe, meanwhile, repeatedly died her way through Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U as Tree Gelbman, becoming one of the most recognisable horror heroines of the late 2010s.
Rather than simply relying on that history, River appears to be putting both actresses into a very different kind of nightmare. There are no Deadites or murderous time loops here. Giuliano’s film strips the situation down to isolation, darkness, water and the horrible realisation that the people watching from shore have considerably more control over the environment than their stranded victims.
The production itself wasn’t particularly forgiving either. The cast and Giuliano have spoken about the difficulty of shooting extensively around water, with filming taking place both on an actual river and a specially created pond. That physical environment should help give the finished film a sense of geography that is particularly important for this kind of survival story.
From TIFF to a Universal Release
River represents Giuliano’s first feature as writer and director, but his relationship with the companies behind the film predates its Toronto reception. The project was originally produced with Independent Film Company and Shudder, before its festival response attracted further attention and Blumhouse Atomic Monster became involved in its theatrical future.
The film is also rated R in the United States for strong bloody violence, some grisly images and language, so anyone concerned that its move to a Universal theatrical release might sand down the nastier edges can probably stop worrying. Early festival reactions have similarly emphasised its brutality and survival-horror elements.
Giuliano isn’t disappearing back into the woods once River is released either. He’s already attached to another horror project, Occupant, being produced by Blumhouse Atomic Monster alongside Divide/Conquer and Spooky Pictures.
For now, though, there is one river to survive first. The combination of an uncomplicated slasher setup, a director making his feature debut, DiLiegro providing the physical threat and Levy and Rothe returning to survival-horror territory gives River plenty to recommend it before anyone has even climbed into the boat.
River arrives in cinemas on January 15, 2027.
