The sun is down, the boat is dead, there is no cell service, and somebody is standing on the shore staring back. That is the whole pitch for River, the new slasher from Blumhouse Atomic Monster and Universal Pictures, and it lands only in theaters on Friday, January 15, 2027. Blumhouse just pushed a fresh clip of it, and one shot says plenty: a woman on a speedboat, a couple of beer cans held out in front of her, a lazy summer day that is clearly about to go very wrong.
The setup
Three estranged siblings come home to their small rural town after their father dies. They take his ashes out to his favorite spot on a remote river to scatter them. Then the boat breaks down. Miles from help, with no signal and the light going, they realize a faceless killer has come out of the woods and is hunting them. To make it through the night they have to drop years of grudges and fight together against what the studio calls a ruthless, almost mythic terror.
It is a simple idea done the old way: water on every side, woods on every bank, nowhere to call. The trailer leans hard into that summer daylight before the dark sets in, which makes the turn hit harder.
Who is in it
Jane Levy, Jessica Rothe and Max Mattern play the siblings, and Dane DiLiegro plays the masked figure stalking them. Horror fans know the leads well. Levy fought her way through Evil Dead and Don't Breathe, and Rothe spent two movies dying over and over in the Happy Death Day films.
River is the feature debut of writer and director Joshua Giuliano. It is produced by Steven Schneider through Spooky Pictures, and by Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund through Eat The Cat, with Jason Blum among the executive producers. Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster picked it up after its Midnight Madness screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, the late night section where a lot of cult horror first finds its crowd.
Watch before January
- Start with the time loop. The Happy Death Day and Happy Death Day 2U Blu-ray 2-pack puts both of Rothe's Blumhouse slashers in one case, a perfect double feature for a cold night.
- See Levy at full scream. The Evil Dead (2013) Blu-ray is the cabin in the woods nightmare that made her a horror name.
- Keep it going. Just want the sequel on the shelf, grab Happy Death Day 2U on Blu-ray by itself.
Why it matters
January is usually a quiet month at the movies, and a lean, nasty survival slasher from a first time director is exactly the kind of thing that turns into a word of mouth hit. Mark January 15, gather the friends who will scream with you, and maybe skip the boat trip until spring. For more modern horror to queue up, start with our A24 horror starter guide.
Official River site · River at Blumhouse
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