_{By: Amanda Guarragi}

When someone experiences a great loss, it can deeply affect them. It can change their mental state and alter their emotional capacity to actually feel things. There are stages of grief that everyone experiences differently, and if the people around you are not able to handle these outbursts of emotions, then it is even more difficult to move forward. River is a psychological sci-fi thriller, that follows River Allen (Mary Cameron Rogers), a 20-something woman who has spiralled out of control after her mother’s death. She ends up disappearing for over a week, with no recollection of how she returned home. She is disoriented, lethargic, volatile, and nightmarish images haunt her mind.

The film starts off with some beautiful camerawork that establishes the vastness of the forest near River. The story is centered on River’s grief, and how she slowly begins to lose herself with each passing moment, that her mother isn’t with her. Her mother made her feel safe, and she was comforted by the fact, that someone actually accepted her for who she was. There are some great mother-daughter moments during flashbacks, that show the bond that they shared. The story unfolds slowly, and you get pieces of information as the film goes on. We see River go through the different stages and there is an emotional connection to her character.

It is more of an emotional journey for River. Once she begins having these nightmares, and the supernatural element kicks in, the film starts to lose its footing. They needed to make the supernatural aspect from the forest a bit stronger, in order for her descent into grieving, and her loss of identity to make an impact as a whole. It just needed to be introduced and explained a bit more earlier on in the film, so that the viewer could easily make the connections. The concept of panic attacks, or anxiety being tied to lights flickering, or furniture moving, would have worked extremely well if the execution was bit cleaner.

River had some close friends that helped her through her grieving but something felt off. Her friend Amanda (Alexandra Rose) was somehow linked to this supernatural journey that River had to go on. Or rather, forced upon her. The concept was there, it just could have been stronger to show the sci-fi side in this film. The link between grief and expressing your emotions through natural elements around you, should have made for a more interesting film. There were strong moments, and the cast had great chemistry, but it wasn’t enough to properly hit those emotional chords, that this subject matter should have done.