Bouncing the camera around does not make a movie shocking. And deep noises off screen don't convey horror. Maybe this will improve but the first hours were awful. The show seemed to be operating without a script. It may be too demanding to ask the writers to begin the story in a light hearted manner so that the coming shocks had a "normal" for impact. The story progressed from deep off screen noises with expressions of shock on the actors' faces to a jiggle the camera sequence with the usual indication that something horrible is about to happen and then to, well, nothing. It probably goes without saying that the plot will depend on shocking monsters that will appear. It needed some monsters in the first hours and it needed to establish "normal" to give a contest for the shocks. It had neither
Review of The River
