Universal's River, a film that first premiered at TIFF this year in Toronto and Fantastic Fest in Texas, and is set to be the first massive horror movie in 2027—But what else would one expect when you have iconic scream queens Jessica Rothe and Jane Levy sharing the screen.
River, which hits theaters on January 15, 2027, follows three siblings—Lucy (Jane Levy), Carla (Beware Boiúna's Jessica Rothe), and Drew (Max Mattern)—who are all forced to reunite after the death of their father. While looking to scattering his remains into their father's favorite river, their boat runs out of gas, leaving them stranded on the water. Tensions between the siblings continue to rise and explode thanks to personal feuds, but it all gets even worse when they become the target of a relentless and brutal serial killer tageting them from the shore.
At NYCC,The Direct's Russ Milheim spoke with River star Jessica Rothe about the intense terror that River provides by touching upon the primal fears of being pursued by a vicious brutal serial killer and being forced into an unplanned family reunion.
River Has All the Horror, From Serial Killers to Family Reunions
"It's the Family Dynamic That Truly Sets It Apart..."
- The Direct: "Obviously, the killer is the main threat, but I feel like a lot of the horror comes from the family element as well. [With these] family interactions, you know there's this tension, and then it just builds up and explodes. Can you talk about establishing that with you, knowing your co-stars?"
Jessica Rothe: I truly cannot have been luckier to have Max and Jane as my co-stars in this. Not only are they both incredibly talented and kind humans, but we were all there to play and discover. And as a result, I think that we were able to kind of suss out that family dynamic and find some really unexpected, beautiful moments that weren't in the script.
Rothe happily explained how she and her co-stars were able to naturally find "so many beautiful moments" while filming:
Rothe: Like the peeing over the boat. That was—it's a very casual moment that was written in there, but the laughing and the kind of bonding and the levity that we found was something that just organically happened on the day, and there were so many beautiful moments of discovery like that. And I agree with you that this movie would have been beautiful, and it would have been scary without the family dynamic. But it's the family dynamic that truly sets it apart, and that makes some of those sequences so harrowing because you really care about these characters and you care about them as a family dynamic getting through this.
- The Direct: "It's just so interesting that it's like that tension—You're scared about just everyone being mad and like how people are feeling, but then you're also scared of them losing someone very quickly when the tables turn."
Rothe: 100%. And I know like one of the things I really connected to when I first read the script and met with [director Joshua Giuliano] is no matter the life that I've lived, no matter how many movies I've done, the successes I've reached, that I'm married, that I have a child, the friends I have, when I go home, I instantly revert to being like 15 years old, and all of the wonderful things about that.
The actor continued, noting how her character, Carla, is "suddenly back into this family dynamic that's incredibly stressful and uncomfortable:"
Rothe: Like my mom cooking me meals and doing laundry, but also like my gripes with my sister, and like being angsty and feeling a way about things, and so exploring that part of this dynamic for Carla-that when she comes home, she's suddenly thrown back into this family dynamic that's incredibly stressful and uncomfortable—and like you said, navigating all of those emotions and and kind of the inner turmoil that comes with family drama.
Jessica Rothe on Filming on the Water and Living Out a Primal Fear
"2026 Is Like the Year of Water For Me..."
- The Direct: "I mentioned this at Fantastic Fest, but you just have a thing with rivers, it seems. But now that we're here to talk about the river, talk to me about the experience of that river compared to what you went through in Boiúna?"
Jessica Rothe: Unknowingly, 2026 is like the year of water for me because 'River,' 'Beware Boiúna,' 'Pathetic Fallacy'—All of these movies have pretty big water scenes in them that are quite important, but the difference between 'River' and Beware Boyuna [is that on 'Beware Boiúna'] we were filming on the actual Amazon, which was incredible, but was quite limiting in some of the things that we could do.
"We filmed fourteen of our twenty-two days on the water," the actor revealed, adding that "a large portion of that was filmed on a man-made lake."
Rothe: For 'River,' we were in West Virginia. We filmed 14 of our 22 days on the water, but a large portion of that was filmed on a man-made lake. So the real testament there goes to our incredible cinematographer Nick and also Josh, our director, because they make it look like we are constantly moving, and the boat isn't just in the same place being flipped like everywhere towards Sunday. We also weren't allowed to use gas-powered motors in that lake.
Rothe explained how everyone on the crew was hands on deck in order to make sure the illusion of their boat situation held true.
Rothe: So, in order to move the camera boat and also the picture boat, our stunt crew was out there with like kayaks and rows, and everybody was swimming and literally all hands on deck to like maneuver all of these boats around to create the illusion that we weren't just like sitting tied up to appear. But you know I'm better at swimming than I was before, so that's really exciting.
One particular scene that has caught the internet's attention in the new trailer is when Jessica Rothe's Carla swims towards the shore, only to notice a man standing there. After a moment, he dives into the water with clear intent on reaching her in the water, causing a panicked retreat to her boat.
Rothe commented on the primal fear that a scenario like that conjures up, noting that when filming genre movies like this one, "your body sometimes doesn't know it's not real."
Rothe: I mean, the really amazing thing about genre movies in general, and horror movies especially, is that your body sometimes doesn't know it's not real. So when you're lucky enough as an actor to be put in that real-life experience, even if it's manufactured for the shot, there is a real level of terror and fear and kind of visceral animal flight or fight that kicks in, and I think you can really feel that because I truly was swimming for my life.
The masked killer of the movie is played by Dane Diliegro, an ex-athlete who is, needless to say, incredibly intimidating in the role of The Man.
Rothe: And Dane [DiLiegro], who is our incredible masked killer, the man, he's a big guy. And not only that, he is an ex-athlete. He is like 6' 8". He is ripped. And so, me swimming away from him, I was like, 'Oh, I'm—If I don't haul ass, I'm never gonna get back to the boat in time, and even then you might still catch me.' So the fear was real, but I think it adds to the performance.
Our entire interview with River star Jessica Rothe can be enjoyed here:
