Why ABC Cancelled A Found Footage Horror Series From The Director Of Paranormal Activity

You can’t undersell the impact “Paranormal Activity” had on the found footage movie boom. While there were plenty of predecessors that made the horror subgenre feel downright revolutionary like “The Blair Witch Project” and “Cloverfield,” Oren Peli’s self-contained haunted house flick kicked the doors down when it came to studio interest. It delivered suspenseful thrills and chills on a micro-budget that allowed it to make an unbelievable profit for Paramount. Everyone tried to recapture the magic with varying levels of success.

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Peli would spend the following years producing the “Paranormal Activity” and “Insidious” franchises, while conjuring an original idea for television with “Paranormal Activity 2” co-writer Michael R. Perry. The result was 2012’s “The River,” a found footage adventure-horror series that only ran for one season on ABC.

There had been some examples of found footage finding success on the small screen such as Animal Planet’s “Lost Tapes,” which intercut faux “real” tapes of people being attacked by mythological creatures and scientific figures attempting to make sense of it. But the Peli-Perry-produced series was taking on a whole new narrative frontier with the subgenre.

“The River” follows an expedition to find Dr. Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood), a notable television explorer who went missing in the Amazon amid a search for “real magic.” Emmett’s wife, Tess (Leslie Hope), and son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson), are only able to put up the funding for the rescue operation up the Boiuna river after a deal is made with a television network to document the trip. Needless to say, things don’t go according to plan.

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The trailer for “The River” gave the impression that it could have been a midseason surprise for ABC. In addition to the “Paranormal Activity” connections behind the scenes, the series also had Steven Spielberg on as an executive producer. The trailer drummed up enough interest to get folks to tune into the 2-part series premiere. It was even directed by none other than “Orphan” filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra. But none of that helped in the long run.

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The pilot started out relatively okay with 7.59 million viewers. When next week’s episode rolled around, however, it lost nearly 3 million of them. In the weeks to follow, that number would get lower and lower. Interestingly enough, there was a brief window before its cancellation where the series almost had a savior in the form of Netflix on account of its DVR numbers (via Deadline). But “The River” wasn’t even doing as good as Fox’s then-already-canceled “Avatar” meets “Jurassic Park” high concept series, “Terra Nova” in that department.

It also didn’t help the series’ case that no one was exactly singing high praises, with most reviews culminating to the same conclusion: there’s a good idea trapped in a lackluster execution. It currently sits at a 65 rating on Metacritic. “Through the two episodes being shown on Tuesday night, the mixture of ‘Lost’ storytelling and ‘Paranormal’ style is neither intriguing nor particularly scary, and it doesn’t help that there’s hardly a glimmer of humor,” said Mike Hale in his review for The New York Times.

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“The River” was initially conceived as a movie before being stretched out to keep the expedition crew busy until they found Emmet, and it shows (via Bloody Disgusting). It was as if you took the mystery location aspects of “Lost” that kept viewers on the edge of their seats, but removed all of the charm and engaging character dynamics.

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I remember tuning in every week when “The River” aired and even at 8 episodes, my interest in the series’ supernatural detours ran thin with each passing week. There simply wasn’t enough momentum to keep me invested beyond the fact I enjoyed found footage movies and wanted to see how it would transfer to television. The truth is that it doesn’t.

Even when it attempts to emulate the appearance of low quality found footage, “The River” ultimately looks too slick and overproduced to feel dangerous. The only found footage project I’ve seen come close is “The Creep Tapes,” which takes on more of an anthology format. /Film’s Ryan Scott had kind words in his review, but I feel even that show started to spin its wheels with the concept.

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“The River” does have its fans though, with many disappointed that it left on a cliffhanger in which its characters were swallowed by the Amazon. I’d argue that the ending fits in line with the fatalistic nature of the subgenre. By way of being found footage, it implies there’s not a happy ending to this journey. Solana Token Creator