Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe are heading out onto the water, and horror fans should probably start worrying about their chances of making it back alive. The first trailer for River has arrived as a sweet trick-or-treat surprise from Blumhouse, bringing two of modern horror’s most recognizable scream queens together for a brutal-looking slasher that leaves three siblings stranded on the water with a masked killer watching from shore. Universal Pictures will release the film in theaters on January 15, 2027.
The setup is simple enough to make anyone reconsider a family getaway. After their father dies, estranged siblings Lucy, Carla and Drew reunite in their rural hometown to scatter his ashes at a remote river he loved. The trip takes a nasty turn when their boat breaks as the sun goes down. It soon becomes obvious that their cell phones have become little more than expensive paperweights. Then they notice someone standing on the shore, staring at them. And this is where the family reunion goes from awkward to absolutely horrifying.
The trailer sells a grim little nightmare, with the river becoming a trap and the surrounding wilderness offering precious few places to run. Writer-director Joshua Giuliano appears to be leaning into the sort of stripped-down slasher premise that horror audiences understand immediately. You’re stuck somewhere isolated, help isn’t coming, and something very bad is waiting for you to make the wrong move. The end of the trailer even pays homage to the end of the original Friday the 13th, which had Jason coming of Crystal Lake for one of the best jump scares of all time.
The real draw for longtime horror fans, though, is seeing Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe share the screen. Levy earned her scream queen credentials with Fede Álvarez’s Evil Dead remake and later starred in the home-invasion thriller Don’t Breathe. Both films put her through the kind of relentless torment that tends to leave a lasting impression on horror audiences. Rothe, meanwhile, became a modern genre favorite playing Tree Gelbman in Happy Death Day and its sequel, films that mixed slasher mayhem with a time-loop premise and gave her plenty of opportunities to prove she could carry a horror movie.
Pairing these two is a terrific idea. They’ve each faced their share of cinematic nightmares, but River puts them together in a story where neither has the safety net of a familiar franchise or a supernatural reset button. They’ll be joined by Max Mattern as their brother Drew, while Dane DiLiegro plays the disturbing masked figure hunting them. DiLiegro has made a name for himself as a creature performer, including his role as the Feral Predator in Prey, so he’s certainly an intriguing choice to menace a group of stranded siblings.
River marks the feature-film debut of Giuliano, who wrote and directed the movie. The film premiered in the Midnight Madness section of the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, where it drew strong attention. TheWrap described the film as something that “will drown you in pure terror,” and Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster acquired it following its festival screening.
That deal gives the film a considerably bigger platform than its original Shudder and Independent Film Company release plans suggested. The production comes from Steven Schneider through Spooky Pictures, alongside Nick Antosca and Alex Hedlund through Eat the Cat. The companies behind the film also include Blumhouse Atomic Monster, Universal Pictures and Independent Film Company, with Shudder attached as the original production banner.
The trailer doesn’t need an elaborate mythology to get its point across. A broken-down boat, a remote stretch of water and a shadowy figure who seems perfectly content to wait on the bank are enough to make a nighttime fishing trip sound like a terrible idea. The question is whether Lucy, Carla and Drew can find a way off the river before their family reunion turns into a full-blown massacre.
With Levy and Rothe leading the cast, River has a pair of experienced horror performers who know how to make a desperate fight for survival compelling. January is already looking a little more dangerous.
