With the success of The Walking Dead, more and more horror is making its way to prime time. Last week gave us the first two episodes of ABC’s The River, a “found footage” style mystery in which a group of explorers risk grave paranormal threats to find a family member lost in the Amazon.
The pace is frenetic, scares surprisingly gory for prime time basic cable, and new supernatural dangers lurk (presumably) every episode. Paranormal Activity‘s Oren Peli is obviously very involved in the series and his hand is evident in the “footage” and effects, although the scares happen at a rate far faster than anything we’ve seen in the PA series. The jury’s still out on this one, but I’m willing to give it another few episodes to see how the show evolves.
One thing that did catch my eye was the setting of Episode 2, “Marbeley” – a giant tree festooned with rotting doll parts, gifts to appease the angry spirit of a girl drowned in the adjacent swamp. Astute readers of The Year of Halloween (and I know, darlings, that that phrase is a redundancy) will recognize this horror from last year’s post on La Isla de las Munecas, located not in the Amazon, but in the Xochimilco canals, deep in the heart of Mexico.
If you haven’t had a chance to read up on this very real doll graveyard (or have started to sleep again at night since your last visit), please do read the post for the complete chilling details. Here’s a taste to get you started.
The River can be found Tuesday nights on ABC, and complete episodes are currently available for free streaming at ABC.com and on Hulu.
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Categories: Reviews, TV & Film
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The Year of Halloween 
I’ve heard of ‘Doll Island’ before and I have to say that that is one of the spookiest things I have ever heard of. Very cool that this show is referencing it. You gotta love the supernatural!
-Steve
P.S.- If you have never heard of Poveglia Island, that is a place to research. I’d give anything to visit that place but I don’t know how long my visit would last.
Very cool blog! Love all the horror!
Thanks, nice recommendation! Mental Floss has an article on Poveglia with some great pictures.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought it was okay. I dig your site. I actually manage a haunted attraction. sleepyhollowscreampark.com. You can check out what we do. I haven’t updated the site in awhile, but you can get the gist.
Thanks, Max. I took a look at your site – looks very creepy!
I enjoyed watching the river and the dolls were way too spooky.
I’ll check out your link I a bit… I know that I won’t ever want to go there. 🙂