Clear your 2027: River locks a January theatrical date with Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster
TIFF survival slasher River, starring Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe, has set its cinema release — but the when is the bit to clock.
Universal and Blumhouse Atomic Monster aren’t waiting around for the next big horror hit to fall into their laps—they paid over $10 million to snap up River after its debut at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Now they’ve finally confirmed when we’ll get to see it: the film is lined up for 15 January 2027 in cinemas, just in time for the always competitive Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend in the States.
River lands in cinemas 15 January 2027, straight into the MLK holiday release rush.
The setup: siblings, a river, and masked killers
River is the brainchild of Joshua Giuliano—a name you probably haven’t seen at the top of a poster before, as this marks his first proper feature. The story is about as classic as survival horror gets: three siblings, who aren’t exactly close, decide to scatter their father’s ashes at his favourite spot out in the middle of nowhere. Of course, things go sideways almost immediately. Their boat breaks down, leaving them stranded, and it’s not just the local wildlife they need to worry about. Suddenly, masked figures start appearing on the riverbank, and there’s no way to get help.
- Jane Levy (Evil Dead) leads the cast
- Jessica Rothe (Happy Death Day), Max Mattern (Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy), and Dane DiLiegro (Prey) round out the main roles
- Joshua Giuliano writes and directs
Behind the scenes: first-time feature director, big studio backing
The film’s path to the big screen is a bit of a story in itself. Giuliano had actually been on Blumhouse’s radar even before River hit TIFF. He developed the idea while working at Shudder, under Sam Zimmerman—the same executive who now helps manage indie horror projects for Blumhouse Atomic Monster. So even though Giuliano is technically a rookie director, he was hardly arriving out of nowhere. That early connection definitely smoothed the way for Blumhouse Atomic Monster to swoop in and bag the rights.
Apparently, the relationship doesn’t stop here—Giuliano is already attached to helm Occupant, yet another horror project currently brewing with Blumhouse, Divide/Conquer, and Spooky Pictures all involved.
First reviews: so far, so gory
The reception out of Toronto was, on the whole, pretty positive—which probably helped justify that eight-figure acquisition. Chris Bumbray from JoBlo slapped a 7/10 on it, giving props to Giuliano’s direction and the performances, especially from Levy and Mattern. Don’t expect this one to go easy on the blood and guts; it’s already been called out for strong gore effects, so horror fans who miss their slashers grisly won’t be disappointed.
Universal will be giving River a push from 15 January 2027, a date they had in their back pocket for a Blumhouse release well before the film was even on their slate. It’ll be up against other high-profile titles like Children of Blood and Bone, The Beekeeper 2, and something called Fing!—yes, that’s actually the title—so it won’t have the weekend to itself. As for streaming, there’s nothing confirmed for Shudder yet.