Thursday, February 9, 2012

'The River' Is 'Paranormal Activity' Meets 'X-Files,' Eloise Mumford Says

'It's groundbreaking TV,' actress tells MTV News of the found-footage series, which premieres tonight.
By Josh Wigler


Eloise Mumford in "The River"
Photo: American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

There's magic out there ... you just need to ford "The River" to find it.

"Paranormal Activity" mastermind Oren Peli is back with another found-footage fright-fest, but this time, it's playing out on the small screen in the form of "The River," a new supernatural series debuting on ABC on Tuesday (February 7). "The River" stars "Star Trek" actor Bruce Greenwood as Dr. Emmet Cole, a television personality and famed explorer who vanishes without a trace while seeking magic in the depths of the Amazon. Six months later, new evidence regarding Emmet's whereabouts comes to light, leading his wife, Tess (Leslie Hope), and son, Lincoln (Joe Anderson), to the Amazon with a television crew in tow.

What they find there is darker and more inexplicable than anything they expected — and as promised by the missing Dr. Cole, there is indeed magic out there, deadlier than the rabbits-from-hats variety.

Actress Eloise Mumford, who stars on the show as adventurer Lena Landry, dropped by MTV News this week to talk about the premiere of "The River," and why it's a television event that fans of found-footage absolutely can't miss.

"It's 'Paranormal Activity' meets 'X-Files,' " she told MTV about the premise of the show. "The conceit is that it's all shot as a TV show — you're aware that it's not just a TV show on TV, but that the whole thing is being shot as a TV show within a TV show. It's really fun, because it's all shot as a documentary. You see the camera guys; they're characters. Sometimes we had up to 13 cameras rolling at once. It's groundbreaking TV in that sense. It's taking this age of technology right now and taking full advantage of that."

Indeed, though found-footage is a prominent part of pop culture today, it's a device that's rarely explored in scripted genre television. Mumford said that the unique perspective will help set "The River" apart from other shows currently on TV.

"If you're flipping through the channels, you're going to go, 'Whoa!' It's such a different look," she said. "And the storytelling of it is so much faster. There's really unique points of view in all of it."

"It's in line with the youth of today," she added of what makes "The River" relevant. "We're used to shooting our own stuff on our cellphones. We're used to capturing everything. To be able to have that as a TV show is going to be really fun for people to watch."

"The River" flows on ABC tonight (February 7) at at 9 ET/PT (8 Central).

Are you excited for the premiere of "The River"? Leave your comment below.

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