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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

A different way of telling a story

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

BLACK RIVER is a great retelling of old TV show episodes, like the "Star Trek" episode where Kirk eventually discovers the townsfolk have been worshiping a computer in a cave. Koontz, who over the years has turned into the best of the three major horror writers with a series of novels that have become downright metaphysical, obviously loves "The Twilight Zone" and "Star Trek" and probably "The Outer Limits." Jay ("Jerry McGuire") Mohr is a writer, originally from Vermont, who has become disillusioned with Los Angeles, and checks out a small Pacific Northwest town only to find he can't leave. Cameras are mounted on every traffic light, in every store and dwelling, and monitor everyone's movements while an unseen hand apparently controls the whole thing. Mohr is excellent as the frustrated prisoner, and is backed up by stellar performances from Ann (sister of Joan and John) Cusack as a too-happy waitress and Lisa ("House, MD") Edelstein as her architect sister who also has become trapped in the bucolic town of Black River. Other than what appears to be a limited budget and the fact it was clearly shot in Canada or some place other than the U.S., it is hard to tell this is a TV movie and not a theatrical release. The writing is first rate, and the actors have a ball with their roles in this old-fashioned paranoia thriller. Highly recommended. I can't wait for Hollywood to adapt any of Koontz's more recent output, which eschew standard horror plots in favor of near-transcendental stories interlaced with intermittent bouts of action.

'Black River' appears, at first glance, to have all the nescessary ingredients for a bad horror movie. In fact it turns out to be quite watchable sort of Night-Gallery-ish mystery/SF hybrid. Put it this way, I didn't figure it out in the first 5 minutes. There is enough mystery and strangeness to keep you interested, even though you get the sensation that you've seen this movie several times before on Ray Bradbury's mystery theatre or something. Based on a Dean Koontz novella(?), a disillusioned writer leaves LA in search of somewhere to put down roots, and ends up by accident in a small town called Black River, which looks like it's probably in coastal Oregon or northern California. Only trouble is, he can't leave. Every attempt to depart is foiled by some unlikely set of events; many of the locals are just a bit weird, there's a mysterious black van following him around, and so on. Something very strange is going on. Is it supernatural, a government conspiracy, or what?I won't give it away, though to be honest I didn't think the ending was very credible at all, and rather let the film down.The acting and production values are better than you might expect. What really keeps the movie in the mid-range, score-wise, is a blandness in the direction. There are times when some spooky atmosphere would have been desired, but the thing unfolds in a workmanlike manner, with not a lot in the way of atmosphere.There is one thing I want to know, though: at the start of the movie, while still in LA, he is looking for a place to bury his beloved golden retriever. Now, in Black River, a dog keeps turning up who is the spitting image of his old pooch (Koontz has a thing for Golden Retrievers I take it, as there was one in Watchers as well). The thing is, you get the feeling the dog is on his side, and at other time that it's part of the 'conspiracy'. Thinking about it logically, I don't see any way that the latter could be true, though this is eventually implied. Little things like that bother me. Thankfully though, there were no big things that bothered me about the movie. Quite watchable, but perhaps I'd have been disappointed if it were an overnight rental.A solid 6 out of 10.

Is there some type of written rule in American TVMs ( And for the sake of argument I class this as a TVM - not a mini series ) that there must be a tear jerking scene included ? I`m just curious because BLACK RIVER opens with a man called Bo Aikens burying his dog and boy is the sentiment laid on with a trowel . Am I supposed to empathise with Bo because his dog died ? Well I don`t and even if I did any sympathy I might have had for him would have disappeared a few minutes later when he confesses he worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood , lived in a big house with his beautiful wife with a big car parked in a big garage , but decided to give it all up because he wanted to be taken seriously as a writer . So let`s see now , he was working as a Hollywood screenwriter ( And getting big bucks for doing so ) and gave it all up because he wasn`t getting enough critical acclaim ! In other words he`s a schmuck and deserves everything that comes his way in my opinion .I`ve heard the name Dean Koontz but have never read any of his novels and couldn`t tell you anything about the author and it wasn`t untill I looked up his profile on this site that I found he was American born . Watching BLACK RIVER I wouldn`t have believed it because the American stereotypes of middle America in general and Black River in particular seem somewhat overplayed with American pie hospitality and the occasional redneck scumbag in a premise that would have probably worked better as an episode of THE X-FILES. In fact I`ve seen this type of story umpteen times in that show

You have always heard of small towns that are said to be the perfect American town. Well, Black River is a too perfect town. Everybody is nice. Anybody that is mean they get rid of. A perfect American town except there is something wrong with the town. There is a "big brother" watching you at every corner. You can never leave the town because "big brother" will not let you. It is a good movie. If you like weird movies then you should see this one.