If you're a fidgety soul with crawly skin who likes to jump when things go bump in the rainforest night, odds are you'll get your full quota of tingles from The River, the latest TV outing from Steven Spielberg that some critics have dubbed "Paranormal Activity outdoors".
But if you think spirits are something you try to raise when you're feeling down, then this action-horror hybrid is unlikely to sweep your imagination away in its spooky undertows despite its visual smash-cuts, sudden loud noises and found-footage approach (think The Blair Witch Project) to thrills.
Joining Spielberg here as executive producers are the series creator Oren Peli (the director of the low-budget blockbuster Paranormal Activity) as well as Zack Estrin and Michael Green, to name a few.
"We want you to be not just scared, but worried for the people," says Estrin. "There are a lot of actors out there … We like them to feel disposable. The Amazon is a place with real threats."
In last week's premiere, the famed TV explorer Dr Emmet Cole (Bruce Greenwood) headed deep into the uncharted Amazon basin and never returned. Six months after he vanishes, his emergency beacon goes off, and his son Lincoln (Joe Anderson) and wife Tess (Leslie Hope) head up the big creek. To fund their rescue, they permit the cagey producer Clark (Paul Blackthorne) to film the mission, documentary-style. Soon they find themselves stalked by the unexplainable, to put it mildly, and the body count begins.
On the personal level, when it comes to the ghoulish, Greenwood - who portrayed Captain Pike with such gravitas in the Star Trek film franchise reboot - doesn't like to let his mind dwell on "the other side".
"I just don't like being terrified," the Canadian actorsays. "When they find me, we're not sure what's happened to me - but I've seen something that's profound."
This is Lost-style storytelling with a nod to Heart of Darkness, and when things do go supernaturally eerie, there are plenty of frissons and goosebumps to go around.
With The River's lush production values, one vicariously feels the humidity, the claustrophobia of dense foliage and the fears spawned by wilderness nights as black as the darkest hour of the soul.
In this week's episode, the searchers, having escaped death by the skin of their teeth, boldly chug farther up the river in their boat, The Magus. When a spirit mysteriously enters the crew member Jahel - a sumptuously creepy performance by the Mexican actress Paulina Gaitan - the message is clear: go home! Naturally, the dogged Tess pushes deeper into the jungle.
It's a fair question to ask whether Spielberg - with his name hung like a shingle on so many TV series recently, including Terra Nova and Smash - actually contributes creatively and impacts the direction and development of his TV properties.
"[Spielberg's] influence with stories, his influence when he watches the cuts, is amazing," Estrin says. "I mean, he's off doing a movie - or two - and … he finds time to watch these cuts and give us notes."
"He'll weigh in with key points while we're in development of the series," adds Green. During production, Spielberg emails his thoughts to the team. "Sometimes it's a wonderful idea, and sometimes it's not exactly what we want to do but it's always cool to hear it. [His suggestions] are never not worth our time."
The River is broadcast on Tuesdays at 11pm on OSN First HD and OSN First; and on Wednesdays at 1am and at 5am on OSN First +2, at 2am on OSN First HD and at 3am on OSN First
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
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Three-day coronation
Royal purification
The entire coronation ceremony extends over three days from May 4-6, but Saturday is the one to watch. At the time of 10:09am the royal purification ceremony begins. Wearing a white robe, the king will enter a pavilion at the Grand Palace, where he will be doused in sacred water from five rivers and four ponds in Thailand. In the distant past water was collected from specific rivers in India, reflecting the influential blend of Hindu and Buddhist cosmology on the coronation. Hindu Brahmins and the country's most senior Buddhist monks will be present. Coronation practices can be traced back thousands of years to ancient India.
The crown
Not long after royal purification rites, the king proceeds to the Baisal Daksin Throne Hall where he receives sacred water from eight directions. Symbolically that means he has received legitimacy from all directions of the kingdom. He ascends the Bhadrapitha Throne, where in regal robes he sits under a Nine-Tiered Umbrella of State. Brahmins will hand the monarch the royal regalia, including a wooden sceptre inlaid with gold, a precious stone-encrusted sword believed to have been found in a lake in northern Cambodia, slippers, and a whisk made from yak's hair.
The Great Crown of Victory is the centrepiece. Tiered, gold and weighing 7.3 kilograms, it has a diamond from India at the top. Vajiralongkorn will personally place the crown on his own head and then issues his first royal command.
The audience
On Saturday afternoon, the newly-crowned king is set to grant a "grand audience" to members of the royal family, the privy council, the cabinet and senior officials. Two hours later the king will visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred space in Thailand, which on normal days is thronged with tourists. He then symbolically moves into the Royal Residence.
The procession
The main element of Sunday's ceremonies, streets across Bangkok's historic heart have been blocked off in preparation for this moment. The king will sit on a royal palanquin carried by soldiers dressed in colourful traditional garb. A 21-gun salute will start the procession. Some 200,000 people are expected to line the seven-kilometre route around the city.
Meet the people
On the last day of the ceremony Rama X will appear on the balcony of Suddhaisavarya Prasad Hall in the Grand Palace at 4:30pm "to receive the good wishes of the people". An hour later, diplomats will be given an audience at the Grand Palace. This is the only time during the ceremony that representatives of foreign governments will greet the king.
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