Knights Ferry gets Lifetime movie treatment

Look out, cheating spouses and murderous mother-in-laws: Knights Ferry is about to get the Lifetime movie treatment.

The town will be featured prominently in the new TV movie “River Raft Nightmare,” which premieres this weekend on the cable network. The film, about a mother-daughter rafting trip that goes terribly awry, stars a Turlock actress as one of its leads as well as a slew of Hollywood veterans.

A film crew came to the small east Stanislaus County community in April 2014 to shoot for almost two weeks. The producers contacted longtime Knights Ferry rafting company River Journey Adventures to help with logistical and safety aspects of the production. Owner Dave Voortman said he provided rafting equipment and river guides – three of whom were also used as stunt doubles for the lead actors.

“It was a fun experience and was great for our little town. We’re excited to see Knights Ferry featured in the movie. It’s definitely something a little different for us,” Voortman said. “We had a lot of fun and met some great people.”

“River Raft Nightmare,” originally called “Eyewitness” before being purchased by Lifetime, stars “Army Wives” actress Brigid Brannagh as a mother who takes her daughter on a weekend rafting trip to Knights Ferry. Twenty-year-old Turlock actress Leah Bateman stars as her daughter. Bateman has made a series of guest appearances on TV shows in the past few years including “Rizzoli & Isles” and “CSI.” She recently appeared as a recurring character on the new NBC summer series “Aquarius” starrring David Duchovny.

“I loved working close to home. I have been in L.A. for so long, it was such a breath of fresh air to be where I developed my passion in the first place,” Bateman said of filming in Knights Ferry. “It was definitely one of my favorite experiences.”

In “River Raft Nightmare,” Brannagh and Bateman run into trouble when they get separated from their rafting party and stumble upon some escaped convicts. The leader of the escapees is played by “Charmed” alum Ivan Sergei. The town sheriff is played by veteran actor Perry King, famous for the 1980s detective show “Riptide,” who went on to be a regular on shows such as “Melrose Place” and “Spin City.”

True to the Lifetime movie formula, “River Raft Nightmare” has its characters in high-intensity drama with more than a dash of mortal danger. Bateman said she enjoyed being in an action film that allowed her to “be held captive, stab someone and scream all day.”

Still, for all of its melodrama, Voortman said the movie should be a showcase for Knights Ferry and recreation along the Stanislaus River. The film uses Knights Ferry by name, as well as the River Journey Adventures company. The crew also used the town’s historic general store and other downtown locations. All of the water scenes were shot along the Stanislaus River and its Russian Rapids area were used in some of the key rafting sequences.

Some of the secondary filming was done in Oakhurst outside of Yosemite National Park.

Three River Journey Adventures guides were used as stunt doubles for the film’s stars: Kody Simons doubled for Sergei, and real-life mother-daughter team Michelle Patton and Kaeli Sturtivant doubled for Bateman and Brannagh, respectively.

Voortman said his company has been involved in productions in the past, but mostly for reality-type shows and never a movie. He went to Hollywood in March for the movie’s premiere and plans a screening in Knights Ferry later this month for the community.

“It was fun to see the process from makeup to on-screen to how the whole production crew works,” Voortman said. “Doing this early last season really got us going for the rest of the rafting season.”

“River Raft Nightmare” premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday on Lifetime. It will repeat at 12:02 a.m. and 5 p.m. Sunday.

This story was originally published September 4, 2015 at 1:30 PM with the headline "Knights Ferry gets Lifetime movie treatment."