Triangle (2009)

The story revolves around the passengers of a yachting trip in the Atlantic Ocean who, when struck by mysterious weather conditions, jump to another ship only to experience greater havoc on the open seas.

Triangle is a 2009 psychological horror film directed by Christopher Smith. It stars Melissa George, Rachael Carpani, Michael Dorman and Liam Hemsworth.

I found this quite a tricky review to write, mainly due to the subject matter where the more I say about it, the more I will ruin it for people. I don’t think it was a hugely well seen movie and it slipped under the radar. Yet with a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes and some great review scores on the big horror sites, Triangle really deserves a bigger audience. My good friend Eric from The IPC had a stab at reviewing it, and also kept the details brief, finally we agree on something! 🙂

Whilst it is insinuated and hidden throughout the movie, the name Triangle isn’t directly taken from the famous ‘Bermuda Triangle’. Rather, the film gets it name from the boat ‘Triangle’ on which the film starts out, where a single mother of an autistic child Jess (Melissa George) is meeting Greg (Michael Dorman) and four other friends for an afternoon pleasure cruise. Their day at sea comes to an abrupt halt when the wind suddenly dies out, and the tiny yacht is rocked by an electrical storm that moves in from nowhere. Whilst this sounds like a tale about The Bermuda Triangle, and the film was initially set within the famous ‘location’, the writers of the film decided to never directly say it in the film, but leave it obvious to viewers and allow us to make our own judgments on the similarities between events in the movie and events we have all heard and read about the infamous Bermuda Triangle. It’s really just one mystery and question added to a whole load more the film throws at us.

The five survivors are set adrift on the upturned boat until a massive cruise liner named the Aeolus appears from out of nowhere. They find the ship empty, but soon a masked gunman appears and tries to kill them. After Jess battles and throws the killer off the side of the ship, she hears cries from off the bow of the ship and sees herself and her friends climbing aboard the Aeolus again. What the hell?? I hear you ask. Well, that’s about as much as I can say about the plot without ruining it. I wasn’t going to mention some of what I did, but I thought me telling people that it’s a film about a boat wouldn’t really entice anyone into checking this out.

It is a violent film but never gratuitous, and is such a great mind bending film that really makes the viewer think. I have seen it 3 times now and still find myself questioning what went on. Not because the film is missing something, but there are so many layers to it that it just demands your attention and leaves you to form your own conclusions.

Melissa George is great, as always. She has come along way from being Angel in ‘Home & Away’! She has really carved a great niche for herself in some horror films over the past few years, with appearances in The Amityville Horror, Paradise Lost & 30 Days of Night for example. In Triangle she truly does give a really emotional and gripping performance. The rest of the small cast performed well, but it’s all about Melissa Georges performance. Director Christopher Smith has made a great looking film. My only criticism of the visuals would be the capsized yacht looked a bit fake against the background, but it wasn’t anything that ruined the film. The Blu-Ray was crisp and beautiful to look at, with one scene in particular involving someone crawling using some brilliant CGI.

Full of twists and turns, there are a few shocks and scares but this film really isn’t about making you jump. It’s all about making you think, and it plays out like a really good episode of ‘The Twilight Zone’ at times. If I was forced to choose a movie it most reminded me of I would say The Shining. Now, I’m not saying Triangle is anywhere near in the same league, but as far as leaving you to draw your own conclusions on what the hell is going on, then I would say the Kubrick classic was a huge influence.

If you like your thrillers with some psychological horror thrown in, and love trying to guess the next twist but being wrong every time, then you really need to check out Triangle. Combined with an ending that you will never see coming and maybe never wrap your head around, we have ourselves a great movie.

EDIT: According to the IMDB Trivia section, Triangle makes many oblique references to The Shining. The number 237 crops up, which was the same number of the spooky hotel room Danny was forbidden to go into; there are also words written on a mirror, a ballroom and an axe. 

Posted by Tysoncarter182 on August 20, 2012

https://headinavice.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/triangle-2009/