Film Reviews

Triangle

• Rating:
• Director: Christopher Smith
• Starring: Melissa George
• Details: AUS/99mins (16)

George is a fine lead, giving a committed performance, but that can't shield the fact that this still an exceptionally non-scary horror, that will have you scratching your head more than jumping out of your seat.
Having received much love from the online horror community, I was expecting more from Triangle. The trailer is explanatory enough to know that there will be some repetitive slaying going on, but the premise doesn't hold up, and the finale is frustratingly inconclusive. When you spend an hour and a half with a far-fetched film that desperately wants to come off as smart, but doesn't quite get there, there is always hope that the finale will bring closure. While writer/director Smith attempts to do just that, the convoluted proceedings that unfolded beforehand had already rendered any sort of feasible explanation inexplicable.
Single mother Jess is struggling to raise her troubled son, so grasps the opportunity to go sailing when an attractive frequenter of the diner she works in invites her along with some friends. Once aboard, however, she is overcome with a strange feeling of déjà-vu and unease. When their small yaught is hit by a freak electrical storm, Jess's worst fears become a reality. Stranded on an overturned boat, the surviving members of the storm think they're luck has changed when an old cruise liner shuffles on by. But their nightmare is just beginning, as the deserted ship is of the supernatural variety, and causes things to happen in a perpetual loop once on board.
Smith has previously helmed the enjoyable Danny Dyer starrer, Severance, but while that too featured a masked killer and slightly nonsensical ending, it still had a sense of humour to carry it through. Triangle is a much more earnest affair, and is just bursting to tell you how smart it is. Naturally, a film that markets itself on repetitiveness will find it difficult to seem fresh, but this just gives us the same scenes from different angles, along with a dodgy excuse for exposition. George's Jess is constantly stressed, but her predicament with her son is never expanded upon enough to give the supposedly hard-hitting finale any context. And when you've set through the same thing over and over, that's the least you should expect.

Review by Mike Sheridan