15th October 2018 | 31 Days of “Alternative” Horror: Triangle
Not many films have ever tackled the subject of time loops and déjà vu while at the same time sieving them through a generous mix of horror and suspense. Usually, a premise like this would get top heavy with the gore and eventually become buried under the guts and glory of a body count. Triangle manages to keep it all together and manages to tie things neatly at the end. There is however no such thing as a perfect movie. Alfred Hitchcock once noted that a film doesn’t work without “our old friends, the plausibles” which in itself forces us to raise an eyebrow at certain choices within the plot. Artistic license can be pushed a little way, but like any scientific theory that is stretched with a fictional narrative, like an elastic band, it will eventually, inevitably, snap.
On first view, Triangle does well colouring inside the lines of an otherwise complex premise: playing out scenes that are “chronologically illogical” and then paying them off later as being there for a reason. That’s the secret right? Well I would hope so.
Melissa George — who many recognise as Angel from the Australian soap, Home and Away — stars as the troubled mother bringing up an autistic child on her own. Through the title credits, we see only brief glimpses of what appears to be a loving yet difficult day — likely this is a day like every other. Assuming that we know what we are really seeing is in fact true, the opening itself, when played back on future viewings is masterfully played. It seems straight forward, but nothing can be taken for granted. Like an adventure novel that has a viewer choosing the character’s fate, we can only hope that when two lines of possibility collide later in the tale, it takes into account the journey that had gone before it.
It’s not easy to talk about the premise so steeped with spoilers, but we can say that the mother seems to leave her son behind to join friends on a boat trip. The boat trip turns into a disaster as they get caught in a nasty storm. One girl is swept away, but the others survive and scramble on the still floating capsized boat fuselage. They drift for a while until they appear to be saved by an approaching sea liner. But this massive cruise ship is not what it appears to be.
So how can such a great horror film get missed by mass audiences? Being an Australian/UK release had much to do with it, and I’m sure the distribution failed where the overall product succeeded. In a way however, many successful movies that do make their money back get exploited and ruined by wasteful sequels, so perhaps, being a superior chocolate bar at the bottom of the bucket of cliché snacks, unwanted throwbacks, and short life franchise failures is something to be revered for the one who is patient, lucky or smart enough to dig deep enough to find it.
Many known movies that explore terror on boats (excluding The Abyss and the masterpiece that is Jaw, and ignoring their sequels) the rest don’t even scratch the surface or remain in our memories as much as this: think Ghost Ship and Below, (2002), Deep Blue Sea, Deep Rising or Sphere — none of which had the chops to truly become a memorable horror film that you could come back to time and time again… in a loop, time and time again… in a loop. Triangle is a very refreshing and hugely entertaining treat for anybody’s Halloween list, with lots of things to focus on; you might even watch this one twice.
Déjà vu is good for the soul.
Written by: Stephen Radford
website: stephenradford.com
Next: 16th October: The Descent
