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Released by: First Look Pictures
Released on: 02-02-2010
Director: Christopher Smith
Cast: Melissa George, Liam Hemsworth, Michael Dorman, Rachael Carpani, Emma Lung
Year: 2009
The Movie:
Christopher Smith's Triangle may look, based on the cover art, like a straight to video schlock fest but surprisingly enough, this turned out to be a smart and well made film that fits nicely somewhere between a horror film and a more traditional thriller with some seriously odd psychological twisting and turning thrown in to keep you guessing.
The picture follows a woman named Jess (Melissa George), a mother who does her best to take care of her autistic son, but who needs a break. She decides that since her son is being looked after at school that she'll join her friend Greg (Michael Dorman) and some of his pals for an afternoon aboard a beautiful sailboat for a nice afternoon out at sea. They hit the open water and things are going just fine until they get just far enough away from shore that they do need to be concerned about the weather coming towards them. A storm hits, their radio starts making strange noises, and soon enough the ship goes over and its occupants are tossed into the harsh Atlantic Ocean.
Just in the nick of time, an ocean liner passes by. Jess and the rest of the passengers climb on board the S.S. Aeolus and find that for whatever reason, it's empty. Or at least it appears to be. There could be a small crew hidden somewhere within the confines of the massive ship but they're doing a good job of staying hidden. The refugees start exploring the ship in search of occupants, but soon start finding ominous signs, the most obvious being spatters of blood… and shortly after, the reason for those same spatters.
It might sound like a fairly standard slasher film set on a boat, and it's kind of been marketed that way, but there's a lot more to this film than just a creepy guy running around on an ocean liner hurting people. The fairly basic premise starts off easily enough but soon evolves into something more, an engrossing mystery that actually keeps you guessing not so much as to the killer's identity but as to different characters' initial motivations. Vague? Yeah, but this is a film that would be seriously ruined by spoilers, so they're not going to happen here. It gets fairly complicated but by the time the finale hits, the explanations make sense and the way in which the story unfolds suddenly seems perfectly logical. Remember the first time you saw Memento and how the ending just fit the build up so perfectly? Triangle has that kind of finish to it, the kind that leaves enough up to the viewer to consider but which finishes its story efficiently and effectively.
As the central figure, Melissa George proves to be a more than capable actress. Sure she's easy on the eyes but she handles her character's emotional complexity quite competently and you'll have no problems believing her in the part. The rest of the cast are also quite good, but she steals the show as she's given the most to work with. Her performance, coupled with the exceptionally strong and befitting cinematography and interesting score make this well directed picture a surprisingly enjoyable film. Don't let the goofy cover art fool you, Triangle is smart, scary and ultimately just a really damn good movie.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Triangle arrives on Blu-ray in a fairly impressive AVC encoded 2.39.1 anamorphic widescreen 1080p high definition transfer that does a fantastic job of replicating the film's icy cold color scheme. The dominant blues used throughout the film really look great here while skin tones look nice and natural. The disc doesn't show any evidence of mpeg compression or edge enhancement and the image is very clean. Detail varies from very impressive to just average for Blu-ray but the good definitely outweighs the bad. A few scenes that take place inside the ship veer towards the flat side of things but that's got more to do with the location than anything else. All in all, we've got a pretty impressive transfer here.
The English language Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track on this release is a strong one, really bringing you into the movie with a lot of well placed and entirely appropriate directional effects and impressive surround sound action. The storm sounds great, with plenty of booming waves crashing into the ship and wind whipping around the channels, but the quieter moments have some nice atmospheric ambient noise that helps to build a more believable mix and which really help to make this film as effective as it is. Bass response is strong when it needs to be while dialogue is always clean and clear. The levels are perfectly balanced and there are no audible defects here. Really, there's nothing to complain about in terms of this very well put together mix, the movie sounds great. An optional Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is also included, as are subtitles in English SDH and Spanish.
The only extra of much worth is a six minute featurette that contains some cast and crew interviews and some behind the scenes footage showing off the set that was built for the movie. It's moderately interesting, but far too short. Rounding out the extras are a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other First Look Studios releases, menus and chapter stops. All of the supplemental material is presented in standard definition.
The Final Word:
Despite the fact that it's unusually light on extras, this is a pretty strong release in every other regard. The video quality is strong, the sound quality even stronger, and the feature itself proves to be a surprisingly strong and original thriller. It's well directed, really well acted, and remarkably suspenseful.