Movie Review: ‘Triangle' (2009) by Christopher Smith - ‘A Mind-Bending Thriller’

Source - Youtube

Are you a person who loves the idea of time-loops? Then this movie would be a perfect choice for you. Triangle by Christopher Smith is the perfect mix of horror and thriller served to the audience in a time-loop format!

However, there is a trigger warning for this film as it contains a sheer amount of violence and gore. If you are a faint hearted viewer, I would not recommend this movie to you.

Introduction

Movie’s Name - Triangle

Director’s Name - Christopher Smith

Genre - Horror & Psychological thriller

Language - English

Synopsis

Triangle is a movie about how Jess (played by Melissa George) and a bunch of her friends go on a yacht trip and face a sudden torment in the weather. Jess is a mother of a special needs child. She throughout the trip seems to be worried about her child. 

Moments into the trip they are struck by a huge thunderstorm which wrecks their yacht. This makes Jess even more worrisome about her child.  Looking out for help, they manage to find a ship approaching them. 

After boarding the ship, something seems unusual to Jess as she feels like she has been there previously (which is impossible!). The ship was creepily empty and there was no sign of anyone else there. 

Things start to take a turn when Jess along with Greg encounter a mirror on which there is written “Go to theatre” with blood. Soon Jess meets Victor who is severely injured, surprisingly enough Jess offers him help, but instead Victor starts choking her. This shocks Jess and in self defense she kills Victor. 

After that Jess hears a gunshot from the theater room and rushes there. There she sees Greg, who is shot, and her other friends blaming her that she had killed Greg. This comes to Jess as a huge confusion.

Eventually the anonymous killer kills her entire group and starts chasing Jess. Jess somehow escapes and while pushing the killer from the ship the killer says, “Kill them all, it's the only way home”. 

This did not make any sense to Jess until she saw a similar group of friends asking for help from the ocean. Soon she realized that it was not any different group but her group itself. She realized that somehow she was stuck in an endless loop.

Will she be able to escape the loop? Will she be able to reach her son safely? Is there an end to this loop? How was this loop created? Watch the movie to know what happens next!

About the Director

Source - Horror Channel

Christopher Smith is a British film director and writer born in 1970 in Bristol, England. He is known for films like Triangle(2009), Severance(2006) and Black Death(2010).

About the Story - Spoiler Alert!

Triangle has an incredibly structured story-line. Making a film on time-loops can be a very difficult task but Christopher Smith has done a very good job in keeping the loops straight. Triangle with its smoothness leaves the viewer with many questions which can be answered through the viewers own perspectives. 

The movie starts with Jess hugging her special needs child, and then it cuts to Jess walking towards the yacht. Jess along with her friends Greg, Victor, Downey, Sally and Heather go on a yacht trip.

While on the trip this group of friends faces havoc on the ocean. Their yacht gets completely destroyed and it seems like one of her friends, Heather, gets lost in the ocean. 

The 4 friends then come across this huge ship. After Boarding it, something seems extraordinarily creepy as that huge ship does not have any passengers. While walking the corridors, Jess seems to have a sort of Deja Vu and says that she has seen those corridors previously somewhere. 

This Deja Vu soon seems to be true as Jess finds her own keys on the ship which she has never boarded before. This creeps all 4 of them. Like any horror movie, the idea these 4 friends come up with is to separate and look out (which is the worst decision one can come up with).

Jess and Greg find a bloody mirror with words saying “Go to Theater”, which starts the main plot of the movie. Jess spots Victor, who is seen to have gone through a terrible injury, and offers help but Victor surprisingly starts choking Jess.

Soon after that, a gunshot is heard from the theater and we can see that Greg has been shot. Jess is being blamed for it by her friends which puts Jess through immense confusion. 

Soon both the friends are also shot and the anonymous killer starts chasing Jess. Jess soon finds out that the anonymous killer is basically her. She realizes this after she sees her own group again approaching the ship (This makes her realize that she is stuck in a loop).

The idea to stop this loop (according to all the Jess’es) was to kill all of them (the 5 friends), as this is how she will be able to return to her son. But this Jess thought she could save all of her friends and tried to take a different approach. 

Soon in the film we learn that it doesn't work and whatever approach she comes up with, a different Jess has already thought of it. This is very creatively shown in the film. So eventually every Jess comes up with the conclusion of killing everyone. 

In the end, After Jess is thrown in the ocean, the movie cuts to the beginning scene. Jess thinks that her loop has finally ended but then she sees herself in her house. She sees how badly she treats her autistic son and this triggers regret within her. 

So she blatantly gets up and kills that version of her and plans to start a new life from there after dumping her own body. While driving on her way to dump the body she notices extremely suspicious similarities which makes her think if she still is in a loop.

Whilst driving, her son starts screaming which makes Jess lose concentration and they are met with an accident.

The movie then brilliantly transcends to a scene where we see Jess witnessing  her own accident and from behind  a strange looking taxi driver asks her if she needs a ride. The taxi driver then takes her to the yacht and thus the loop again continues. 

Interpretation

So the real question after watching this movie is ‘Will she ever escape this loop?’. The answer according to me is well, no. 

What I interpret from this film is that this loop is created within her own thoughts and is her own version of hell. The real Jess has already died in the accident with her son.

Jess is thrown into hell, most probably because of how she treated her disabled son in the beginning. This constant loop is just what she is stuck in till she accepts her own death. 

The taxi driver who comes in the end is death itself. Death comes to her and takes her to the beginning of the loop. The reason the loop does not end is the taxi driver i.e death asks Jess, “I will keep the meter running, you promise you will come back right?” to which Jess says yes. But she never comes back as she is stuck in the loop. 

This has a mythological connection to Sisyphus’ story where if you break death’s promise you will be punished. This entire loop was just a punishment to Jess for not accepting her death and suffering her guilt.

The Bottom Line

This movie is extremely confusing. I myself confused myself while writing this review! However, I highly recommend you to watch this movie as it is a great mind twisting movie. You will surely end up with innumerous questions after watching it. 

The direction and the story line of this film is plainly beautiful and does not leave any loopholes in this time-loop movie. The cinematography however is a bit on the amateur side, but it is worth the watch.

My ratings for the movie - 4 out of 5

You may watch the movie on - Amazon Prime

Written By - Subham Sinha

Edited By - Umme-Aiman