My girlfriend and I were going through our various streaming services and revisiting horror movies we had seen in the past that were of note, including the more-than-okay Blair Witch sequel from 2016. Since there was a plot point revolving around the idea of a time loop taking place in Blair Witch, my girlfriend then suggested we watch a movie she hadn’t seen in a long time and that I had never even heard of. The film in question, of course, was Triangle, which is about as vague as a title you can get when it comes to horror movies involving time loops. Since a triangle isn’t exactly the circular shape you associate with the word “loop” it might seem like it doesn’t make sense, but I think the choice was deliberate for a few reasons.

Pros

Big reveals and scenes are framed well to deliver an impact
Decent acting from the small cast
Musical score is pretty good
Ending has a satisfying twist

Cons

Plot is dependent on dumb decisions made by the characters
Not the most interesting movie until the time loop is revealed
Digital effects are terrible

Plot & Thoughts

Triangle opens with a woman named Jess (Melissa George) cradling her son as she tearfully comforts him. As the credits roll, we see her packing her car and telling her son to get ready for something. Shortly thereafter, we’re brought to the docks somewhere along the coast of Florida, with a very bad-looking CGI seagull to act as our guide—the quality of effects is just a few levels up from Birdemic. Getting ready to make sail are the other characters aboard a small sailboat that happens to be called Triangle. Jess arrives later than the others, seems very out of it, and does not have her son with her like others expected her to. After some awkward exchanges, they all head out to sea. Sally (Rachael Carpani) and her husband Downey (Henry Nixon) are trying to set up their friend Heather (Emma Lung) with the boat owner Greg (Michael Dorman), but Heather is more into the boat hand Victor (Liam Hemsworth). Sally does not like having Jess around to get in the way of her matchmaking, but that doesn’t matter for long because a big storm comes out of nowhere, capsizes the boat, and sucks Heather out to sea, never to be seen again. After the storm dissipates, a giant cruise ship miraculously passes by, allowing them to come aboard. Unfortunately for them, this is where the strangeness and the horrors start, because the ship appears to be empty except for one masked individual who is attempting to kill them all.

The movie takes its time before there’s any indication that murder is on the menu. Once it does reveal the whole situation, Triangle becomes a much more interesting and compelling movie. Despite everyone except Jess meeting a grizzly fate, the yachters come back to life and get right back on the cruise ship again to meet another violent end, repeating the cycle. Triangle is not a scary horror movie, but it’s a somewhat insightful experience that makes you consider the circumstances and potentially discuss it with your friends as to how you would handle the situation. Jess is the only one who manages to live long enough to see the situation, predict future events, and attempt to change them. This is great in terms of telling an interesting story. However, there is a fatal flaw...

Jess is a dumb-dumb. She’s not the only moron in the small cast of characters, but she is the main linchpin of the whole progression of the loop. The decisions she makes range from illogical to plain old stupid, and she makes mistakes that could be undone with the next reset. When the group arrives on the boat again and she’s able to potentially change what happens to everyone, she goes cliché and says things that make her sound crazy, and she essentially makes matters worse for everyone. All she would have to do to convince the group that they were stuck in a never-ending loop of death is stand directly in front of her new self and tell them they need to figure something out. This almost happens at one point, as she does face herself in one of the loops and the universe does not implode like Doc Brown from Back to the Future said it might, but everything eventually hits the fan and the loop starts again anyway.

It’s a big problem that Jess is so painfully stupid and mentally fragile, but I still happen to like Triangle, overall. The scenario and how things play out are interesting, and there are some really cool moments that happen which suggest how long they’ve all been trapped in this scenario. I just think the whole movie could have been improved if the plot didn’t depend on her making poor decisions over and over, or convincing herself to do something without substantial evidence of what she needs to do to stop the reset. I obviously can’t speak from experience, but it would take me a lot more than just three attempts before I decide to do what Jess ultimately does. Consider how other movies handle similar situations, like Edge of Tomorrow. The protagonist in that movie makes his mistakes in the beginning but eventually learns and attempts to change his strategy accordingly, rather than just irrationally deciding to do something that makes no sense and ensuring that nothing changes. Regardless, the way the film ends is satisfying and shocking in several ways, and it left me pleased that we unearthed this imperfect gem from 2009.

TL;DR

Triangle sparks a lot of discussion about time paradoxes and what you would do if you were trapped in a never-ending time loop. It has some cool moments that really generate some emotional impact in the scene, and the acting from the small cast is pretty decent to make up for the fact that their characters are so dumb. It’s far from a perfect film and it’s a shame that the plot is dependent upon characters making bad decisions, but the overall experience is still a positive one.

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