Triangle - Umbrella Entertainment Blu-ray

Jess (Melissa George), embarks on a weekend getaway with her friends on a boat out on the open seas. A sudden, unexpected storm capsizes the vessel. Stranded in the middle of the ocean, an ocean liner drifts by, and they board. Once inside the massive ship, they begin getting killed, one by one, by a masked killer. Desperate to get home to her son, Jess will stop at nothing to survive.

At first glance, Triangle feels like a more broad, slasher-inspired version of Dead Calm. Once aboard the ship, the film starts to feel a bit like the haunted-house-on-the-high-seas 80s flick Death Ship. But after the briefest of introductions, Triangle comes into its own and becomes something wholly unique. I could compare it to other films—Event Horizon meets Jacob’s Ladder—but I don’t think that would do the film justice. It feels vaguely reminiscent of mind-bending films, but never beholden to them.

Writer/director Christopher Smith wisely sets up a complex scenario for his characters in a way that allows for the maximum amount of experimentation. Triangle is by no means a perfect film, but it is an ambitious one, and whenever it finds itself stumbling, it’s only because it tried something new. If that twist doesn’t work, it twists again and finds some footing to propel itself forward. It never stays in one place long enough for doldrums to set in, the plot is constantly moving along and trying new ways to test its premise.

The less you know about Triangle, the better. I knew nothing of it going in and was expecting something along the lines of Friday the 13th Part VIII, the one where Jason spends 90% of the movie hunting teenagers aboard a yacht. Christopher Smith gives you the goods with a movie along those lines, then gives you another movie entirely, followed by another and then another and another. By the time Triangle ends, you’re left breathless, exhilarated from the journey you just went through, where the rug is constantly pulled out from under you. There’s confidence to the scripting, so whenever the proverbial rug was tugged, I was looking forward to it. Not every twist and turn the story made was successful, but enough of them were that I admired the sheer creativity.

Without giving too much away about the story or its various surprises, the concept of reality is thrown out the window. The ship represents, without explicitly saying as much in the movie, a tear in the fabric of the space-time continuum. The characters in Triangle aren’t physicists and they’re not intellectuals, so they don’t wax philosophical about the implications of such a scenario. They just want to survive. Any conclusions that are drawn are drawn by the viewer themselves, which makes the experience all the more rewarding.

Triangle works, too, because of its setting. There’s something inherently creepy about an abandoned ship in the middle of the ocean. It’s as close to being on an alien planet as we can get while being right here on Earth. Cut off from civilization on this floating haunted house, with constant groans from the ship’s hull echoing through the corridors, anything is possible. Every shadow in the darkness could be anything your mind allows it to be. And the infinity of the ocean sprawls toward the horizon in every direction, endless in reach and depth.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Triangle pulls into port on Blu-ray, courtesy of Umbrella Entertainment, with a single disc housed in a standard case with a removable slipcover. The slip and the case contain different artwork, and the case features a reversible insert with similar art—one side simply excises the 15+ content warning.

Triangle was shot digitally in HD using a Panavision Genesis HD Camera. The presentation on the Blu-ray disc is essentially flawless—I saw no issues with compression, color banding, pixelization, etc. Shadows were dark black, with no staticky noise or pulsating. The cinematography, courtesy of Robert Humphreys, is never remarkable, but it’s got a workmanlike quality to it that I appreciated. It’s never show-offy or over-the-top. A lot of experimental horror films of this cloth can feature obnoxious cinematography with excessively shallow depths of field, but Triangle is always clear in its focus. Many of the interior shots are quite beautiful, lit from above in golden, amber hues that compliment the actors’ skin tones. Elsewhere, the blue of the ocean gleams without popping. The color palate is more neutral. Overall, this film is quite good-looking without going over the top. Its look is designed to pull us in, not inundate us with striking image after striking image. It’s very successful in its mission.

The Blu-ray disc for Triangle boasts a 5.1 surround sound option and a 2.0 stereo option, both in DTS-HD MA. I toggled back and forth and the stereo option sounds great for those with a two-channel soundbar, or using TV speakers, but the 5.1 option is an absolute MUST for readers who have a proper surround sound system with rear speakers. Surround sound activity is at a constant level. Ambient ocean waves, seagulls crying, the rippling sound of a ship’s sails being caught by the wind. And the ominous score throughout it all. Once the setup is out of the way and the characters board the empty ocean liner, my subwoofer was at a constant growl from the groaning of the ship’s engine. Surround sound systems were made for movies like Triangle.

Triangle comes with a veritable boatload of special features! There are three audio commentaries, interviews, video essays, and behind-the-scenes featurettes. The amount of supplements contained on this disc is exhaustive and will give viewers plenty to cruise through after finishing the main feature.

• Audio Commentary with director Christopher Smith
• Audio Commentary with Producer Chris Brown moderated by Shayne Armstrong
• Audio Commentary by Director of Photography Robert Humphreys and Production Designer Melinda Doring
• Four-Sided Triangle (HD 11:38) An Interview with Writer / Director Christopher Smith
• Ghost Ship (HD 12:41) An Interview with Producer Julie Baines
• Phantoms At Sea (HD 12:25) A Video Essay on Nautical Horror by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• The Making of Triangle (SD 44:09)
• Deleted Scenes (SD 5:05)
• The Storm Special Effects Featurette (SD 6:02)
• Trailer
• Behind The Scenes Gallery
• Storyboards Gallery
• Set Build Gallery

Umbrella Entertainment has done an amazing job with Triangle, providing the film with terrific audio and visual transfers and giving viewers an ocean of supplemental features. The film is an ambitious outing, sometimes messy in its excitement in setting up the next twist, but the ambition here is palpable. There’s a real sense of fun to the labyrinthine story with a premise filled with limitless possibilities. Triangle comes Highly Recommended.