Triangle: 15 Years Later, A Modern Cult Classic?
On the 16th of October 2009, Triangle was released. Christopher Smith’s Triangle mystery fantasy sci-fi movie shocked the world, with its web of conspiracy which truly keeps us guessing. The movie follows six friends whose yacht overturns and they find rescue on a cruise liner. However, not everything is what it seems and they could never have imagined what happens next.
Today, I am going to look back and see where this movie achieved its cult status all these years later.
Triangle: 15 Years Later, A Modern Cult Classic
Box Office Disappointment
Triangle was produced on a $12 million budget but only went on to make $1.6 Million in the International Box Office. However, it never got an US release. It was one of the movies that got an early showing at the traditional London Frightfest. There is no real story behind why it never got the US release, but in the world of mystery horror, it could have easily made a profit with a couple of weeks release.
Critical Response
The critic rating for Triangle is Certified Fresh at 79%. It gets praised for the performances and mysterious storyline unfolding throughout.
Positive
Anthony Quinn for the Independent quotes ‘This seaborne psycho-thriller has an unusual creepiness about it.’
Peter Bradshaw for the Guardian quotes ‘A rather smart, interestingly constructed scary movie from British director Christopher Smith.’
Negative
Robbie Collin for the News of the World quotes ‘Leakier than a hedgehog’s cagoule, and you’ll be picking holes in the plot long before the end.’
Larushka Ivan-Zadeh for Metro Newspaper quotes ‘The dj vu plot loop-the-loops back on itself till it sends you right round the twist.’
The Hemsworth Boom
Melissa George might well be the lead in this movie. She had previously been involved in box office successes including ‘The Amityville Horror’ and ’30 Days of Night’. However, one of the supporting cast happens to be Liam Hemsworth.
Liam Hemsworth had only appeared in one movie before this, which also came out this year, ‘Knowing’. A couple of years later, he went on to be one of the main characters in the hugely popular ‘The Hunger Games’. Meanwhile, his big brother Chris got his first movie role in ‘Star Trek’ and equality mysterious ‘A Perfect Getaway’. Before landing his big breakout role as Thor. 2009 was a big year for the Hemsworth brothers, and their first roles in supporting mystery thrillers easily helped jump-start their move to Hollywood.
Cult Following
Triangle has become one of the most talked about movies from the 2009 releases. The story kept people loving the original concept and you feel if it had been given a stronger marketing campaign, we could have had a major success story. If we look at Letterboxd, the movie ranked number 9 for the 2009 horror movies released. I know this is based on the number of people who check off seeing the movie, rather than rating.
Director
Director Christopher Smith had a promising early career with the subway horror thriller ‘Creep’. He followed that up with the hilarious horror comedy ‘Severance’ before landing on Triangle. After Triangle, movies including ‘Black Death’, ‘Get Santa’, ‘Detour’ and ‘The Banishing’ followed. While he still has several credits to his name, he hasn’t managed to have that hit which people constantly still talk about.
What do you think of Triangle?