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Written & Directed by Christopher Smith. Starring Melissa George, Michael Dorman. Horror/Psychological thriller, UK/Australia, 2010, 95mins.

DVD release date 1st March 2010. RRP: £10.99. BUY NOW

A group of young people set off sailing on a yacht and get suddenly caught in a storm. They board a passing ocean liner that mysteriously appears to be empty, or is it? Jess is certain that she has been there before and very soon begins unravelling the mystery, as they are hunted down by an unknown figure in a mask.

Initially the film seems to be in the way of a typical horror. The group soon become separated once on board. Jess begins acting strangely giving the others cause for concern. A masked figure begins picking them off until only Jess is alive. Jess overcomes her attacker and pushes him/her overboard. And just as it seems the film has come to a premature end there is a twist: Jess goes from being the victim to becoming the killer. All of a sudden the audiences conception of the film takes a massive overhaul.

Mirrors are key to the film because the character has different sides to her. There is an important scene at the end of the first loop where she has just killed the other version of herself (who is possibly not even real) and then walks through the mirror. So we meet another side of Jess’ character and wonder “ is the person behind the mirror nice or is the person behind the mirror not nice” (Chris Smith). This optical illusion enhances the confusion of whether anything is real or just imagination.

The idea of an old Ocean Liner suddenly appearing asks us to doubt the reality of the situation. It seems that once on board everything dissolves into Jess’ imagination. The corridors mirror those same claustrophobic hallways as the Shining, with Chris Smith even using the same door number as the hotel room in the Shining. These corridors create an eeriness that runs throughout the film.

The story takes a Groundhog Day approach with Jess re-enacting the same day on board the liner. Time repeats itself for her on board but with a unique twist: Jess is able to change the way things happen. She becomes able to influence the deaths and the sequence of events.

As the film draws to an end it becomes evident that Jess is a bad mother and feels guilt over the death of her son. Are the events on board purely attributed to her mental state and the guilt over causing her sons death or is it real and she is stuck in some sort of never ending time warp? The film has so many possibilities that everyone will have their own separate interpretation of what is happening.

The films style is totally different to Christopher Smiths previous work (Creep and Severance). This film will take more than just one watch for you to discover what it is really about. After seeing it for the first time at Frightfest 2009 we were unsure of what the film was about and if we even liked it. But it definitely grows on you and is certainly very different to anything that we have seen before. The charm of this film is that the audience can put their own interpretation to it.

Smith’s clever writing keeps the audience gripped to the end. Although it is still possible to draw your own conclusions at least Smith does give the film some sort of finality. This is definitely one to watch.

There is a good selection of extras. There is the Making of which is great as it goes into detail about the concept for the film and how it was created. As well as the Making of there are a couple of deleted scenes, some original storyboards, a featurette on how the storm was created and even a design your own Triangle poster competition. Overall there is an adequate range of extras.

Maria Phillips & Gareth Martin

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