Review by Leonard Norwitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Triangle Films
Blu-ray: First Look Studios
Disc:
Region: 'A'
(as verified by the
Momitsu region FREE Blu-ray player)
Single-layered
Runtime: 1:39:00
Chapters: 16
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
Release date: February 2nd, 2010
Video:
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Resolution: 1080p / 23.976 fps
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Audio:
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3591 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3591
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps / 24-bit)
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
/ Dolby Surround
Subtitles: English (SDH), Spanish, none
Extras:
• Cast & Crew Interviews – in SD (5:55)
The Film:
7
In the 1945 British thriller Dead of Night Walter Craig
becomes aware of a déjà-vu quality to his visit to a country
villa. He shares this feeling with the group of strangers he
meets there that he somehow knows these people, though they
don’t seem to know him. He tells them that he knows things
are going to end badly at the house and that somehow he is
the cause of it all. Eventually the others, too, recall
similar surreal instances that all ended in tragedy. The
film ends where it began as Craig awakens from this same
recurring nightmare. There is no explanation offered as to
why Craig should be so inflicted. He has committed no crime,
nor has he forgotten to turn off the gas. He merely suffers,
indefinitely, for our pleasure.
Christopher Smith’s new movie Triangle owes a great deal to
Dead of Night and adds an explanatory layer to the
nightmare: we relive an action or inaction in order to
affect a different outcome. It’s always risky to explain
things in a horror movie. I don’t think we feel kindly to
Dr. Richmond for explaining Norman Bates’ mother fixation at
the end of Psycho. Perhaps it makes us feel safer, more
removed from any contamination or identification with
Norman’s insanity, but it also makes Norman less horrifying.
(Having said that we observe that what makes the Holocaust
so monstrous is that it was carried out by our neighbors,
not by madmen.) But I digress – no doubt so as to avoid
revealing how Triangle’s protagonista, Jess (Melissa George)
finds herself in her own recurring and particularly bloody
nightmare and what motivates her desire to do so. I shall
say only this: Keep your eye on the bird. As for the
nightmare itself: Jess is a single mother of an autistic
boy. She absent-mindedly joins friends on a sailing
adventure that leads them into an unexpected and powerful
storm. The boat capsizes and all survive but one. Those that
do survive take refuge on a passing ocean liner while Jess
assumes a thousand yard stare alternating with fearful
concern. The ship, however, is apparently unoccupied, except
for one murderous person. Care to guess who it is?
Image:
8/9
NOTE:
The below
Blu-ray
captures were taken directly from the
Blu-ray
disc.
The first number indicates a relative level of excellence
compared to other Blu-ray video discs on a ten-point scale.
The second number places this image along the full range of
DVD and Blu-ray discs.
There appears to be nothing amiss with this image despite
its overexposure during the sailing in the open seas and in
the flashes of detail-free light in the deep interiors on
board the Aeolus. The CGI during the storm demonstrates the
movie's low budget, but a lot was done with very little
elsewhere. In any case, none of this bothers the transfer
any, which, when it is important to do so, sports all the
sharpness, resolution and brilliance of color one could
desire. Shadows in the Aoelus corridors are noiseless and
dark without going all the way to black. Detail is not what
the director is after in these scenes, though the eye
strains to find some. Neither edge enhancement nor noise
reduction seems to have been applied.
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Audio & Music:
8/7
If the blu-ray image is a bit dicey to sort out, the audio
certainly isn’t. The uncompressed DTS-HD MA 5.1 mix may miss
an opportunity with the storm to crash through into another
dimension, but it really does the trick of bringing us on
board the ghost ship with its suffocating, threatening
world. The various corridors offer all sorts of opportunity
for footsteps, dialogue and gunfire from a few yards away to
around the corner to the floor above. The verisimilitude of
the clanging echoes in and around the metallic corridors
draws us in as Christian Henson’s music merges perfectly
with Peter Baldock’s sound design to create a ferocious,
frightening soundscape whenever Chris Smith wants to give us
a jolt.
Operations:
6
After loading, previews are forced, but you can skip through
them easily with chapter advance. The menu is uneventful and
simplicity itself.
Extras:
2
There’s not much here: In place of a commentary there is
only a five minute making-of/cast & crew interview piece
that covers the territory in a most concise form.
Bottom line:
7
Once we get the hang of why Jess is acting the way she does,
what keeps our interest is to see how director Smith parses
out her attempts to change her fate as bloody horror
elements give way to a kind of mystery thriller. We also
want to stick around to learn why this is all happening,
which he eventually gets to. The image may seem deliberately
unfriendly but it is not incorrect, while the audio grabs
our attention. Extra Features are exceedingly weak.
Recommended for a late night with popcorn.
Leonard Norwitz
January 27th, 2010