Kicking off the ‘Maternal Horror’ series, a review of Triangle, a 2009 thriller directed by Christopher Smith. Be warned, there are twists and turns throughout the time loop plot, so MAJOR SPOILERS lie ahead.

Triangle is ultimately a film about maternal guilt. The film opens with the protagonist Jess struggling to cope with her autistic son Tommy. He spills paint on her dress and she can’t control her frustration. Like many mothers in horror, she is a single parent, isolated from the rest of the world by her responsibilities to her child.

But today is different. We next see Jess arriving on a boat, Triangle, where she has been invited by a customer from the restaurant where she works, Greg. A day off, with other adults, far more affluent than her – this should be a dream come true. Yet she seems confused, tired – and who is looking after Tommy, anyway? She says she thinks she dropped him at school, but it’s a Saturday. Her isolation is emphasised again as the other passengers are suspicious of her and annoyed she’s getting in the way of the woman they wanted to set up with Greg.

Triangle sails into the ocean and soon disaster strikes – a huge wave, the boat capsizes, one passenger killed. The others survive and appear to have been rescued by a large cruise liner, the Aeolus. But when they climb aboard the ship seems to be empty. This main section of the film is classic slasher movie stuff – the survivors are stalked and killed by a mysterious masked person. Quickly the other passengers blame Jess – we think this is more of her othering by society, scapegoated as an easy target. Until the Jess we as the audience are following sees another Jess with a gun.

The film now becomes a time loop. Our Jess carries out the actions we saw the masked murderer do, while another group from the capsized Triangle arrive on the Aeolus. As the action moves on, it becomes clear that this is not the first iteration of this loop. In a great shot, a pile of corpses shows the story has been repeating for a very long time. Our Jess fights for her life, desperate to get back to her son. She is certain that she is the one to care for him, even compared to the other versions of herself. For now this seems like the ultimate maternal love for her child, but later it becomes apparent why she may not trust even herself to look after Tommy.

The reveal comes once Jess has managed to find her way home. She discovers another version of herself there with Tommy. The opening scene with the paint spill repeats itself. Only this time, from outside, we see Jess abusing Tommy. Jess was set up as a guilty mother, struggling to do her best for her difficult child, but now the reality is seen to be much worse. In a rage, the audience POV Jess kills the abusive mother Jess and drives away with Tommy. She stills believes she can do better this time.

But she can’t. The boy is terrified, she is distracted. She crashes the car. Tommy is killed. Horrified and dazed, Jess is helped away from the wreck by a taxi driver, and guided to a jetty. She joins Greg and the original group, for a boat trip on this beautiful Saturday.

I chose to kick off this series with Triangle because it is a modern twist on the age old maternal horror story. Most interpretations of the film agree that the original Jess murdered Tommy, and that this repeating loop is either her punishment or her traumatised mind going back over events again and again, trying to get it right this time. The first three quarters of the film are a typical view of a mother through the lens of a horror film – she is failing to live up to society’s standards for caring for her child, she loves him so much she will become a monster to protect him. But the final act reveals she has done something terrible and sadly far too common. The rather stale trope of a mother who can’t care for her child as expected of her is replaced via the revelation that she has done something truly monstrous which can in no way be explained by her trying to do her best for her son. Triangle forces the audience to grapple with a different kind of mother, and a more everyday kind of evil.

See here and here for great articles about Triangle that helped me write this piece, and provide information about the Greek myths and other works the films references.