Triangle (2009)

Six pretty young things aboard a capsized yacht believe themselves rescued when a cruise ship passes by, but on board the ship, in the faded opulence of echoey, abandoned hotel-like interiors, the group discovers creepy things like, impossibly, signs they've been on the ship before and, creepily, messages scrawled in blood, and, optimistically (for the writers), some allusions to another more memorable horror movie - things that don't really make sense, but to the movie's credit, it powers unashamedly on and on no matter how ridiculous things become, and you will keep watching if only to see how far it is willing to go with its Lost island premise.

★★☆☆☆

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The Amityville Horror (2005)

Given the entire series is built upon the premise of providing a paranormal 'out' for a real-life family massacrist, I shouldn't be surprised Ryan Reynold's George Lutz gets such an easy reprieve for dog murder, a wanton and unnecessary Russian Roulette axe game, and emotional and physical spousal abuse ("It was just a bad bout of pinkeye, honey - I won't do it again," you can imagine him saying as the boat speeds away to the non-satanic side of the lake where men like him continue these behaviours of their own accord), but apart from this unchecked male violence, this update of the 1979 horror classic incorporates some great improvements: a thankfully truncated 89-minute runtime; a terrifically improved, gleefully sinister babysitter scene; a sculpted Ryan Reynolds waddling around in pajama bottoms (unless you prefer a sculpted James Brolin waddling around in his y-fronts), and gone is all that "I've gone blind," twaddle with the priest.

★★★☆☆

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