Triangle of Sadness is a 2022 black comedy from director Ruben Östlund about affluence, power, class, and vomit. Lots and lots of vomit. More on that later.
While it’s not necessarily a horror movie, it’s certainly in conversation with social thrillers like Parasite and The Menu, and god do I love an island as a backdrop.
The island is where the superego is stripped away; the island is where humanity is found and lost and found and lost again.
Dare me to write a dissertation about the role of islands in modern and classical fiction. Dare me to rewatch Lost again. You won’t!
Anyway. This movie is chilling and bitter and pokes fun at nearly everyone. Which is more than enough to qualify it as a must-watch. Onwards!
What’s the deal?
Rich people go on a cruise for rich people, with a crew tending to their every need. Then, a storm. The dinner party is over, the vomit is spectacular. This brutally awesome dance plays out to the soundtrack of a debate about Marxism blasted over the intercom by our drunken captain (Woody Harrelson).
The storm’s survivors wash up on a deserted island, crew and passengers alike now equals in their destitution. The crew is no longer paid to smile and serve; in fact, they’re the ones with actual survival skills — actual power — in this new society. Abigail (Dolly De Leon), who was a maid on the ship, is masterful in her new role as island dictator.
But then it is revealed that the island is not deserted after all. They are stranded near a luxury resort. They will be rescued and order will be restored. But Abigail isn’t ready to let go.
I can’t stop thinking about...
That glorious, self-indulgent, unbridled vomit scene. I’m not one for a gross-out gag, but this scene was, I’m not kidding, fifteen minutes long.
Fifteen minutes of rich people vomiting on a boat during a storm.
And it’s not just vomit, either. It’s diarrhea, sewage, champagne, shrimp, octopus, caviar in all of its regurgitated and undigested forms.
This scene graduates from gross-out all the way to genius through its sheer persistence.
Cinematographer Fredrik Wenzel said: “It was kind of beautiful to watch, like a ballet. It has a baroque feeling with the colors.”
If you’re feeling up for it, here’s the first two minutes: TRIANGLE OF SADNESS 2022 THE CAPTAIN DINNER
(You’re welcome for not embedding).
Yours,
Horrorshow Jane