The Shasta Triangle was first on the list in my movie recommendations today. At first I didn’t realize the movie would be about the mysteries and lore of Mt. Shasta. I know a bit about the lore of Mt. Shasta myself but have never seen a movie about it. I’ve read a few books about Mt. Shasta and mysterious occurrences which plague the area, but books usually aren’t as exciting as a movie. Sooo, I’m excited to see how this will all play out.
The movie starts with a prologue of a man sitting at a desk. He’s looking around a dimly lit room which is filled with Mt. Shasta lore, pictures, and paranormal drawings. He’s writing into his journal and sketching symbols as we “hear” what’s going through his mind. Before cutting to the next scene and starting the movie proper he voices regrets concerning his daughter. Not regrets of her, mind you, but possible regrets she may be left without a father…
Present Day – The scene cuts away to the daughter who’s sitting at a desk and writing in her notebook. She’s drawing unknown arcane symbols identical to the ones we see the man drawing during the prologue. A setup that has my me all in now.
In the next scene I got so distracted I literally almost stopped watching The Shasta Triangle. I for a brief second forgot what I was doing. The scene consisted of 5 girls each with something to say to the other (that’s 25 things mind you). The bickering dragged out for so long I almost tuned it all out and forgot to watch the rest of the movie. After an insane amount of back and forth banter, I paused the movie and came over here. Watching and listening to that scene did the same thing The Blair Witch Project did to me. It instilled in me an almost unbearable level of frustration and the desire to be as far away from this as possible. One girl is rich and spoiled, our protagonist is a country bumpkin who had just left the city to return to a place she promised never to go back to, one is a total kiss ass of the rich spoiled girl, so she must be the poor one, and finally, one of the “girls” is the sheriff. Having all grown up together in a small town you better believe they have plenty of things to say to each other. They’re all in the 23-26 ish range. Just listening to a bunch of girls talk and berate each other, which I’ll remind you, dragged out, had its desired effect on me. This scene was designed this way. I’ve seen these type of scenes a few times now over the past 15 years or so but it’s probably just some movie thing that I’m just now figuring out lol. But my interest is in the Aliens, Loki, the Door, UAP’s, booming skyquakes, underground empires, the epitome of evil, and maybe a person or 5 dying in decisive graphic manner’s even George R. Romero would be proud of. That’s what I’m really here to see.
It turns out the country bumpkin, our main protagonist, is the daughter of the man in the prologue and she’s come back to her childhood home of Mt. Shasta seeking clues as to what happened to her father.
What the movie is doing initially is reminiscent of The Descent. Girl fights! At first I was going to be happy with the generic B grade setup but then things just got better and better. Then the whole movie goes off the fucking rails. There’s a beautiful semi twist which occurs towards the end of the movie that I just didn’t see coming. This is one that needs to be seen to be believed so I’m ending all spoilers right here.
The Shasta Triangle is a fun little fantastical tale more on the paranormal side of the things rather than a true horror, but terrible things do happen and they happen at perfectly horrible moments. The Shasta Triangle is well paced, extremely well written and I’d rate it 2 or 3 points below a max positive rating just for the creative movie moments I was privy to when I decided to watch The Shasta Triangle. The other thing I want to point out is that the acting is decent with everyone staying true and consistent to character throughout.
A young woman returns to her hometown to uncover the truth about her father’s disappearance. Deep in the woods, she and her childhood friends battle ancient and terrifying forces controlling the town. – IMDb Synopsis
The Shasta Triangle was directed by Barry W. Levy. Written by Barry W. Levy and Helenna Santos. Featuring Dani Lennon, Ayanna Berkshire, and Helenna Santos. The Shasta Triangle was released in 2019 with a running time of 1 hour and 14 minutes. IMDb gives it a rating of 3.6 out of 10 and I’ll stick to my guns and give it an 8 rating, but that’s because I personally enjoyed it so much. I realize it’s not going to be for everybody as it’s somewhat niche.