Up-and-coming British writer director Christopher Smith made a cheapo horror debut with Creep, followed by a cheeky black comedy in Severance. Now he moves in the direction of psychological thriller, with mixed results.

He certainly succeeds in creating an atmosphere of mounting horror and psychological breakdown, as a stressed- out single mum (Melissa George) goes on the sailing trip to hell, encountering a storm that capsizes her boat and a sinister cruise ship where the crew has disappeared, all the clocks have stopped and a mysterious sniper is on the

The final scenes of the movie are nonsensical and pretentious.

George gives a strong performance, but the script never gives her character sufficient depth – all we really know about her is that she loves her very autistic son.

I think Smith is trying to liken the bringing up of a disabled child to the unending labours of Sisyphus, but he doesn’t bring off his central metaphor.

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The latest offering from director Christopher Smith (Creep, Severance) is a twisty-turny time bending horror set aboard a mysterious cruise liner. Melissa George stars as Jess, a young woman with an autistic son who meets up with her friend Greg to go sailing with a party on his boat. Things take a turn for the worse when an electrical storm hits their ship, smashing it to tinder and leaving them stranded. When a ghostly cruise liner shows up, the group board the apparently deserted vessel, and that’s when things start to get interesting…

What follows is a convoluted series of events that touch on familiar facets of time travel theory and mythology. As in the recent Spanish thriller Timecrimes we are witness to key events several different times, from a slightly different perspective each time, as our heroine tries vainly to alter the tragic events that befall her and her friends.

Having premiered at Frightfest this year, with Timecrimes taking its bow the year before, Smith was at pains to point out that he had come up with the idea four years previously. However Triangle does feel like something of a diet version and shares too much with its Spanish cousin (even down to the “villain” wearing a sack to disguise their features). The inevitable comparisons are a shame because otherwise the film is trying hard to be original and distinctive.

Melissa George has always been an actress I’ve enjoyed watching, and she is very good in this, taking on multiple versions of her character, each slightly different as they’re weighed down by knowledge of what’s to come, and what’s happening. I was particularly impressed with the scenes bookending the movie that take place in her quiet, suburban home. It’s here, as a violent, abusive mother, that she displays the best acting I’ve seen from her, and indeed in any recent horror, with the possible exception of Martyrs.

Triangle contains some great imagery (one scene in particular will stay with you for a while), and benefits from effective sound design, not least the unusually impactful gunshots, all of which adds to the film’s few geniunely scary moments – the woman next to me jumped out of her skin a couple of times.

Overall, Triangle feels like it falls under the weight of its own logic, and at times the timeline and concurrent events don’t make all that much sense. This isn’t for the Final Destination crowd, it’s more interesting and intelligent than that, but it doesn’t quite fulfil its ambition.

Our Rating: B-

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According to actress Melissa George, she was this close to becoming the next Kylie Minogue after record company executive (and future American Idol judge) Simon Cowell tried to sign her up as a pop singer!

Reports the Herald Sun:

She has slowly carved out an acting career in Hollywood, but Aussie actor Melissa George has revealed things could have been different if she had taken up an offer from pop svengali Cowell.

“I was 17 and enjoying success in Home and Away,” George has told London’s Daily Mail. “While visiting London, a record company asked me in for a meeting and offered me a record deal without even hearing me sing. I suppose they thought I looked the part. Years later, I saw Simon Cowell on American Idol and realised it was the same guy who offered me the deal.”

It’s pretty amazing that Melissa George can remember this incident so clearly and managed to recognise Simon Cowell “years later” after just one meeting at the age of seventeen considering she claims she cannot remember the name of the character she played for years on Home & Away. Now I can’t help but suspect Melissa was exaggerating for comedy reasons when she said someone had to remind her about Angel Parrish. You played me like a cheap violin, George.

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Melissa George has revealed her lifetime dream of working with acclaimed directors Pedro Almodovar and Woody Allen.

The star of upcoming psychological thriller Triangle would love to act under the direction of the Spanish filmmaker, saying: “Almodovar for me, if I work with him, I’m done, that’s it – I’ll do that and just make one movie a year with him.”

She added: “A Woody Allen film would be joyous – if you could put out the word for me, that’ll be great.”

Melissa, who started off in Australian soap Home And Away and has appeared in Grey’s Anatomy, admitted that she’s not a big fan of the box.

“I don’t watch TV ever actually, I watch films,” she said.

“I don’t have the patience to find out what time it’s on, I don’t even know where I am, what country I’m in or what time zone I’m in, so TV for me, I don’t really watch.”

The 33-year-old went on: “I don’t like reality TV. I’m one of those actor snobs. Unless it’s scripted or it’s a fictitious character, I just don’t like any of that nonsense.”

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Melissa George is in disbelief that Home And Away is still going strong.

The Australian actress got her big break playing Angel Parrish on the Five soap in the early 1990s, but has moved onto Hollywood, where she has appeared in films like 30 Days Of Night, Music Within and Derailed.

“Is it still on, that’s amazing,” she said, during an interview to promote her new film, Triangle.

Melissa, who played the teenage mum, has good memories of her three years there but hasn’t watched it since she left in 1996.

“No, I haven’t seen it since. I only watch my own work, when I’m on it,” she revealed.

She added: “I’ll tell you this, having done lots of productions since then, that was one of the most organised productions. My script was always on time, I never had rewrites, I never had delays in scheduling – Home And Away was a well-oiled machine.”

And Melissa, who now lives in Los Angeles, hasn’t been in touch with her former co-stars.

“I keep in touch with Laura Vazquez, who played Sarah Thompson – she’s one of my best friends today, she’s just such a great girl,” she said. “To be honest, the rest of the cast, I have not spoken to any one of them but I think about them a lot. It’s just that I don’t have Pippa’s home number, or the actress who played Pippa. I don’t have their numbers any more because it was so long ago.”

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Melissa George doesn’t believe her new horror film Triangle is scary.

The Grey’s Anatomy actress stars in the Bermuda Triangle-themed psychological thriller – directed by Christopher Smith – as Jess, who suffers a mental breakdown after being stranded on board a ship in a storm.

Melissa revealed: “Really, it’s a journey of a woman with different levels of sanity, she could have schizophrenia, she could be just purely demented – but no I didn’t feel like the movie turned out to be a scary film.”

The 33-year-old Australian actress added: “I think it’s more like a woman trying to figure out where she’s just been and why is everything she’s just seen something she has seen before. So I think that’s more what I spent the movie doing… trying to make each Jess correlate and make them all work.”

Melissa has worked on several horror movies, including 30 days Of Night with Josh Hartnett, and revealed she’d like to do a costume drama next.

She said: “I’d like to do a period piece like a nice sort of Charles Dickens novel thing, after they see Triangle then they certainly won’t put me in that but I’ll try my best. They didn’t thing that I was funny either but they put me in Swinging With The Finkles so that was good. But I would like to do a nice sort of 1920s or 18th century or something like that.”

:: Triangle is released in the UK on October 16.

So I guess it looks like Melissa will not be in the sequel to 30 Days of Night. I really hope this is wrong, though because I’d love to see her play in the sequel!

Some news about the proposed sequel to 30 Days of Night surfaced today regarding the person who will be helming the film and whether or not star Melissa George will be back. Curious? You know you are.

Bloody Disgusting got the early word that Ben Ketai has been tapped to direct 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, a story from both Steve Niles and Ketai. Shooting is already slated to begin this October in Vancouver, Canada.

Dark Days will tell the story of Stella Olemaun (George’s character from the first film who is being recast as Melissa will NOT be returning) as she heads to Los Angeles after surviving the vampire attack in Barrow, Alaska. She intentionally attracts the attention of the local vampire population in order to avenge the death of her husband, Eben, during the Barrow incident.

That’s it for now. More as it comes!

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Thanks to Hermione, who was kind enough to email me and let me know that Melissa has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress in Series/Mini-Series/Motion Picture Made for Television and it’s for her role as Laura in “In Treatment”. The series also snagged a nomination for best Drama series. Let’s hope that she gets the award! She’s up against Eileen Atkins (Cranford), Laura Dern (Recount), Rachel Griffiths (Brothers & Sisters) and Dianne West (In Treatment). Source

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There will be more social shake-ups at Seattle Grace on Grey’s Anatomy.

Australian actress Melissa George guest stars starting with Thursday’s episode as Sadie, Meredith’s friend from the past. “I show up at her doorstep,” George tells PEOPLE. “[Sadie] gets a job at Seattle Grace due to her father, which is yet to be explored. She’s taking a leadership role at the intern society, which is hysterically funny. I haven’t stopped laughing for six weeks.”

Apart from inciting jealousy in Meredith’s current best friend Cristina Yang, Sadie’s character, who is bisexual, will be full of surprises?including possible romances, says George, 32. “I don’t know whether it’s male or female. It could be either; it could be both. We’re all dying to find out.”