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.

Lately, many films are trying to get into the game of storytelling playing with several dimensions because it hands an advantage on having several outcomes that can surprise the audience with crazy twists and turns. The use of different possible scenarios should be done carefully since one factor can damage the rest of the product; the factors do alter the timelines in each exposed situation. However, there are ambitious films that may fail in the attempt, and the story may fall short of theory with no creativity.

The Shasta Triangle (2019), which shockingly is not the holy trinity of dollar value sodas, tells the story of Paula (Dani Lennon) in search of her father, who disappeared years ago during a work investigation. Paula contacts a childhood friend to help her with her research. Something that seemed only to be a work as partners, becomes a party of five formed by childhood friends; although some of the reasons why the rest of the party helps Paula is for a monetary reward. Once they reach the point where Paula’s father allegedly disappeared, together they begin to do as little as possible to understand what is happening in their surroundings and enter into collective hysteria as if they did not know the risks of being part of the investigation.

From the beginning, the viewer must assume the connection between the characters as if there had been a prequel. And, if it existed, one could probably understand why the characters are so empty of character but full of motives; it leads to think that they want everything but do nothing to get it.

There is a very serious problem with the film and, it’s not the actors or the low-budget visual effects, it is the audio mix they made in the spoken dialogue. Much of the film seems dubbed; it is evident by the exaggeration in the emotional tones of the actresses when pronouncing certain lines. Unfortunately this causes the nature of the facts to be lost, and leaves the characters overacted in situations that make no sense. It can’t be denied it was dubbed; not even big Hollywood productions have pristine pronounced dialogues.

The main plot is not new, but it’s decent for a thriller. The story is somewhat repetitive, which is a point in its favor for the subject it addresses: alternate dimensions. And, as a side note, another point in its favor is its mid-90’s resemblance of a horror film; from the soundtrack to the inexplicable motives of each character. But, the story is so repetitive that it becomes tedious until it reaches the point where the viewer can guess what is in the other dimensions. And, in fact, the viewer must use his imagination to assume what there is in the other dimensions since only three of six variables are shown.

The Shasta Triangle, in its entirety, is a poorly executed sci-fi thriller. Even if the setting had six sides, everything felt very much unidimensional with no options to progress further in the development of the plot or even the backstory to the characters that are supposed to be friends since childhood. The story could’ve been good but, by the fifth “drop-and-roll because the trumpets of the Apocalypse are sounding while the Earth is shaking and no one else feels it but the main characters” it became redundant and out-of-focus.