By George & Josh Bate
This year’s Fantastic Fest is officially underway, and with it comes a slew of movies (and shows) making their debuts. Some, like Wild Horse Nine and Primetime, carry with them the weight of expectation and excitement, while many others are smaller, more independent projects hoping to garner some positive buzz and attention from attendees of the event.
The Cycle, which made its world premiere at Fantastic Fest this year, falls somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. The film has already officially been picked up by Shudder, a huge step toward getting it seen by as many people as possible. Additionally, The Cycle features a recognizable cast, mainly Deborah Ann Woll, who plays Karen in Netflix’s Daredevil and Disney+’s Daredevil: Born Again.
The Cycle follows a forensic anthropologist named Meg (Woll), who is thrust into a world of mystery and violence. Meg frequently works with the police on cases, but things take a turn when the body of her estranged father appears under the most bizarre of circumstances. The story then takes on an investigative angle, with Meg using her technical proficiencies in body decomposition to look into what happened to her dad.
The Cycle starts off strong, in large part due to its intriguing mystery and promising premise. The concept of a forensic anthropologist working a murder case is just enough of a twist on the classic detective story to make the film feel unique. Because of this, Meg brings something different to the investigation — she’s approaching it from a scientific perspective rather than the typical cop lens. The film deserves credit for its commitment to science too, as screenwriters Jordan Downey and Kevin Stewart clearly did plenty of research to make Meg and her expertise as believable as possible. Some of the most interesting material in the film comes from its examination of the rigor of forensic science, particularly the process and science behind human body decomposition.
Making Meg even more compelling is Deborah Ann Woll herself. She’s so closely associated with Karen Page from Daredevil that it would be easy to simply see that character in The Cycle. However, Woll puts in an excellent performance, playing a very different type of character than Karen. Meg has a totally different background, for example, and Woll does a great job conveying the pain that comes from her childhood and, in particular, her father’s absence.
The relationship between Meg and her father also presents one of the film’s biggest missed opportunities. Meg isn’t just investigating a random murder as she has a deeply personal connection to the person she’s investigating. The victim is her father. That should provide The Cycle with a wealth of potentially rich dramatic material, particularly given their estranged relationship and the childhood trauma surrounding his absence. Unfortunately, the film never really mines that relationship for all it’s worth. The mystery remains the focus, but the emotional stakes surrounding Meg and her father rarely receive the same attention.
The investigation itself also struggles to maintain momentum. For the longest time, there is very little actual movement in the case, making the film’s central mystery feel strangely static. The occasional clues and reveals contribute to an increasingly disjointed plot, with several moving parts that don’t blend together particularly well.
There are also some baffling storytelling choices along the way. A prominent character dies randomly during the first act, yet the movie barely allows anyone to react to the death in a meaningful way. It’s the kind of moment that should have significant ramifications for the characters and the story, but instead feels strangely disconnected from everything happening around it. Moments like this contribute to the film’s increasingly uneven sense of narrative cohesion.
While losing its way with an increasingly convoluted story, the film unexpectedly and interestingly evolves into an entirely different genre in its third act. To comment on this in any depth would be to spoil The Cycle, but audiences should know that The Cycle is definitely not what it seems on the surface.
VERDICT: 4/10
Making its world premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest, The Cycle starts off strong with an intriguing mystery and a promising premise, particularly through its focus on the rigor of forensic science and body decomposition. Deborah Ann Woll gives a characteristically excellent performance as the lead character, but the film doesn’t mine her personal connection to the person she is investigating — her father — for the potentially rich dramatic material it provides. The investigation itself has little movement for the longest time, while disjointed plotting, a random first-act death that no one meaningfully reacts to, and an increasingly convoluted mystery cause the film to lose its way. By the third act, The Cycle surprisingly evolves into another genre altogether, but this shift isn’t enough to salvage an unfocused and jumbled film.
The Cycle streams October 23 on Shudder.