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Overall7.4Fear6Atmos.7Gore6
- Great effects
- Great monster
The Cycle is a highly atmospheric film set in the Pacific Northwest, and its cinematography instantly reminded me of Antlers and Significant Other: desaturated towns, wooded areas, places drenched in fog with an earthy, wet presence. Shots of a steel bridge slowly disappearing into thick fog, boats bobbing quietly on a waterway next to a dock, sweeping shots of PNW forests; it goes on, and it pulls you in. It follows Meg (Deborah Ann Woll), a forensic anthropologist who works at a body farm studying human remains.
The film plays out as a police procedural. Meg is roped into examining an unusual, suspicious-looking corpse by Marks, the local cop (well played by Jeffrey Donovan). Both leads are good. Woll plays Meg as confident, smart and well-rounded until her traumatic past upends the stable life she worked hard to build. Donovan's veteran presence makes Marks instantly likable, and as the story peels back, their partnership is easy to root for.
The practical effects are very good, with plenty of body horror to gawk at. The main corpse in particular is unnerving and realistic. The autopsies, the transformations, the forensic analysis of disgusting tissues: it's all well done and keeps the mood tense. I think we're seeing a resurgence of practical effects, and this is a great example. I don't know the budget, but judged on their own, the effects hold up, and I'd love to see more films favor practical over CG.
What makes the film frightening isn't the jump scares. It's the dread, the anticipation of what's coming, and the cinematography amplifies it. You feel the fine details and textures of the grotesque, uncanny body in the morgue, and those scenes carry weight. Together, it's fear the film earns.
What holds it back is that once the action kicks into high gear, the fear dissolves. You could argue that comes with the territory: once you can see and touch the thing, it loses some of what made it frightening. Still, the film is at its best in the build-up, not the kinetic scenes.
I recommend it to horror fans in general: it's scary, atmospheric, and has fantastic practical effects. If you're a fan of that rainy, cold, desaturated PNW aesthetic, this film was made for you.
