October 27 2026, 06:15
The Cycle
Meg is a forensic pathologist working at an FBI science facility in the wilds of Oregon. Three bodies are found along a train track, one of which is her father who has been missing for thirty years. Bodies keep appearing in the area that look like they’ve been ripped apart by a wild animal. Meg helps the police try and find answers.
That synopsis is vague because one of the joys of this film is the turn it takes at the halfway point. It starts as a beautifully crafted forensic procedural thriller, drip-feeding curious details amongst plenty of shots of corpses and crime scenes. The second half is a more traditional horror film, with lots of practical special effects to please the CGI-weary horror heart.
It’s about a family, the reasons parents split up, and how our parents are unknowable in many ways. Deborah Ann Woll as Meg looks at home in the bleak laboratories of her profession, and the supporting cast are all perfectly drawn. There are a handful of dream sequences that are effective in a horror sense but feel like a bit of a narrative cheat. And the blacks of the dark spaces on my TV looked rubbish on Shudder. I would love to have had the chance to see this in a cinema.
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