How’s this for a setup?
In The Cycle, dedicated forensic anthropologist Meg Garland (Deborah Ann Woll, from True Blood) is notified that her missing father’s body turns up at a grisly murder scene, 34 years after he abandoned his wife and young daughter.
That’s pretty weird. Even weirder is the condition of Daddy’s corpse, which reveals a ton of physical trauma including electrocution, bullet wounds, and an elongated neck from hanging. But no maggots or evidence of decomposition.
Writer-director Jordan Downey disguises his supernatural agenda with a solid foundation of police procedure, as Meg and Officer Ian Marks (Jeffrey Donovan) follow the clues to a series of videotapes left by Meg’s father (David Myers Gregory).
The tapes try to explain both his absence from the family as well as the nature of his “condition” that defies any reasonable explanation, but bears a strong resemblance to lycanthropy.
Downey introduces some fresh ideas into werewolf lore, including the necessity of a living host to house the soul of the beast. The transformation effects are agonizingly on point, and the story and character development are well served and satisfying.
Meg’s devotion to research and experimentation are clearly at odds with her family’s dark history, but she maintains her wits and checks her work throughout, even in the uncharted wilderness of the full moon.
The Cycle is successful because it lends equal weight to the disparate disciplines of science and mythology, and how they each contribute to the making of a very real monster.
Thumbs up, four stars, and recommended for fans of lupine lunacy.
