Film Fests
Fantastic Fest: ‘The Cycle’ Review
One thing I love about attending film festivals is the ability to be completely blindsided by a movie I hadn’t even heard of before arriving at the theater. At this year’s Fantastic Fest, that film was director Jordan Downey’s The Cycle, a movie that wasn’t on my radar at all before multiple friends texted me out of its world premiere, telling me I had to see it before anyone spoiled it for me. With an endorsement like that, I made a beeline for the press screening the following morning, and I’m glad I did. The Cycle is the kind of movie that I hope is marketed with care, because while fans of the genre may have inklings about the twist early into the runtime, watching it play out is deliciously satisfying.
Rest assured, this review will not contain spoilers. Promise.
The Cycle Is a Grisly Police Procedural Until It Isn’t
Deborah Ann Woll (True Blood) stars in The Cycle as Meg, a forensic specialist in the world of death and decay. She’s called in to help investigate a peculiar murder with personal ties: one of the deceased is her estranged father, who walked out on her family decades earlier. The other victims were torn apart recently, but daddy appears to have been dead for a while, and his corpse reveals a litany of old injuries. What on earth happened to him after he left, and how did he end up naked in the grass outside a brutal crime scene? As Meg is drawn into the investigation, the mystery deepens—and more blood is spilled.
One word you’re going to see thrown around a lot regarding The Cycle is patience. The first half of the film unfurls with deliberate slowness, never sluggish but methodical in its pacing. It’s a police procedural through and through, complete with a moody score and gray-blue color grading—right up until it isn’t. And that isn’t is well worth the wait.
Practical Effects Fans—This One Is for You
Downey and co-writer/cinematographer Kevin Stewart are cagey about how much they show in the first half of the film. Beyond the dried-up body of Meg’s father, little is shown of the victims, with the reactions of father-son cop duo Marks (Jeffrey Donovan) and Ian (Will Hochman) serving to cue the viewer in on the horrific nature of the crimes. Both deliver strong performances, but it’s Woll’s Meg who is the emotional core of the film. Grounded and easy to empathize with as old wounds are opened and personal history she doesn’t want to reckon with is dragged out into the open, Meg keeps The Cycle compelling until it’s ready to reveal its hand and descend into the full-blown creature feature we didn’t know we needed.
At this point, the practical effects take center stage. Special effects supervisor Patrick Magee and his team have done the near impossible: taken one of the most recognizable and beloved practical creature scenes in horror history, paid loving homage to it, and then said “yes, and.” The Cycle delivers on the promise of a classic subgenre and builds on it with a concept I’ve never seen before, and it’s an absolute joy to behold.
That’s not to say it’s perfect. The budget clearly went into building the beast, so the team have had to get creative about how they actually shoot it, especially in motion. The shaky-cam-heavy climax can be a little hard on the eye at times, but that doesn’t stop the overall effect from being pure adrenaline-fueled monster mania. Modern horror can earn a lot of goodwill from using practical effects of any quality, and when they’re this good, a few clunkier shots are easy to forgive.
Add The Cycle to Your Halloween Watchlist
Featuring some of the best practical effects I’ve seen in a horror movie in a very long time, The Cycle is a must-see this Halloween season—before someone spoils it for you. At first mysterious and engaging, then insanely cool, the film’s tight control of tone and mood ensures it never falls flat, despite a near two-hour runtime.
There are a few moments where it feels like Downey and Stewart lose confidence in this fact, throwing in a nightmare-based jump scare here and there to wake the audience up. They needn’t have bothered—my ass was already firmly planted at the edge of my seat. Perhaps the biggest twist is that this duo also made 2008’s ThanksKilling, a goofy, so-bad-it’s-maybe-kinda-sorta-good B-movie about a foul-mouthed killer turkey. The glow-up in their craft since then is phenomenal, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
The Cycle world premiered at Fantastic Fest 2026 and arrives on Shudder on October 23.
If you’re not watching Indonesian horror, you’re missing out. The region is producing some of the craziest genre movies around right now, thanks in no small part to the efforts of writer-director Joko Anwar. His latest, Ghost in the Cell, which celebrated its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026, combines everything we love about the filmmaker’s work—supernatural scares, inventive kills, and gnarly gore—along with a strong vein of comedy and political satire.
What is Ghost in the Cell About?
Ghost in the Cell centers around Dimas (Endy Arfian), a journalist whose life falls apart after he tries to run a story on corporate corruption and mysterious worker deaths. Wrongfully convicted of the horrific murder of his boss, Dimas finds himself with a one-way ticket to Cell Block C, where he quickly meets a colorful cast of prisoners—the good, the bad, and the seriously nasty. Among the good guys, there’s Anggoro (Abimana Aryasatya), who is constantly getting into trouble for defending fellow inmates, and Six (Yoga Pratama), who claims he can see people’s auras.
As if Dimas’ situation couldn’t get any worse, his arrival seems to trigger a series of brutal killings in the prison. Bodies are showing up mangled beyond recognition and displayed in positions that wouldn’t look out of place in Hannibal. It soon becomes clear that Dimas isn’t behind the murders, which begs the question: what did he bring in with him?
Anwar Embraces Horror-Comedy Whole-Heartedly
Prison is a scary place, and Anwar makes great use of the setting, with the action moving from the dingy showers where predators lurk to the bleak cellblock where inmates are at the mercy of their captors and the cafeteria where rival gangs eye each other up with ill intent.
But for all the human misery contained within the film, Ghost in the Cell is ultimately a horror-comedy, one that isn’t afraid to lean into broad slapstick and quippy dialogue when it wants to raise a chuckle. The tonal shifts can take a little while to adjust to, especially if your previous experience with Anwar comes from his more serious horror outings like Impetigore. This might be a problem if the film wasn’t actually funny, but Ghost in the Cell has enough laugh-out-loud moments to make you forget about any whiplash.
Ghost in the Cell Is a Genre-Bender to the Max
Comedy isn’t the only new flavor that Anwar has tossed into the mix. In Ghost in the Cell, dance sequences and martial-arts fight choreo sit side-by-side with some of the most extreme gore scenes seen outside a Terrifier movie in recent years. Then there’s the eerie way the spirit presents before it kills (trypophobia sufferers, beware) and the extensive critique of political corruption, power, and inequality. It’s an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink approach that shouldn’t work on paper, but under Anwar’s assured hand, it does.
It helps that for all the slapstick, the film lands a surprisingly earnest message, amplified by its vast ensemble cast. Dimas and Anggoro at times feel like main characters, but everyone in Ghost in the Cell has a big part to play, and that’s the point: in seemingly impossible circumstances, there’s strength in unity.
Ghost in the Cell Is an Endlessly Entertaining Blend of Goofiness, Heart, and Gore
If you’re looking for nonstop scares, you won’t find them in Ghost in the Cell. What you will find is a delightful blend of horror, comedy, and action that is apt to leave you grinning from ear to ear.
The film doesn’t skimp on the gore, throwing flesh and fluids at every surface. But it’s also charmingly goofy, with a cast that doesn’t take itself too seriously and a script that’s all too happy to devolve into a comedic dance scene when it feels like the spirit might strike. In every sense, Anwar is doing the most, and the end result is a film where there’s nary a dull moment in sight.
One of the great pleasures of attending Fantastic Fest is the ability to occasionally see movies that won’t be out for many months. That’s especially true with the Secret Screenings, which this year included a work-in-progress print of In a Violent Nature 2, a film that doesn’t even have a release date yet and made for a wildly entertaining midnight movie surprise.
While a few things may change between now and release, the cut shown at Fantastic Fest felt near-final. Here’s what you can look forward to when this sequel eventually slashes its way onto our screens.
Johnny Returns in In a Violent Nature 2
In a Violent Nature 2 picks up right where the action of its predecessor left off, while also introducing new aspects of the lore that slightly contradict or complicate what has already been established, a nod to the way that slasher sequels throw in new plot elements willy-nilly to suit their needs.
The second film centers on Alex (Lucas Nguyen), a quiet 14-year-old kid who misses the bus home from camp because his bullies have stuffed him in a trunk. Since his older sister works at the camp, he gets to hang out for the night while the counselors celebrate the end of the season. Unfortunately, an old fireman’s whistle has drawn the mute, hulking Johnny (Ry Barrett) to the camp—and before long, their night of revelry has turned into one of unimaginable horror.
Less Walking, More Killing
Chris Nash, who wrote and directed the first film, handles scripting duties this time around, with Nate Wilson—who served as first assistant director on the original—stepping into the director role. It feels as though Nash may have listened to viewers’ complaints about how much walking was in the original, because In a Violent Nature 2 takes a break from following Johnny on his lumbering mission. Instead, the camera largely chases Alex through the woods as he runs, trips, and stumbles away from the carnage.
This change is a mixed bag. Alex may be more a dynamic figure to follow overall, but he also makes some frustratingly poor choices, and his teenage moodiness makes him a little unlikeable. The first film also succeeded, in part, because it consciously played into how audiences consume slasher movies, with their sympathies shifting from cheering on the killer to rooting for the final girl when she triumphantly emerges. In a Violent Nature 2 feels like less of a meta-commentary on the slasher genre, though it still has plenty to offer fans of the genre, especially when it comes to kills.
In a Violent Nature 2 Takes the Gore to a Whole New Level
Mention In a Violent Nature to a horror fan and they’ll probably bring up the yoga kill within 10 seconds. For the sequel, Nash and Wilson attempt to up the ante—no small feat considering just how violent the first film was. It’s hard to top that particular kill, but In a Violent Nature 2 certainly gives it the old college try.
Shifting the focus from a single group of friends to an entire summer camp, even one that’s emptying out, instantly ups the potential body count (and harkens back to the slasher films of yore). Counsellors are slaughtered in droves, in ways more brutal than anything seen in the original film, with a few kills in particular sure to get people talking. It’s a real treat for fans of practical effects, and it’s great to see that even horror films positioning themselves as more “elevated” than the typical fare can have fun and get their hands bloody.
A Possible Set up for Another Sequel?
Minor spoilers ahead.
In a Violent Nature 2 feels like something of a response to the reception of the first film, removing what people didn’t like and piling on more of what they did. The result is a movie that feels a little less focused and meditative than its predecessor, but still incredibly fun. And with a third film heavily teased in the final minutes, it seems like we’ll be seeing more of Johnny in the near future. Based on the trajectory of other slashers, can we expect to see him fighting a psychic child next? Or—dare we dream—is he preparing for a trip to space?
Only time will tell. Better lace up your walking shoes.
When Does In a Violent Nature 2 Come Out?
In a Violent Nature 2 is slated to hit theaters sometime in 2026. Keep an eye on IFC Films and Shudder’s socials for more release information as it becomes available.
