Death Cycle — Death Cycle( VOD)

Gabriel Carrer’s Death Cycle certainly looks the part—a smouldering, grindhouse-riffing revenge slasher. It’s stylishly filmed, with lights flashing off tarmac and glistening wounds. But it’s a bit let down by only revving the engine during its gory, if infrequent deaths (usually involving two wheels).

Impressively little happens in the 80s minutes that spiral from a very bad choice, but it's hard to say that style wins out over substance—there could be more of both. When the Sullivans, an unlikeable crime family, try to brush away an accident-turned-murder committed by one of their own, things hit the freeway. Loose cannon Eddy (Matt Daciw) spontaneously tries to kill two sisters he knocks over in his car late one night, only realising later from the fixer cop that the family have on the books that one survived. Blake seems to successfully cover things up, until Eddy and his cousin are killed. Apparently, someone’s getting revenge on everyone involved, leaving two tyre tracks behind. It’s enough to bring back the errant Luca (Matthew Ninaber), Eddy's brother, to reveal the murderer before he and his sister Caterina (Sasha Ormond) meet the deadly bikerface-to-visor. He starts with Eddy’s surviving victim: brutalised Abby (Kristen Kaster).

Luca’s background as a reporter makes interviewing Abby an obvious choice, and cover, while also serving up flashbacks of the violent murders that have depleted his family (previously hinted in the titles). It’s a wise decision to break it up with the kills, which vary from necks crushed and gouged to heads ripped from the spine, because their chat takes a large amount of Death Cycle. That’s a challenge when the murders—all tense build-up then splatter—are the highlight. Kaster and Ninaber do an alright job either side of a table, but Dave McLeod’s script delivers a slow burn to the point of a stare-off. It’s a small pool of potential suspects to be the black-clad, helmet-wearing revenge biker, and the mystery element never really gets off the road.

The narrative catches up a bit right at the end, when the double-meaning of the title’s death cycle kicks in (thanks to some sneaky editing). It's a shame the edit doesn’t experiment a little more; the story feels unfortunately linear even when it jumps around the timeline.

There's an undeniable touch of giallo in the leather-bound biker antagonist, although Carrer doesn’t lean into the influence beyond the gloved look. There's no overt voyeurism or witness to a crime that can ramp up the tension before each attack taking a slasher route to protracted torture. There's certainly the potential for a plot where a victim improbably survived to be more giallo. But flat interviewing, and too little time spent on Luca's self-doubts and the trauma behind victims on both sides, means it doesn't accelerate beyond mildly intriguing.

As revenge slashers go, it’s certainly stylish while it's on the road. Some gnarly gore from ludicrous cycle injuries inflicted on anyone implicated in the cover-up goes a fair bit too. But the whole journey, between the industrial metal intro and outro, is quite forgettable.