Deborah Ann Woll has spent the better part of a decade as Karen Page in Daredevil, and her next challenge will be chasing her own father's corpse!
Shudder has released the first teaser for The Cycle, and Woll is front and center.
Her character's father walked out and vanished. Thirty-six years later his body turns up at a crime scene, and the investigation into what happened to him keeps pulling up things about the man she'd rather not know.
Shudder's synopsis leans on her unraveling his past rather than naming a killer, which means the film looks to be more interested in her and her family than the whodunnit.
Jeffrey Donovan co-stars. Most people still know him as Michael Westen from Burn Notice, but he's put in strong genre work since, including Sicario and the underseen Villains.
For anyone who's only known Woll through Hell's Kitchen, this looks to be a natural fit for her. Karen Page spent three seasons of Daredevil and two seasons of Daredevil: Born Again digging into stories that people with guns wanted buried, and getting hurt for it. A cold-case mystery is that same vibe, but no vigilantes are involved.
Behind the camera is Jordan Downey, working from a script he co-wrote with Kevin Stewart. The pair made The Head Hunter for under $30,000, ran it a lean seventy-two minutes, and got more genuine dread out of a hut and a mask than most studio horror films manage with a hundred times the money. Downey also handled a segment of V/H/S/Beyond.
The Cycle lands on Shudder October 23rd, the Friday before Halloween weekend, which is the most valuable real estate the platform has all year. Shudder saves that slot for the titles that it expects will perform and add to their subscriber base.
The teaser plays the whole thing as a mystery, and the word Shudder keeps reaching for in its materials is "paranormal." Expect something that creeps up on you across ninety minutes.
It's a lead role, which Woll hasn't had many of on the film side. Karen Page is an ensemble part by design, however central she's become to it, and The Cycle puts the whole picture on her.
Marvel TV alumni turning up in horror is becoming its own small trend, and it tends to work in their favor. The genre pays attention to actors who can carry dread without a costume doing the heavy lifting, and Woll has been doing exactly that in Daredevil for years without getting much credit for it.
Are you following Woll out of Hell's Kitchen for this one?
Let us know in the comments below!
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