'Cryo' is a sci-fi thriller that follows five scientists as they awake from cryogenic sleep in an underground bunker, with no memory of how or why they are there. In the dark about how long they’ve been asleep, the group try to figure out why they are there and uncover the strange effects cryosleep has on them.
The film opens on the Psychologist awaking as she hears a gunshot in the distance. She comes across the Doctor, who are soon met by the Engineer, the Biochemist and the Soldier. The group explore the underground facility and discern that there may be a killer among them as they see signs of a struggle and a pool of blood.
Unable to find any other people in the facility, the group suspect one of them is the culprit and try to remember who they are, why they are there and what purpose the cryogenic sleep experiment serves. The group find a door with a combination lock and are unable to open it. Soon, the Doctor starts experiencing hallucinations, and with her diminishing health, it is uncovered that due to the Engineers mistake in setting up the Doctors cryopod, she is dying. Unable to accept this as he is infatuated with the Doctor, the Biochemist realises she needs to be put back into cryosleep in order to keep her alive. He then proceeds to go on a violent rampage to ensure she is kept safe, hurting the Soldier, who the Psychologist then puts back in his cryopod.
The Engineer starts to regain some of his memories, causing him to become violent as he realises this is an experiment gone wrong. He is then subdued, with the Psychologist putting him back to sleep, and eventually subduing the Biochemist as well. On regaining some of her memories, the Psychologist remembers the code to the locked door, and on entering the closed off room, it is uncovered that this is her experiment, aimed at curing her fathers dementia.
After waking her father, the Psychologist realises the experiment had failed, with her fathers mental health deteriorating. She puts him back in his pod and records a video diary detailing the experiments failure. On completing the video entry, she now understands that the experiment had been done many times before, with her effectively losing her memories and being stuck in a loop. She erases the recording and returns to her cryopod, for the experiment to recommence again.
For its relatively small budget, ‘Cryo’ delivers a big concept sci-fi premise, exploring themes of memory and paranoia through a contained microcosm of a group of scientists. By following the individuals that find themselves trapped in a failed experiment, he film is able to delve deep into exploring human resilience, curiosity and fear.
Reminiscent of other small budget cult classics such as ‘Cube’ (1997) and ‘Moon’ (2009), ‘Cryo’ has an intriguing opening, following the Psychologist, that immediately draws the viewer in. The increasingly tense build-up to the entire crew meeting each other only strengthens the story and opens the movie to a multitude of possibilities as to where it might go, keeping the viewer glued to the screen. Each new revelation as to why the scientists are there keeps going strong up until the crew devolve into violent outbursts and start taking each other out. Even though the first two acts are solid, the film may lose the viewers after the revelation that they are in an experiment gone disastrously wrong.
With effective twists and turns along the way, ‘Cryo’ maintains a strong voice until its climax, where it reveals what most viewers may have already suspected, as the film provides too many clues to the conclusion. It may be a case of not trusting the audience to follow the narrative or the immense difficulty of writing an entirely original close to the premise, ‘Cryo’ does well in depicting the inevitable degradation of morale for the team of scientists who serve an exercise in futility, as man tries to overcome nature as the Psychologist attempts to cure her fathers dementia.
The film boasts a strong cast with the Psychologist, played by Jyllian Petrie, being the stand-out of the team, leading the main line of questioning along the runtime, probing to uncover the underlying reason for the team being there, yet giving little away herself. Petrie serves well as the conduit for the audience, allowing us to experience her frustrations and tribulations, uncovering the mysteries of the facility and the reason for the team being there. Presenting a strong and at times frightened persona, Petrie’s performance masterfully presents the nightmarish scenario in which the crew is stuck, highlighting the claustrophobic and desperate situation all of the team are stuck in.
'Cryo' establishes a strong voice that it maintains for the majority of its runtime, only to disappoint, even if ever so slightly, in its conclusion. With intriguing revelations throughout, the film is tense and opens a discussion about the futility of trying to fight the natural course of life, yet it falters under the inevitable impotence of trying to provide a definitive answer to the question it itself poses, not unlike its crew, stuck in a never ending loop of repetition.
Score: 2/4
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