Welcome To The Building?

Welcome To The Building?

Bruce Von Stiers

Matthew and Emily are a couple. They move around their apartment, and life, being more than a bit anti-social. They barely speak and pretty much ignore each other. They're going about their mundane lives until they meet the new upstairs neighbors.

This is the beginning of the thriller short film, Cycles.

Lucia and Sebastian are exactly what Matthew and Emily aren't. They are outgoing, energetic and seemingly very much in love.

From the sideways glances and snide comments that Emily makes about the new neighbors, you know there's something off about her. But is she just disgruntled or is it something different? Matthew seems a bit odd too, but maybe he's just playing from Emily's emotions.

A dinner invitation from Lucia ends up with the two couples in Lucia and Sebastian's apartment. Although they have something in common, the void between the two couples is very apparent.

Table talk leads to awkwardness and finally into something that is not even close to a Welcome to the Building type of situation.

Maria Gabriela de Faria is Lucia. She starred in the adventure comedy series, Deadly Class, and guest appeared in three episodes of Animal Control. Anthony De La Torre is Sebastian. He's appeared in episodes of Vida, Goliath and American Horror Stories. He also co-starred in the horror film, Lords of Chaos. Iliana Raykovski is Emily. Also known as Ili Ray, she guest starred in episodes of FBI, Leverage: Redemption and Law and Order: SVU. Tyler Young is Matthew. He starred in the limited-series, Eyewitness, and appeared in episodes of several series, short and feature films.

Also appearing in the film were Arden Ricks, Lisel Ballmer and Chris Doria.

William Darbyshire wrote the screenplay. He also produced and directed the film. His directing credits include the award-winning short drama film, Us.

Greg Porper and Arden Ricks were the producers for the film. Porper produced and directed shows such as Worst Birthday Ever. An actor, producer and Comedienne, Ricks starred in the comedy series Mr. Student Body President.

Steve Dagger was the Executive Producer. He was also the Executive Producer for Us. And he was the musical supervisor for the classic British Rock comedy, Still Crazy.

Jordan Sakai was the cinematographer. His previous credits as a cinematographer include an Ashe music video and the comedy short film Piggy Banks.

The description for the film kind of acted like a bit of a spoiler. You know that there is a dinner with new neighbors and that something terrible probably happens. You just don't know what's going to happen and to whom. But that's what I liked about the film. That is, knowing something, maybe something deadly, is going to happen at dinner. But what actually happens and the aftermath was somewhat surprising. The actors portrayed their characters well, especially Lucia's bubbly exuberance and Emily's sour disposition.

Cycles is an official selection at the Dallas International Film Festival, the Wyoming International Film Festival, Hastings Rock among others. The film is also currently submitted to the 2024 Santa Clarita International Film Festival.

You can see the trailer for Cycles at William Darbyshire's official website, https://www.willdarbyshire.com/

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