Cuckoo review.
The fittingly titled Cuckoo provides one of the wilder viewing experiences of 2024. For better or worse.
New movie reviews will not contain spoilers.
Cuckoo
Directed by Tilman Singer
Written by Tilman Singer
Starring Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Mila Lieu and Greta Fernández
Cuckoo Review
If you head into Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo completely blind, it’s going to take a while to figure out what kind of movie it is. It’s consistently interesting…but equally directionless for an unexpectedly long time. At least, it appears to be. There is a rich, full story happening. We are only privy to pieces that happen around it. That all changes after a point, of course. The explanations come in full…and they aren’t anything you’d have been guessing up to that point. In fact, it can be a bit jarring to experience. This is what’s been happening? I mean that in a good way.
Gretchen (Hunter Shafer) is forced to live with her father and his new family. She’s desperate to escape…willing to do anything to earn the money to return to her old life. When her younger sister Alma (Mila Lieu) begins to have seizures…the doctors blame it on the stress of a big change in the family dynamic. The owner of the resort they’re staying in, Herr König (Dan Stevens), issues strange warnings about going out at night. When Gretchen does just that…she runs afoul of an even stranger entity who seems intent on killing her. No one believes Gretchen’s story…until an investigator, Henry (Jan Bluthardt) reveals to her that he’s been hunting for whatever it is that Gretchen has been seeing.
The movie’s commitment to playing around the edges of a bigger story makes it a hard movie to pin down. If you ever begin to think you have a handle on where it’s going…the story will literally loop back on itself a few seconds to mess you up all over again. More interesting than scary. More mystery than horror. Cuckoo eventually reveals its secrets. They only make the movie even crazier.
Set in the German Alps…Cuckoo is a pretty movie to look at. The cast is uniformly excellent…led by Hunter Shafer’s standout performance. She makes every scene work…and there are some odd scenes to carry by the end. All the ingredients for a classic are here. It may even be one for you. It walks an impressive line between keeping things interesting and keeping things totally nuts.
There are, however, a few issues you may run into. They mostly center around how fast and loose Cuckoo plays with its characters. It gives off the feel of a story that has more than its share of holes in the plot. Moments occur, especially in the over-long climax, that leave you…not quite scratching your head…but questioning if character motivations completely line up with what we’ve seen and what we’ve learned.
The third act of Cuckoo suffers from this the most. It contains some very strong moments…and an equal amount of wondering how long this is going to go on for. The loose storytelling works to the film’s advantage more often than not…but it creeps into troubling territory more than once.
Shafer and company keep things as grounded as possible in a story that aims to fly off the handle. The juxtaposition gives Cuckoo a unique flavor. It’s often (intentionally) very funny. The overall tone of the film is a dark one. The lighter moments are always appreciated. It’s a real credit to the movie that it manages to remain interesting after it has shown its true nature. Shafer has a lot to do with that. She provides a fully fleshed out horror heroine who spends most of the story unsure of what kind of horror movie she’s in.
It turns out…she’s in a crazy one. Early run-ins with the evil force of Cuckoo leave Gretchen repeatedly injured. An investigation with Henry leads to surprising familial connections. The movie slowly morphs into a completely different type of story. Shafer carries every part…saving her best for when the story turns her from traumatized victim to determined heroine. The path of her final girl, perhaps, the most grounded thing about Cuckoo’s loose, wild story turns.
Those turns are exciting enough to keep you fully engaged on first watch. It’s always fun when you can’t see what’s coming next. The turns within the turns, however…there may be a bit too much going on for everything to land. Cuckoo leaves itself a few outs if they want to revisit the world they’ve built. Not every answer is given…some fates are left unknown. In the end, Cuckoo is an experience worth having for a first-time watch. It blazes its own path and offers something new. Shafer gives one of the year’s best performances. That, at least, will surely hold up to further scrutiny.
Scare Value
You have to admire Cuckoo‘s willingness to be just plain weird. The cast is excellent. The plot comes together as much as something this strange is ever likely to. Whether its plotting and choices hold up to a rewatch is a question for a later day. Despite an overdrawn third act…Cuckoo definitely warrants a first look.
3.5/5
Cuckoo Link
In theaters – Fandango
