A One Mann’s Movies review of “Cuckoo” (2024).
“Cuckoo” is a German-set psychological-horror movie set in an alpine hotel where very strange things are going on.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is a 17-year-old American girl who, against her will, arrives into an alpine resort with her father and step-mother. Things are not at all as they seem to be.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong violence, threat, injury detail, language”).
Talent:
Starring: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Mila Lieu, Greta Fernández.
Directed by: Tilman Singer.
Written by: Tilman Singer.
Running Time: 1h 42m.
“Cuckoo” Summary:
Positives:
- Generates a weird tone from the off which it maintains through a number of unsettling scenes.
- Hunter Schafer is great as is Dan Stevens, whose agent should get an award!
Negatives:
- It was novel but I didn’t find it terribly engaging.
Review of “Cuckoo”:
Weirdness that’s hard to follow.
I saw this at a Cineworld Unlimited preview screening almost two weeks ago (ahead of a general UK release at the end of this week) and I knew I should have written it up sooner! Since it is so weird and whacky that I am struggling to remember exactly what went on in it and why!
It starts off with the disfunctional family arriving in the Alps to complete a move into their newly designed home in the grounds of a Hotel complex run by the quirky and somewhat unsettling Herr König (Dan Stevens). König offers Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) a job as a receptionist in the hotel, which she accepts as she is desperate to raise the funds to escape…. anywhere… but she is pining to return home to the US. Working with Trixie (Greta Fernández) the strict rules are that she has to lock up by 10pm and then be driven home by König. We soon realise that things are not as they seem, and a terrifying night chase is well done indeed.
Just when you think you are on top of the plot, writer/director Tilman Singer throws in curved balls of strange throat vibrations and noises that cause timey-wimey disturbances. What IS going on?
Some good cast performances.
“Euphoria” actress Hunter Schafer (she was also in the last “Hunger Games” movie) has a strangely gawky look that fits the role perfectly. She also takes the prize for being the most beaten-up actor in a film since O.J.Simpson’s Nordberg got bashed, burned, beaten and stuck under a bus to Pittsburgh! Poor Gretchen really goes through the wars, including a post-car-crash trauma that was the scariest moment in the film for me.
Also, hats off to Dan Steven’s agent who seems to be booking him into a wide range of quirky and very different projects. He’s appeared already this year in the monstrously bad (though hugely lucrative) “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” playing a “hippy dippy Ace Ventura” character. Then he was hilarious in the wonderfully fun horror film “Abigail“, which I greatly enjoyed. And here he is again, adopting a cod-German accent and hamming up the role of Herr König. He’s in parts charming and creepy in his interactions with Gretchen: you always supect there is a sexual undertone to his “driving you home” suggestions that he plays very well.
So, it’s novel and interesting but…
There’s a lot going for this film and it is certainly “something different” which is to be commended in the bland landscape of cinema horror releases. But – here’s the thing – while I was interested in what it was doing and where it was going, I was never really gripped by it. Although only just over a 100 minutes long, I found myself glancing at my watch, which is never a good sign. If you asked me, “would you like to go and see this again” I would probably politely decline.
Summary Thoughts on “Cuckoo”
An innovative horror that I thought was a whole lot better than the recent “Longlegs“. As a result, I felt like I might have under-rated this one by a half star. But then I reflected that it didn’t really grip me enough to go above 3-stars for the rating. Perhaps you will love it?
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Cuckoo”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuON7HH0UkQ .
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