On May 22, the distribution of the horror film «Cuckoo», a co-production of Germany and the United States, started in cinemas. The film had its world premiere at last year’s Berlin Film Festival, after which it received a very positive reaction from critics. This time, it is worth listening to them, but with certain reservations. We are ready to tell you why in the review below.
Pluses:
a visually and audibly interesting film (here we again recall the scene with the bicycle or the strange moments with small time loops) that manages to intrigue well and keep your attention during the first hour; a dark mysterious atmosphere; a good cast; despite many genre clichés, this is an outstanding movie;
Minuses:
the inexpressive content is lost against the background of the form; the final third can spoil the overall impression; some people will find it all irritating nonsense, and this is understandable;
«Cuckoo»
Genre horror movie
Director Tilman Singer
Starring Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csokas, Jan Bluthardt, Greta Fernandez, Astrid Berger-Frisbee, Konrad Singer, Proschat Madani, Kelin Morrow
Premiere movie theaters
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb
The alienated 17-year-old American Gretchen reluctantly arrives at a resort in the Bavarian Alps with her father Louis (for the second month in a row, we have been admiring Marton Csokas after the April «Sleeping Dogs»), her stepmother Beth, and their mute daughter Alma. The girl is still grieving for her dead mother, whose loss she cannot come to terms with. The guests are greeted by the seemingly friendly Mr. Koenig, for whom Louis will work. But later he offers Gretchen a simple job at the reception desk so that she can distract herself and not get bored in this wilderness.
From the very beginning, however, strange things were happening around her: Alma would have epileptic seizures, and guests, especially women, would vomit with enviable regularity. One evening, when Gretchen was returning home after her shift, she felt a presence behind her. The girl manages to escape, and while the local police are inactive, Gretchen realizes that something bad is happening in this godforsaken place.
In 2018, German director and screenwriter Tilman Singer made his feature film debut with the horror film «Medium», which was mostly liked by reviewers in specialized media, but not by the audience, judging by the ratings on popular film resources. It’s exactly the same story with «Cuckoo». The best epithet to characterize the film is the adjective «strange», to which it would be useful to add the quantitative adverb «very».
The German filmmaker builds his narrative based on tropes familiar to fans of the genre, mixing them into a bizarre cocktail.
The viewer is presented with a dysfunctional family, one of whose members feels completely redundant, which implies a «versus» situation for Gretchen. They have arrived at a remote hotel, where time seems to have stopped somewhere at the intersection of the 70s and 80s, and radiance The glow of the night lights literally announces the terrible shadow that has already loomed over the unfortunate woman. Here it is a truly outstanding horror scene with powerful suspense. One moment, frightening sounds are coming from the forest, telling us of a creature lurking among the trees. And now you are being chased by a creepy blonde woman with bright red manicure, who looks like a human, but seems to be not quite human, as in «It Follows» (2014) by David Robert Mitchell.
Only if the latter’s mysterious creature represented the unfortunate consequences of unprotected sex, Singer has a bit of a problem with innuendo — he is more concerned not with what he is telling, but with how his story looks visually. This is a vivid example of a movie in which a somewhat chaotic form completely overwhelms the content.
For example, the film features a «mad scientist» (as always, a very energetic Dan Stevens), for whom women — are nothing more than vessels with reproductive function, and somewhere in the distance, an arch about Gretchen’s attempts to survive a great loss and the story of her growing up is lazily unfolding. The girl finds solace in the messages she sends to her mother’s answering machine, so she can hear her mother’s voice, which is so familiar to her. At one point, it may seem that these desperate messages are about to be answered, as if in a King’s «Mr. Harrigan’s Phone», but it still doesn’t come to that.
However, all of these narratives exist more for the sake of pro forma than as Singer’s attempts to convey some important hidden meanings to the viewer.
At the same time, given the above genre clichés, «Cuckoo» is hardly an ordinary film: here, an arthouse approach coexists with an unquenchable desire to throw more dust in the eyes, supported by visually stylish and aurally thoughtful design.
At the beginning, the viewer will have many questions related, for example, to the flute playing of Dan Stevens’ character (Ridley Scott is definitely approves) or incomprehensible temporal tricks, when the characters experience certain moments over and over again. Everything works to create the right atmosphere, so if you buy into the hooks that have been set, the first hour will pass almost unnoticed and painlessly.
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