‘Cuckoo’ Blu-ray Review
Stars: Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Dan Stevens | Written and Directed by Tilman Singer
Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is 17, and reluctantly leaving America for the German Alps to live with her estranged father. While there, she experiences overwhelming gory visions and is constantly haunted by strange noises. To her surprise, it’s a condition that runs in her family… and it’s only just getting started.
If you were making a horror movie, there are likely two ways you’d approach doing so. The first option is to create a slick, detailed plot that is so streamlined it is absolutely foolproof — take Longlegs, for example — or you archaically throw different things at the metaphorical wall to see what sticks. Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo sits in the second category… and like any beautiful mess, some things pay off, while others don’t.
Cuckoo’s premise doesn’t seem particularly unique at first glance, but when you start to dig a little deeper into its layers, there’s something a lot more authentic sitting underneath. There’s something very obvious in the way Singer chooses to tell a story, but he’s also leaving a lot intentionally unsaid. His visuals are doing the heavy lifting here, largely implying at suggestions that may or may not be there… which is where the messiness comes in. It’s never a bad move to leave things open to interpretation — perhaps the most intriguing films are the ones that let us think for ourselves — but there needs to be a solid foundation in place to do so.
As Gretchen navigates her new surroundings, all feels restless at Cuckoo’s core. As viewers, we’re never completely sure if we’re coming or going, with the storyline making last-minute jagged turns in directions that don’t quite sit cohesively. The idea of being strange is something that is part and parcel of horror, but perhaps there needs to be an air of self-assurance that Singer just doesn’t have here.
Another small yet gnawing detail is Schafer herself. There is absolutely nothing to dislike about her — Schafer is on the trajectory to superstardom that she deserves — yet the issue lies with her playing a 17-year-old. Schafer passed her fictional college days back in 2019, when she was an unknown talent getting her big break on HBO’s Euphoria. Now 25, it feels as though we’ve watched her grow up, and to see her once again playing younger feels somewhat devaluing. There’s also little need to attach an age. It’s a cost of living crisis… anyone is living with their folks.
What Cuckoo presents us with more than anything though, is hope. Hope that horror doesn’t have to be mediocre like much of 2024’s pickings. That it can have a sense of individualistic creativity and be free to take risks, even if they don’t all work. That it can fly under the radar yet still achieve great success with a fairly independent budget and framework. It’s all to play for when we’re brave enough to do it, and Cuckoo is the proof in the pudding.
*** 3/5
Cuckoo is out now on DVD and Blu-ray, courtesy of Dazzler Media.
