‘Cuckoo’ is Off the Rails

Cuckoo

★ ★ ★ ★

‘Cuckoo’ is a strange movie. It’s off-putting, unsettling and sometimes terrifying. The film works, because there’s so much going on beneath the surface. The more peculiar and confusing things get, the more intriguing it is. Films like this simply don’t come around very often.

Cuckoo takes place at a resort still under development deep in the Bavarian Alps. Ominous, vibrating screeching sounds come from the surrounding forest that have a paralyzing, epileptic effect on some who hear them. The sounds cause others to experience a time loop, repeating the last several seconds until the sound ceases.

Kalin Morrow as The Hooded Woman
© 2024 NEON

There’s also a woman who runs around in the forest in a heavy trench coat and big thick glasses with glowing red eyes behind the lenses. She’s the source of the forest sound.

The opening scene gives us a glimpse of what we’re in for. A man and woman argue on the main floor of a 2-story cabin. We only see their shadows as they bicker. The sharp sound from the woods pierces a teenage girl’s bedroom upstairs, causing her to convulse and contort, fleeing the cabin for the woods.

After the girl flees, a man appears at the cabin window, making a phone call to report the incident. A man on the other end of the phone tells him their “next subjects will be easier to control.”

We’re then introduced to 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) riding in a moving van with two movers as they follow her father, Luis (Marton Csokas), her stepmother, Beth (Jessica Henwick), and her mute half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu), to the resort where they’ll be living while Luis continues the resort’s development.

Hunter Shafer and Greta Fernández
© 2024 NEON

At the resort, we meet Dr. Herr König (Dan Stevens), who has been working with Luis in the several development phases. Herr helps Gretchen and her family get settled in.

Herr is akin to a pleasantly creepy James Bond villain. On the surface, he’s helpful and accommodating, but we know full well his intentions are going to be horrifically nefarious.

Dan Stevens as Herr König
© 2024 NEON

While Gretchen is looking after Alma, she goes off to her own room, puts headphones on and practices her guitar. Alma enters her room as the sound from the forest pierces the walls. It paralyzes Alma, causing her to have an epileptic seizure. When Gretchen finally notices Alma, she takes her headphones off. The noise causes Gretchen to relive the last several seconds in a repeated loop until the noise stops.

The seizures land Alma in the local hospital while Luis and Beth refuse to believe Gretchen’s recount of the events.

Herr offers Gretchen a position at the resort hotel where Trixie (Greta Fernández) trains her for her roles and responsibilities. Herr informs Gretchen that under no circumstances is she to ride her bicycle back to her home alone at night.

Greta Fernández as Trixie
© 2024 NEON

We later find out why when Gretchen immediately ignores this warning and rides home alone at night. The woman in the forest chases after her, shown in a tense moment of cinematic brilliance, as Gretchen pedals to the local hospital, the closest possible place of refuge, to seek help.

No one believes Gretchen about what happened here either. An ex-cop named Henry (Jan Bluthard), independently investigating the suspicious ongoings of the resort, is the only character that believes Gretchen’s story and enlists her help. Henry is there to find out what happened in his wife’s mysterious death, and the two work together to uncover the resort’s many mysteries.

The deeper Gretchen and Henry go into their investigation, the more off-the-rails this film becomes – in the most delightfully wicked ways.

Schafer gives a flawless performance as Gretchen, bringing the distressed teenage character to life. Gretchen is marred by tragedy at every turn and desperately wants to find some semblance of hope. Schafer makes Gretchen instantly relatable, sympathetic and authentically real.

Cuckoo is initially a simple story, but the deeper it goes, the more complex and intriguing it gets.

This isn’t just a horror film. It’s a masterful thriller that I strongly suspect will reveal additional, initially unnoticed secrets upon multiple viewings.

Horror, Mystery & Thriller