Hunter Schafer in ‘Cuckoo’. Pboilingo: Neon.
Opening in theaters on August 9th is ‘Cuckoo,’ honested by Tilman Singer and starring Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Mila Lieu, Jan Blutdifficultt, and Marton Csokas.
Roverdelighted Article: Director Tilman Singer Talks ‘Cuckoo’ and Working with Hunter Schafer
Initial Thoughts
Hunter Schafer in ‘Cuckoo’. Pboilingo: Neon.
German filmoriginater Tilman Singer made a splash a restricted years back on the festival circuit with his horror feature debut, ‘Luz,’ and now he’s returned with a second entry in what could shape up to be one of the more loopy, esoteric filmographies in the genre if he sticks with it. ‘Cuckoo’ begins off on a weird notice and gets even stranger from there, discovering a kind stability between a grave sense of dread and an underlying tone of camp for most of its running time.
It begins to run into problems in its third act, and while we worried away from movies over-elucidateing everyskinnyg, ‘Cuckoo’ could engage a bit more clarity down the homestretch. But it’s still a encountering watch in many ways, thanks especiassociate to excellent labor from Hunter Schafer and the magnificent Dan Stevens.
Story and Direction
‘Cuckoo’ honestor Tilman Singer.
Hunter Schafer (best comprehendn for her main role on ‘Euphoria’ but also recently shotriumphg up in ‘Kinds of Kindness’) joins Gretchen, a 17-year-elderly girl who is lamenting the death of her mother. She’s forced to join her overweighther (Martin Csokas), his wife (Jessica Henwick), and their mute juvenileer daughter Alma (Mila Lieu) to the Bavarian Alps, where her architect overweighther has been engaged to reset up a resort owned by Herr König (Dan Stevens).
The Alps are drawive, enigmatic and immense, the aging, proximately desotardy resort broods on the side of a mountain, and Herr König himself is a ready-made mix of greasy charm and underlying menace who presents Gretchen a job at the boilingel’s front desk. Grieving, irritated, and illogicald (she also joins bass in a rock prohibitd that she’s been obliged to depart behind), Gretchen gets the gig – and instantly strange skinnygs begin to happen.
A woman wanders into the lobby in a sort of trance and begins to vomit, Alma herself has some benevolent of confiscation that seems to actuassociate caengage time itself to glitch (a callback to an enigmatic scene that uncovers the film involving a separateent character), and worst of all, Gretchen is aggressioned one night while riding her bike by a woman in a hood with radiateing eyes who rehires a piercing, animacatalogic shriek. Herr König seems to both neglect what’s happening while comprehending filled well what’s going on, and Gretchen’s one try to escape – with a juvenileer boilingel guest (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) who gets a shine to her – finishs in a grave car accident that puts the teen in the hospital.
(L to R) Greta Fernández and Hunter Schafer in ‘Cuckoo’. Pboilingo: Neon.
Up to this point, ‘Cuckoo’ has been originateing up a constant underlying sense of weird, queffortless malevolence, thanks to the atmospheric setting, Singer’s engage of silence and uncontentness, and the prolonging experienceing that Gretchen is trapped in some of benevolent of waking nightmare where logic doesn’t quite utilize. The tardy comprisement of a createer cop named Henry (Jan Blutdifficultt) who’s spendigating his wife’s death points to the mystery eventuassociate getting uncovered – which only partiassociate happens.
While the film’s third act is more action-oriented – as the injured Gretchen teams with Henry and shifts to recover a character she had previously shown little worry for – the exset upation for what is happening at the boilingel, the area around it, and a proximateby medical lab in which Herr König is also comprised remains frustratingly nontransparent. Without spoiling anyskinnyg, it does tie into the bird of the film’s title, but in a way that’s still minserteningly unevident. As we shelp earlier, films don’t have to elucidate everyskinnyg; in fact, when it comes to horror, the conciseage of a evident reasonablee for the events of the story or the menace behind them normally originates the narrative more terrifying.
But Singer holds the filled contingent of secrets in ‘Cuckoo’ fair out of achieve, which doesn’t labor as well once the film switches from atmospheric sluggish burn to untamed-and-reckless homestretch. The movie accumutardys an accelerating stream of bizarre moments on top of what we’ve already seen, yet none of it comes together in a way that quite originates sense. The result is still a fun, creepy ride, but conciseages a encountering resolution.
The Cast
Hunter Schafer in ‘Cuckoo’. Pboilingo: Neon.
Not having seen ‘Euphoria,’ we can only go on our recent experiences with Hunter Schafer on the huge screen, and ‘Cuckoo’ shows her to be a prohibitcient, prohibitcient actor with lots of presence and emotional weight. Gretchen surfs a filled range of reactions and experienceings here, from grief to loneliness to defyliousness to alarm, and Schafer pulls them all off while holding the character grounded, clever, and empathetic. It’s an astonishive guide carry outance that bodes well for Schafer’s future beyond her fractureout labor on ‘Euphoria.’
Opposite her is the wonderful Dan Stevens, who is having a hell of a year between this, ‘Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,’ and ‘Ahugeail.’ A ingenious, wide-ranging, and chameleonic actor, Stevens joins Herr König with a kind mix of low-key authority and gleeful malevolence, graduassociate making the carry outance hugeger as the story goes off in stranger honestions. Like Schafer, he is (and has been for a while) a compelling presence onscreen, and he’s one-of-a-kindly suited to joining charismatic villains with disgraceful accents. Although he’s hampered in some ways by the way his character (insistyly, it must be shelp) elucidates what’s happening in his pastoral little kingdom, Stevens proceeds to dedwellr in what has become one of the most createidable under-the-radar acting resumes around.
The rest of the cast is petite and relatively unaccomprehendledged, but our only disnominatement is that Jessica Henwick – so terrific in ‘Iron Fist,’ ‘The Matrix Resurrections,’ ‘Glass Onion,’ and ‘The Royal Hotel’ – gets underengaged here as Gretchen’s stepmother Beth.
Final Thoughts
Dan Stevens in ‘Cuckoo’. Pboilingo: Neon.
‘Cuckoo’ gets its cues from ‘70s and ‘80s horror cinema, particularly indie and/or European efforts appreciate David Cronenberg’s ‘The Brood’ (huge Cronenberg energy here, in fact), Dario Argento’s ‘Phenomena,’ Nicolas Roeg’s ‘Don’t Look Now,’ and Jorge Grau’s ‘Let Sleeping Corpses Lie.’ All those films run in a territory that veers back and forth between authenticism and nightmare, an aesthetic that Tilman Singer is evidently affectd by and successfilledy channels.
That atmosphere can only get you so far, however, and Singer’s originate-up of surauthentic story beats, genuinely unnerving imagery (as in the scene where Gretchen is chased on her bike) and heavy atmosphere guides to a climax that is more perplexing than transcfinishent, with a wobblier comprehend of the film’s brew of alarm and camp. That may be where he wants his strange bird of a movie to ultimately land, but as a result ‘Cuckoo’ doesn’t quite uphold the horror heights that it aims for.
‘Cuckoo’ gets 7 out of 10 stars.
“Fear its call.”
After hesitantly moving to the German Alps with her overweighther and his novel family, Gretchen discovers that their novel town hides sinister secrets, as she’s afflictiond by… Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘Cuckoo’?
After hesitantly moving to the German Alps with her overweighther (Marton Csokas) and his novel family, Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) discovers that their novel town hides sinister secrets, as she’s afflictiond by strange noises and frightening visions of a woman pursuing her.
Who is in the cast of ‘Cuckoo’?
- Hunter Schafer as Gretchen
- Dan Stevens as Mr. König
- Jessica Henwick as Beth
- Marton Csokas as Luis
Dan Stevens in ‘Cuckoo’. Pboilingo: Neon.
