CUCKOO: Creepy & Crazy

CUCKOO (Blu-ray)

2024 / 102 min

FROM NEON/DECAL RELEASING

Review by Josey, the Sudden Cat🙀

Cuckoo is a crazy film, and the less you know going in, the more fun you’re likely to have. I first caught the trailer during a screening of NEON’s bigger horror release this year, Longlegs, and it was just enough to pique my interest without revealing anything significant about the plot. I wish more trailers were put together this way, especially those promoting horror films.

So I went into this review not really knowing what Cuckoo was about, and I gotta say, this is the NEON film I thought Longlegs was going to be: unusual, unpredictable and unnerving. Not to disparage Longlegs, which was very good for what it was, but ultimately reminiscent of other movies. This one, on the other hand, is consistently engaging, not only because it’s very well made on a technical level, but the narrative is full of surprises. Had I been privy to the story and characters beforehand, I don’t think I’d have enjoyed it as much.

Hence, I’ll do readers a solid and refrain from providing to much story detail aside from the set-up: Teenage girl Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), still mourning the dead of her mother, is sent to the German Alps to live with her father (Marton Csokas), his second wife Beth (Jessica Henwick) and their daughter Alma (Mila Lieu). They’re in Germany to help build a new resort hotel run by Herr König (Dan Stevens)...

Guess who just tried to give their cat a pill.

…and this is when things get weird, in ways the viewer isn’t likely to expect. I'll also say that Cuckoo’s title not-only applies to a major thematic component, but the overall tone, writer-director Tilman Singer’s creepy stylistic touches and disorienting sequences of hallucinatory psychological horror (along with a few well-earned jump scares). Best of all, narrative never resorts to spoonfeeding the audience, instead inviting us to come along for the ride, even if we’re never sure of the destination. 

The film benefits immensely from a compelling - and sympathetic - main protagonist, as well as a terrific primary villain. If there’s one aspect of the film that’s a little lacking, it’s some of the thinly-conceived secondary characters, including some we’re led to believe are important, only for them to more-or-less disappear from the story. However, the overall performances are very good, with Schafer & Stevens being particular stand-outs. 

All these elements combined make Cuckoo a terrific surprise and one of the more original horror films I’ve seen recently. While NEON has distributed some that have gotten more attention this year, I think this might (unexpectedly) be the best of them.

EXTRA KIBBLES

FEATURETTE - The Making of Cuckoo

VIDEO DIARIES

ON-SET INTERVIEWS

DELETED SCENES

TRAILERS