For the past year and a half, people across the internet have been waiting with bated breath for the arrival of Cuckoo, starring Euphoria star: Hunter Schafer. And on August 9th, their prayers were answered when the film finally hit theaters in the United States. But was it truly worth all of the hype?
Cuckoo is a new horror film by German director, Tilman Singer. Upon news of its existence, it garnered quite a bit of attention on Twitter due to the involvement of actress, Hunter Schafer, who had gained massive popularity from the HBO show, Euphoria. Principal photography began over two years ago, and it finally premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 16th, 2024. The film centers around Schafer's character, Gretchen, who moves to the German Alps with her father, stepmother, and sister after the death of her mother. The family has moved to build a new hotel, overseen by Herr König played by Dan Stevens. After seeing how miserable Gretchen is in her new home, he offers her a job at the front desk of his resort to help get her acclimated. But this picturesque, beautiful area they live in turns into a nightmare once the clock strikes 11PM, and soon Gretchen becomes haunted by a malevolent figure known as "The Hooded Woman." I will refrain from spoilers, but the way things unravel is far from what you'd expect.
After seeing the film yesterday I have quite a few thoughts but find them difficult to put into words. Cuckoo is definitely a unique horror film, something that hasn't been seen before. By the promotional images and trailers I was expecting a run of the mill insane asylum movie where the main character gets hunted down by murderous schizophrenics, but that couldn't have been farther from the truth. The script plays with themes of grief, homesickness, strained relationships, and biology. It's definitely an original film that thinks outside of the box, but for every good thing I have to say about it, I have two more bad thoughts looming in the back of my mind.
Let's start with the good. Like I said, it's nice to see an original horror film get so much attention. And with a budget of only $7 million dollars, the special effects are truly impressive. The film is incredibly visually eye-catching due to the cinematography by Paul Faltz, and the editing by Terel Gibson and Philipp Thomas. You can tell that director, Tilman Singer had a clear version for what he wanted his film to look like, and succeeded.
In place of an inner-dialogue, the film includes voice messages that Gretchen has left in her dead mother's answering machine, always turning to her when things get tough, which they often do. This was a refreshing and interesting substitute to just the average voice-over and really allowed the audience to get inside the mind of the main character.
But sadly, that's about where the good critiques end. Visually, Cuckoo is a beautiful film, but the content is lacking. Hunter Schafer gives a solid performance, which is to be expected of her, but I found her character hard to root for. Obviously Gretchen is a teenage girl going through a hard time but I found her constant negativity and rudeness to be off-putting at times. But that is much more the fault of the script than the actor. Speaking of the writing, Gretchen cannot seem to catch a break the whole film. Every single scene is just terrible thing after terrible thing happening to her with no breaks and barely any rest time between incidents. After a while it kind of just reads as torture porn.
Often times it feels like the film is overstaying its welcome, which is hard to do considering it is only 102 minutes long. The pace is inconsistent and varies drastically throughout the film. Because of this, the "big reveal" scene feels rushed, abrupt, and not earned.
But the biggest flaw of all in Cuckoo is that it's confusing. I'm sure that somewhere in there lies a very clever, scientifically rooted plot, but as someone who sat through the whole thing, I still left the theater perplexed. This is a common critique among those who have reviewed Cuckoo, leading me to believe that I'm not the only one who couldn't follow along.
Cuckoo is a very unique and inventive horror film, and perhaps its greatest shortcoming is being released in 2024. This year audiences have seen features like Longlegs, Alien: Romulus, Immaculate, Abigail, and many others that also push the envelope while having plots that are easier to follow and digest. In a year of great horror, Cuckoo simply fell short with its underbaked characters and baffling plot. Let's hope that Tilman Singer's next feature is more worthy.
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