CUCKOO

Cuckoo leads audiences down a familiar enough path, but with the massive narrative swings by Tilman Singer that delivers some genuine scares and the powerful performances of Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, not even a convoluted third act can prevent the film from being a chillingly good time.

Like many horror films this year, Cuckoo has been generating significant buzz since screening at this year’s edition of the Berlin International Film Festival, SXSW Film Festival and the Overlook Film Festival. It is one of those films where it is best if you go in blind, because writer and director Tilman Singer is cooking up some twisted ideas in his latest horror film featuring Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens in the lead roles. What ensues is a truly nightmarish cinematic vision, delivering some great jump scares and startling horror set pieces that will wet the appetite of any horror fan. Though, it is one of those horror films that has been hyped up too much before its release as it does not fully deliver on its promise, resulting in a good but not a great horror film.

After seeing the first two scenes of Cuckoo, you have a sense of the direction that the narrative is going to take as we watch Gretchen begin to settle into her new life in a small, secluded German town in the Alps. Singer is playing with familiar plot elements in his latest film, but what he does with them makes Cuckoo truly unique and deeply unsettling. As the film progresses, the atmosphere of the film darkens as Gretchen begins to discover there is something severely wrong with the town, as the mystery begins to brew as to what Herr König and the other residents are up to. The story that Singer weaves is full of meticulously designed set pieces that will send a chill down your spine, all while he continues to thicken the mystery surrounding why Gretchen’s family has been lured to this small town.

The story has all the right elements of what a great horror mystery needs, but once the film enters its final act and all is revealed, it buckles under the weight of its ideas. The reveal is truly far-fetched, and while it sets up a thrilling final act that lets Schafer prove herself as a final girl, it’s hard to grasp what was actually happening here. It’s an interesting idea that Singer is playing with, but its execution leaves it muddled and puts the pressure on the audience to try and piece it all together. Sadly, it makes the film’s final moments feel more convoluted rather than nerve wracking, which has the unfortunate result of slightly derailing the film’s intensity. Never for a second does the final act ruin the entire experience of Cuckoo, as the journey getting to the final act is one wickedly fun time, but it holds the film back from being the shocking and memorable horror film compared to the other standouts we’ve been treated to in the genre this year.

Audiences are no doubt going to be divided on the film’s plot, as it is hard to describe what exactly unfolds in this nightmarish experience, but the film is led by two excellent performances from Schafer and Stevens that won’t divide viewers. As Gretchen, Schafer gives a great performance that captures the tortured young woman struggling to adjust to her new life who discovers that the small German town her father has moved her to is hiding a dark secret. There are moments where Schafer brings a vulnerability to the role that lets the audience feel for Gretchen and her struggles as she begins to question what she is experiencing, but also a fierce tenacity that makes her one strong final girl. It would not be a stretch to say that Schafer has entered her scream queen era after that wild final act where she shines at every turn, making it evidently clear that she is more than capable of leading a film after supporting roles in Euphoria and The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Stevens, on the other hand, is deliciously sinister as Herr König, the mysterious man who has lured Gretchen’s family to Germany. If there is one actor you want to cast as your dubious villain, it is Stevens. There is a disarming nature to him that instantly gets under your skin that has you questioning his character’s true intentions, only before unleashing a maddening tour de force that truly ups the ante in the film’s second half. Between this film and Abigail earlier this year, Stevens is continuing his streak of memorable horror villain roles that will send chills down your spine. Supporting them is Márton Csókás, Jessica Henwick, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, and Jan Bluthardt, all of whom are great in their roles, but the screenplay gives Schafer and Stevens the most material to work with, which allows them both to run away with the film.

Even with the narrative stumbles, Singer has still crafted a technically impressive film. Given the use of sound in the film’s story, it comes as no surprise that the film’s sound design is top notch, which helps to create the terror of the film. The editing captures the chaos of Gretchen’s experiences that heightens the situation she finds herself in; while the cinematography does a wonderful job of using light, darkness, shadows and out of focus shots to amplify the madness of the story. Yes Singer’s screenwriting ability to convey such strange ideas may need some fine tuning, but his honed skills as a director are on full display.

There is something instantly intriguing about Cuckoo that immediately gets under your skin and grabs your attention. Tilman Singer’s direction is strong which builds the eerie atmosphere to the film, generating some decent chills and the odd jump scare in the first two acts, bolstered by a good cast. Even though the narrative does not fully come together in the film’s final act, Cuckoo remains a chilling and entertaining horror film nonetheless. With two mesmerizing performances from Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens leading the film, both of whom chew up every second of screen time they have, Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo has a lot to offer but does not graduate into the category of a must watch horror event.