Cuckoo: Bold ideas but questionable lore and characters' motives

From the moment Cuckoo starts, the audience can sympathize with the film’s protagonist, Gretchen (Hunter Schafer). After the recent passing of her mother, she had no choice but to leave her loving home in the USA and move overseas to live with her father, Luis (Marton Csokas). Evidently, the pair have been estranged for quite some time, and Gretchen’s dad is focused on his seemingly perfect life with his wife, Beth (Jessica Henwick), and their daughter, Alma (Mila Lieu).

As the movie starts, the family pulls up to a beautiful, secluded resort in the mountains with a reluctant Gretchen in tow. Luis and Beth moved to this retreat to help the owner, Herr König (Dan Stevens), with a housing development they are working on together. Despite the hideaway's gorgeous setting, there is something very peculiar about this place. Once Gretchen starts to work at the retreat, Herr König schedules all her shifts to finish before dark. When she insists upon riding her bike home after working a night shift without his permission, he seems adamant about giving her a lift to her residence.

Cuckoo is at its best when viewers are left unaware of the reasoning behind the strange and unexplained happenings at the resort. One anxiety-inducing scene involving a bike had my heart pumping out of my chest, and the film does a fantastic job of enticing viewers with suspense, tension, and mystery. Cuckoo also boasts some creative ideas and visually disturbing imagery (such as the goggle-eyed lady you may have seen in the trailer). She is genuinely creepy and one of the most memorable and distinctive villains I have seen in horror so far this year. Still, once the story comes together and the lore is revealed, the film doesn’t quite stick the landing.

When the third act arrives, and the film delves into why the humanoids act the way they do, the narrative becomes nonsensical and overly intricate. Though not all features have to reveal the history of the threatening forces at play, and taking a less-is-more approach can work, Cuckoo would have benefited from a more detailed explanation with such elements. The audience never learns how these species came to be, and certain characters need more plausible motives that viewers can grasp.

While not everything in Cuckoo works, Schafer and Stevens’ stellar performances are enough to keep the audience invested and preserve intrigue. This is the fourth film I have seen where Stevens adopts a believable accent that he fully commits to. His entertaining yet sinister portrayal of Herr König will have viewers on their toes, and you never quite know when cracks in the character’s poised composure may start to show.

Schafer is one of the greatest rising stars in Hollywood right now, and Cuckoo further solidifies her range as an actress. Her performance effectively illustrates grief while we also experience Gretchen’s unwavering resilience. By the film’s close, a rather sentimental family moment also showcases Gretchen’s loyalty and protective instincts, and Schafer handles the complexities and depth of her character so well.

After watching Cuckoo, a theater worker asked me what I thought of the film. He had seen it the night before and thought the storyline was quite challenging to follow. This will likely be a complaint from a vast percentage of the audience. While the film has bold concepts, compelling horror imagery, and solid performances, the reasoning and ideas behind the lore and characters' motives are confusing, and the ending leaves much to be desired.


Rating: 3/5