We are in an era where audiences are getting fed up with heavy, blunt, metaphorical horror, especially when all metaphors seem to lead to trauma. Thankfully, the haters can find peace with cuckoobut not for the reasons one would hope. It is difficult to say exactly what cuckoo It’s a film that can’t decide if it’s really about anything.
There are mothers and daughters and references to births and blended families and, of course, blood and vomit and tears. It is the last box you pack when moving, a hodgepodge of little things that you’re pretty sure you didn’t want to leave behind, even if you can’t remember exactly why.
Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) doesn’t really feel like a part of her family, and maybe that’s why we find her in the passenger seat of the movers’ truck while her half-sister, father, and stepmother ride ahead in the station wagon. Heck, even the dog rides in the car with them. Gretchen is the outsider. She lived with her mother after her parents’ divorce. In the meantime, her father went out and started a new family. But after her mother’s death, Gretchen is thrown into the middle of a new family unit. She doesn’t know how to adjust. She’s in a country whose language she doesn’t understand. All of this leaves her feeling more isolated than ever.
After getting a job at the resort owned by her parents’ boss, Mr. King (Dan Stevens), it becomes increasingly clear that something is wrong. The doors are firmly locked after 10 p.m. Guests regularly vomit in the lobby. Worse, someone (or something) seems to be after Gretchen.
Writer-director Tilman Singer’s second film clearly has fun playing with tone, mixing grim sincerity with moments of wry comedy. It keeps us close to its cast, who have just as much fun leaning into it. A series of close-ups of Mr. King’s hands resting on a few too familiar on a shoulder or his face leaning in a few too close for conversation do more to convey its disturbing nature than any monologue. Watching Stevens really play the role reminds us that while it has been 10 years since The guesthe might just have been born to play a horror villain.
Meanwhile, Schafer shows more of it euphoria She plays another teenager who gets caught up in something that’s out of her control. Singer’s script lets some of Schafer’s natural wit shine through, with a few witty remarks that make you wish he’d used more humor.
Ultimately, cuckoo operates in many areas, but perhaps that is precisely the problem – the only thing it really seems to focus on is obfuscation.
The more cuckoo revealed, the more unclear it becomes not only what it is about, but what is really happening. It gets to the point where you can no longer tell whether the mystery and ambiguity are part of the appeal or whether the filmmakers simply did not think about the answers to some of the central questions of the plot. This is not to say that it is are not answers. Rather, they are the unsatisfactory kind that avoid really diving into the details when details are all you want.
It’s still an entertaining journey through a bizarre world, but not a mind-blowing horror classic worthy of Stevens and Schafer. And what’s the point of it all? I’m not sure even Singer has the answers.
cuckoo will make a visit to the theatre feel like a trip to a holiday resort from 9 August.
cuckoo Trailer:
