It’s a difficult thing to create and maintain dread in a narrative. Horror takes many shapes and approaches, but the best of horror films can dig in under your skin, and take hold of a part of you. Cuckoo is a film like this, that slowly but surely digs into places that we fear and then stays there to make sure we’re sufficiently exposed to them.
As the film opens, Gretchen (Hunter Shafer) is moving with her family to a new home in the German Alps. Her father Luis (Marton Csokas) and stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) are involved in developing a new tourist resort in the region along with the proprietor of an existing resorts Herr König (Dan Stevens). Gretchen’s relationship with Luis and Beth is strained, in part because of the new location, but also because her own mother has passed away and her father has maybe moved on too quickly. She has a new sister as well, Alma (Mimi Lieu), who is mute and requires special attention, fuelling even more resentment.
This setup isn’t the most original, but it’s one that can be mined for all kinds of great character work, and each of the performers her has moments to shine. Csokas captures just the right energy as Gretchen’s opposite in grief, where she seems him as moving too quickly he views her as stuck in place. They have a natural, believable chemistry together that rings true both in their quieter moments and those of outright conflict, and the script is smart enough to know that both of them are right. Jessica Henwick is also good as the new wife who doesn’t quite know how to handle her stepdaughter, and it’s interesting to try to figure out if she even wants to.
The stars of the film though are Stevens and Shafer. Stevens is having a good year, and one that reminds us he’s one of the great character actors working today. Between Abigail, Godzilla x Kong, and Cuckoo it’s hard to imagine anyone else who bring so much energy to such a wide variety of roles. His Herr König is creepy from the get-go, an over-familiar person in the life of this seventeen-year-old, and Stevens comfortably slides into the narrow void between sociopath and eccentric comfortably; he looks like he might be good, but he feels like something that crawled out of a primordial tar pit, and he’s great fun to watch.
Shafer is a revelation. Her turn as Gretchen runs the gamut of emotion, from rebellion and righteous anger, to heartfelt and caring, and all the fatigue, frustration, ennui, and sorrow in between. She’s giving the film -which is more than a little offbeat- exactly what it needs in every moment. She’s especially good in the first act of the film as Gretchen is acclimatizing to the new circumstances of her life, and bristling against it as many teenagers do -especially in horror movies. Her performance is empathetic and believable, even in the moments where the film comes off the rails (but more on this in a moment).
The other main character in the film is the town itself, a tiny resort village nestled both in the Alps and out of time. Everyone has a cell phone, but the decode is the mix of mid-century modern and dilapidated 1980s that only small towns in the Western world tend to have. You’re familiar with the look, where the furniture is from the 50s, the wood paneling is from the 70s, the technology is from the 80s, and there’s a thin patina of dust covering everything. The kind of place where if there’s a computer, it has a CRT screen, and when someone leaves a voicemail, it’s being recorded on an audiocassette.
The town is both specific and broad in all the right ways, and despite its wide open mountain feel, it’s also claustrophobic and foreboding to a newly arrived teenager. Director Tilman Singer has created a great horror location, and along with cinematographer Paul Faltz they shoot in such a way that it feels alive, and creepy, and that’s before we get to the actual plot.
Of course things in the idyllic mountain town aren’t all that they seem, and of course Gretchen is the only one that sees it, to the point where when a recorder playing Dan Stevens points out that the family “belongs there” she outright points out what a weird thing to say that is.
The first two acts play with our perceptions well, and there are some legitimately great creepy moments including a short chase on a bike and some moments of time slippage that help put the audience on edge.
It does come off the rails a bit in the third act, though, and it’s in these parts of the film that the film will be made or broken for the audience. Without spoiling what’s going on, I’ll say that the ultimate reveal of what is going on will either work for you or it won’t, and the pace of that reveal is a bit off -there’s a moment that feels like the climax of the film and then it keeps going for nearly half an hour- but at the same time what happens works thematically and is so delightfully unhinged that the film seems destined for cult status regardless.
Cuckoo won’t be for everyone, but for those of us who connect with it, it will likely be one of the better films of the year, and between the aesthetics, the well-shot creepy scenes, and excellent performances from Stevens and especially Shafer, it is definitely worth seeing to find out for yourself.
Cuckoo is now in theaters.
Learn more about the film, including how to buy tickets, at the website for the title.
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