Title – Cuckoo (2024) 

Director – Tilman Singer (Luz) 

Cast – Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Dan Stevens 

Plot – Teenager Gretchen (Schafer) moves from America to a small resort in the German alps with her father Luis (Csokas) and his partner Beth (Henwick) where she begins so suspect something is amiss with Herr König (Stevens) a key player in some odd happenings.  

“Fear its call”

Review by Eddie on 31/10/2024

Oh Cuckoo how I wish I loved you. 

One of distributer Neon’s 2024 notable releases, Cuckoo is an atmospheric and technically sound cult-film in waiting that is never able to join all its pieces together in a complete package, leaving German director Tilman Singers demented tale as a frustrating viewing experience that fails to go forward with its early promise. 

Featuring Euphoria star Hunter Schafer in her most notable lead feature turn yet as out of place American teenager Gretchen, who moves to a remote German resort to be with her father, partner and half-sister only to find herself battling some odd and disturbing incidents in the otherwise picturesque, Cuckoo wastes little time in creating an ominous and foreboding tone (enhanced by the latest wild-eyed turn from Dan Stevens as local Herr König) but as the runtime wears on the initially set-up occurring here becomes a less and less engaging one, sure to annoy as many as it does thrills others. 

Looking and feeling the part throughout, there’s ingredients and elements found all through Cuckoo that suggest a tasty morsel of a genre delight but Singers half-baked and underdeveloped plotlines and characters leave much too be desired as Cuckoo is unable to stick the landing in a final section that is unquestionably wild but worryingly confusing and scattershot, undoing all the early mysteriously delicious concepts it brings to the forefront only to keep them at arms length from us from there. 

Had Cuckoo managed to do more with its varied ideas and unique core concept, the fine work of Schafer, Stevens and a game supporting cast might just have managed to turn Singer’s initially hyped off-kilter horror into something truly special. 

There’s no doubt that there will be a core audience that find the demented adventure of Gretchen in the German Alps one to be savoured and studied but there’s likely to be a much larger portion of casual or less forgiving cinematic analysists that find the unrefined and messy pieces of the Cuckoo puzzle to be a major factor in why this promising movie never flies. 

Final Say – 

Some great ideas, solid performances and neat visuals aren’t enough to turn Cuckoo into a winning film with Tilman Singer’s most noted feature yet a watchable one more for what it might have been, rather than what it is. 

2 1/2 after dark bike rides out of 5