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DIGITAL

Opening Date

05 Sep 2024

Rating

M18 Some Mature Content and Violence

Runtime

112 mins

Language

English & German - subtitles to be advised

Genre

Horror, Mystery, Thriller

Director

Tilman Singer

Cast

Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick

Synopsis

Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father's boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen's mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn't seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.

Reviews

By InCinemas 26 Aug 2024

The word 'cuckoo' has a new meaning now.

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Cuckoo is a 2024 science fiction horror film written and directed by Tilman Singer, featuring a cast that includes Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, Greta Fernandez and Dan Stevens.

The film sets up a spooky atmosphere with Gretchen (Schafer) waking up from a loud violent argument between her parents. She hears an eerie screeching sound coming from the nearby woods and begins to suffer a seizure as she sprints off into the depths of the dark forest.

Gretchen, still grieving her mother’s death, moves in with her father Luis (Csokas), stepmother Beth (Henwick), and mute half-sister Alma (Lieu) to a remote resort town in the Bavarian Alps. Her father and stepmother are there to help build a new hotel, managed by the enigmatic König (Stevens). König offers Gretchen a job at the front desk to help her adjust to the new environment and people but forbids her from working the late shift.

Soon, strange things begin to happen, and the eerie incidents begin to escalate in severity and frequency. Gretchen encounters female guests vomiting while working at the reception desk and similar to the opening scene, Alma suffers seizures triggered by a mysterious reverberating high pitched scream of indeterminate origins. Gretchen has a terrifying encounter being pursued by a sinister looking hooded woman while biking home one nightafter working late. She barely escapes by running to the local medical centre, but the incident is dismissed by the police as work of a prankster.

Gretchen meets a detective named Henry (Bluthardt) who is investigating incidents linked to the hooded woman. At the same, Gretchen meets and becomes close to a guest named Ed (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey) and they make plans to run away together. However, their escape is thwarted when they experience a disturbing time loop in the car, and are both almost run over the hooded woman. They crash the car and Gretchen is unfortunately injured, being confined to the resort. Henry finds her and explains that he believes the hooded woman is responsible for a murder with her strange screeching disorienting the victim's husband while the victim suffocates on her own vomit. Gretchen believes that one of the vomiting women she saw when she was working at the reception desk may be connected to the hooded woman. She and Henry decide to stake out a secluded cottage, where the hooded woman attacks Gretchen’s colleague, Trixie (Greta Fernández), and tries unsuccessfully to implant her with a mysterious slime.

The next day, Gretchen confronts her father and König for answers to the incident and expresses her disapproval of her father's involvement in the resort. During the argument, König reveals that he has taken the receipt of a package addressed to the family containing Gretchen's mother's old belongings and Luis then confesses that he has sold their old family home. Faced with these revelations, Gretchen is furious and punches her father. She goes to her room and listens to her mother’s old voicemails as a source of comfort and realises that Alma does care for her when she hears a voicemail left by Alma, using text-to-speech, asking Gretchen’s mother to come visit as Gretchen misses her very much.

As Gretchen emerges from her room, she is unable to find her family. König tells her that her earlier outburst have caused Alma to have a seizure, and her father and stepmother have taken Alma to the hospital. He offers to take Gretchen to the nearest train station so she can leave but they must stop at his house so he can give her some money. A terrified Gretchen soon learns the truth from König. Henry is a disgraced police officer seeking vengeance, and the hooded woman is not human but a member of a near-human species that relies on brood parasitism, much like cuckoo birds. The species' females, like her sister Alma, are placed among human families until they are ready to join their true kind. Alma was conceived when Luis and Beth visited the resort many years ago. König has been experimenting with preserving this species at the resort and is preparing to reunite Alma with her true mother, the hooded woman, making Gretchen a threat to his plans.

Will Gretchen be able to save herself and Alma? Despite its disjointed narrative and slightly incoherent style, this German horror flick makes for a unique and worthwhile addition to the genre. The scare formula is familiar – with the protagonist arriving at a new place where things are not what they seem to be. However, what starts out as a straightforward horror film veers into science fiction territory.

Cuckoo boasts stunning cinematography despite the creepy undertones of its atmosphere. The Bavarian Alps locations are breathtakingly captured, and the set pieces (specifically the dusty, retro hotel lobby and bungalows scattered at the forested foot of a mountain) echo similar feel of Twin Peaks.

While Dan Stevens must be commended in bringing to life the chaotic devilish König, Hunter Schafer, best known for her role in Euphoria, is phenomenal and excels as Gretchen. She anchors the film and brings so much depth to the character of a 17 year old girl, reeling from the loss of her mother, and driven to the brim of madness.

The word 'cuckoo' definitely has a new meaning now!
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