cuckoo
Screenplay and direction: Tilman Singer
Contributors: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jan Bluthardt
Playing time 1 hour, 42 minutes
MPAA has given the film an R rating due to violence, bloody images, vulgar language, and brief drug use by teens.
by “Doc” Hunter Bush, Podcast Czar
In my day-to-day life, I don’t know what movies people might find exciting and what they might not, other than the people who are the loudest yelling about the next big franchise thing. I personally know a few people who look forward to watching movies they don’t like. cuckoothe second feature film by German director Tilman Singer, but are you in the rest of the world also looking forward to this film?
Well, you better receive upset!
With cuckooSinger’s follow-up to the 2018 album Lighthe has created a monster movie in the tradition of the Universal Monsters classics, establishing himself as a unique and compelling creative voice in the horror genre. That’s no exaggeration, turkey! cuckoo has all the typical characteristics of the Universal Monsters from the beginning: a family that moves to a remote area because stepmother and father have started new careers in a new town, there is some fringe science and a monstrous presence that makes itself known with eerie calls and sounds from the forest.
Disclaimer: To avoid spoilers, I will only focus on the monstrous presence at the center of cuckoo as “the girl thing,” a term I coined in my Fantasia Fest preview based solely on his appearance in the trailer.
Hunter Schafer gives a great performance as Gretchen, who would much rather be with her mother in the US than with her father, stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and mute stepsister in the Alps. She’s not exactly subtle about it either, always hovering somewhere around a 6 (out of 10) on the scale of simmering hormonal teenage rage and on the verge of acting like a total lunatic. All she really needs is some money to buy a ticket home. Luckily, Mr. King (Dan Stevens) offers her a job at the reception desk of the local spa and resort he owns. Sure, her supervisor will sneak out early to go on a date or the odd guest will suddenly throw up in the lobby, but for the most part it’s your average, boring customer service job.
Tilman Singer’s greatest achievement is how well he captures Gretchen’s teenage anxieties. We feel her frustrations constantly bubbling under the surface, her soul-destroying boredom, her general aimlessness. But soon she has her first encounter with the woman, and from that point on we can add feelings of persecution to Gretchen’s powerful emotional cocktail, because of course almost no one believes her.
Enter Henry (Jan Bluthardt), a shady, scruffy cop who seems to be the only one who lends credence to her story, but also definitely seems to have ulterior motives. Henry is snooping around the resort and Mr. Koenig, but we don’t know exactly why. He acts quite greedy, even as he tries to recruit Gretchen for his one-man crew.
Dan Stevens is masterfully cast in his role. I admit I’m biased and give Stevens money (I just like the guy’s work), but his portrayal of the quiet, flute-playing philanthropist is such a subtle gem. He’s obviously up to no good, but he goes about it more like Willy Wonka – who doesn’t understand why anything he does would be unusual – than a senseless Lex Luthor-type douchebag.
Last but not least, but definitely no less important, is the woman thing itself. Truly a disturbing creation to add to the latest pantheon of movie monsters – I would suggest placing her/it alongside the Wooden Man from Damian McCarthy’s curiosity (another film I highly recommend) – and I can imagine it inducing many nightmares. The look, a mix of the familiar and the eerie, the jerky movements, the gun-like sound design; it all works brilliantly.
Cuckoos are known to leave their eggs in the nests of other birds for them to raise, consuming most of their nestlings’ supplies in the process. Not out of malice, but simply as a result of their biology. cuckoois above all a film about men who think they know everything best. The kind of men who say – and, importantly, believe – that they are doing the best for others. Dangerous allies. The real weirdos of the film.
