Germany
2024 102 mins
OV English
“Deliriously entertaining… An energetically outlandish fusion of stylish atmospherics and old-school reproductive horror”
– Jessica Kiang, VARIETY “Incredibly strange and deviously fun”
– Siddhant Adlakha, MASHABLE “So refreshingly unconventional and unpredictable in every way… Examining heady themes of grief, reproduction, and gendered expectations through inventive, playful horror”
– Meagan Navarro, BLOODY DISGUSTING The last thing teenager Gretchen (Hunter Schafer,
EUPHORIA) wants is to be taken from her divorced mother’s home in the States and dragged halfway around the world by her father and his new wife. Yet she winds up with Luis (Marton Csokas,
THE EQUALIZER), Beth (Jessica Henwick,
THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS) and Beth’s mute preteen daughter Alma (Mila Lieu,
DODGER) in the Bavarian Alps, where her dad and stepmom are redesigning a local resort. They’re working for Herr König (Dan Stevens,
ABIGAIL), an odd bird who initially comes across as friendly, and gives Gretchen a desk job at his hotel. From her first night on the job, however, unsettling things begin to happen to and around her, particularly random attacks by a freakish, screaming woman—yet Gretchen has no idea just how bizarre and dangerous things are going to get.
Anyone who attended Fantasia 2018 will remember what a singular sensation Tilman Singer’s
LUZ was, and now he’s back with a follow-up feature that’s even more, well, cuckoo than his first. He may be working with a higher budget and more experienced cast here, but his engrossing, sometimes hallucinatory style remains the same, achieved in concert with returning collaborators such as cinematographer Paul Faltz, production designer Dario Mendez Acosta and composer Simon Waskow. As Gretchen navigates past and present trauma, attempting to leave and then just survive, Schafer’s fully committed performance always engages our sympathy and interest, while Stevens steals the movie in an instant-classic eccentric/menacing turn, sporting a delicious accent. While the movie’s string of twisted developments—which encompass domestic tension, body horror, and perverted science—all make a certain amount of sense if you think enough about them afterward, you can enjoy
CUCKOO just as much if you simply let all the weirdness wash over you. At one point, a detective queries Gretchen about a strange event of the previous night, and it’s entirely appropriate when her response is, “Which one?” –
Michael Gingold