Cuckoo (2024)
I'm obsessed with birds and so unfortunately I saw a lot of the twists coming
Okay.
This movie rips.
It’s pitch-perfect in building the tension and release, pacing, character, setups, callbacks; and of course, being scawy.
The film centres around a family that moves to the Alps of Germany to help an old family friend finish designing a few buildings for a resort that he owns. The family consists of a mother and a father and their daughter, as well as the father’s biological daughter from a previous marriage.
The daughter, played to perfection by Hunter Schafer, is grief-stricken due to her mother’s recent passing and doesn’t get along with any members of her remaining family. Her father favours his second daughter and dotes on her, it’s all very Shakespearean and fairy tale.
The owner of the resort is a creepy German guy with glasses played by Dan Stevens doing the best Christoph Waltz impression I’ve her since Josh Ruben.
Basically, the family shows up and all is not what it seems in The Alps.
Normally, I’d outline the plot more than that, but as it’s a horror film I really reckon you outta just see the thing if you’re keen.
A special treat for me is that German is spoken throughout the film and I speak a little German and consequently it’s always fun to get to understand a fourth of what a foreign person is saying. I feel the same way when I talk to my nephew (har har).
The acting in the film is phenomenal. It’s not an easy task to be the centre of a film, particularly when one is dealing with elements that could be considered corny or cliche as one does in horror, but Shafer, who I’ve only seen briefly in Kinds Of Kindness, does so incredibly well.
Dan Stevens also brings the perfect amount of cold menace that one expects from a classic German scientist turned villain. His accent work is fantastic as is his pronunciation in the scenes where he speaks the German language.
The other actors make clear the characters’ motivations throughout and you get the sense that these are not bad people, but people under an extreme circumstance that causes them to make difficult choices. Mila Lieu, the young girl who plays Alma, the youngest daughter also gives a standout performance for someone so young.
I’m obsessed with the aesthetics of film, the mountainside resort, the woods, and the fact that Gretchen (Schafer) will call her mother’s answering machine to leave a message despite having an iPhone. What year is it? Who cares! An answering machine is great.
I will say if you’re someone who loves The Lore of a horror film, you’re going to be annoyed. They don’t explain much, only as much as you need to understand the stakes of the film, WHICH I THINK IS GOOD. JUST WATCH THE MOVIE. ENJOY THE MOMENT.
I know this review hasn’t been the funniest, but I just really like this movie (enough for me to start doing longer reviews for the first time since The Ming Dynasty fell) and I hope you go see this one if you like horror films!
I’ll be watching this one a few more times and will buy it on DVD or whatever we’re doing by the time they release it. Check it out in the cinema if you can though, it’s worth it.
The runtime is 103 minutes.