Cuckoo

Waltz N’ All

Cuckoo
Directed by Tilman Singer
Germany/USA 2024
Neon
UK Secret Preview Screening

I don’t usually go to secret cinema screenings, to be honest. Unless I’m pretty sure of what they might be. So the last one I went to was at a FrightFest where I’d correctly guessed it was a preview of the first Sin City movie, way back when. But, I’m on my holidays at the moment and so went to the Secret Screaming strand of Cineworld secret screenings this week, mostly because I was sure it would be the new Alien movie. I’m pleased to say I was very wrong about that and, instead, got a real treat.

Tilman Singer’s new movie Cuckoo, I have to say, had me right from the get go, with a credits sequence full of arguing, shouting and shadow play and just an incredible atmosphere all its own. This is the tale of Gretchen, played by Hunter Schafer, who is moving to a resort in Switzerland, surrounded by forests, to join her father, step mother and younger, mute stepsister after her mother’s death (I’m pretty sure it had an opening marker up for somewhere in Switzerland at any rate, although it appears to have been shot in Germany). When she is there she is given a summer job at the local hotel by the resort owner, played by Dan Stevens but, is told to not try and travel home alone after dark.

Okay, I’m not going to say too much more about the plot but I think I summed up my initial reaction to the film pretty well on Twitter last night. Cuckoo is like if a young David Lynch and a young David Cronenberg had decided to collaborate on a new movie project inspired by Hammer’s The Reptile. And it’s an absolutely unsettling and ravishing assault on the senses... if I can say that without it sounding too much of a cliché. It’s also very quirky.

The tone also really shouldn’t work too well because you’ve got some very different things going on here. For example, Hunter Schafer’s grief ridden, angsty teen is given a very naturalistic performance. Whereas Dan Stevens, who is pretty much the ‘human villain’ of the piece, is playing it like absolutely every kind of mad scientist role you could think of... coming across as a very fun and funny caricature of a villainous stereotype and, yeah, you can tell he’s having a really good time in this role. As was this audience member.

The supporting cast are all great too, especially the young girl played by Mila Lieu, who handles very well a problematic shading to an infant who is totally innocent but, who could also be a killer in the midst (not to give anything away here, I promise).

But the sound design and editing are the real stars of this film. There is a lot of screeching happening in the movie and, with the cinema sound system turned up unbearably loud for this screening (for some reason... luckily it enhanced this particular film inadvertently), it was almost headache inducing and absolutely effective. That’s okay, my favourite Godard movie, Weekend, with it’s blaring, incessant car horns is also headache inducing but, it’s still my favourite by that director. Here though, it’s also coupled with some wonderful shots of pulsing throats and, again without trying to give too much away... well, let’s say weaponised (or at the very least disarming) time loops triggered by the sound of the characters from which the title of the film takes its name.

Now, I have to say that the final act of the film... which is an extended chase/struggle to escape/shoot out etc... felt just a little too long. I think it could have been maybe just five minutes shorter but, honestly, I’m really not complaining. I think it worked well enough and the absolute artist who directed this certainly knows what he’s doing (so I’m guessing it was just as long as it needed to be to feel right, anyway).

And that about wraps it up for me on Cuckoo. I believe this film is getting a release in about ten days time and, if you are fan of the horror genre then you need to go and see this one. It’s very surreal, fast paced and sets up an atmosphere that the silliness of its central premise can just about contain. It would make a lovely double bill with the German horror film Schlaf (aka Sleep, reviewed by me here) and if you liked that one, the feel of the two movies is not dissimilar for their first reels, it has to be said. I hope this one gets a proper Blu Ray release soon... I even liked the needle dropped songs used on the soundtrack.