Cuckoo

Plot

17 year old American Gretchen, is forced to move with her estranged father Luis, his young wife, Beth and their young mute daughter Alma to Germany following the death of her mother.

They all move into a home owned by Luis’ new boss, Herr König, as Luis and Beth will soon be building an extension to his Holiday Resort. He quickly becomes friendly with Alma, and offers Gretchen a job.

Upon arriving, she discovers strange behaviors of those in the small town, which are being caused by strange noises at night, and Alma’s deteriorates quickly because of it.

Direction

Written and Directed by Tillman Singer, this is quite a pretty film at times, and there are some decent jump scares, as well as one very well shot scene at night.

Cast/Characters

Hunter Shafer, plays the role of Gretchen. I think it’s important to mention that Shafer who is a trans woman absolutely nails the scream queen role.

Dan Stevens plays the role of the mysterious Herr König, who desperately wants Luis and Beth to return to the small town, “where they belong”, as well as his behaviors towards Alma.

Special mention goes to Mila Lieu who plays the important role of Alma, who gets plenty to do – especially in the back half of the film.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

The film is set in the picturesque German Alps. This becomes one of the main themes for Gretchen, as she both figuratively and literally is taken away from her home. During the film, Luis sells her home in America, and becomes “trapped” where she feels she doesn’t belong, and is with people who she feels don’t want her.

Gretchen’s loss of her mother, and rebuilding her relationship with her father is well established. Their fractured relationship – and how strained it has become is written reasonably well. Sadly this is never resolved, and I will get to that in a moment.

The horror backstory, which basically was a “monster mother” who is impregnating women, then leaving her “young” with the family to be raised (similar to the cuckoo bird) was… interesting.

There are some genuinely scary moments, such as when Gretchen is being chased on the bike at night by “The Mother” -and when “The Mother” attacks several people.

But why “The Mother” exists, why she looks like a person, where did she come from, how is she able to warp time, etc are never revealed. The whole situation is dropped on the audience in a massive exposition dump in the third act. One could even argue that ‘not knowing’ the why might have made a better film?

Once the ‘villain’ element has been resolved, and the heroes escape – there are too many open ended questions – the primary being – where are Gretchen and Alma’s parents? After building up such a significant story point, not resolving this fractured relationship was another faux pas.

Overall

With just a little too many why’s, this film tried to be so much more than it was.

A well directed film, with some solid performances by Shafer, Stevens and Lieu don’t make up for a lackluster screenplay and narrative.

Passable, but just

2.5/5

Please check out my Podcast on this movie.