If your dad made you move to a weird resort in Germany with your notably young new stepmother and a bunch of weird people hanging around, wouldn’t you find it a bit strange? So it is for Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) in the new horror film Cuckoo. As if the family dynamic wasn’t enough to deal with, her dad has an intense boss, Mr. König (Dan Stevens), who is prone to saying things that are just this side of absolutely terrifying. Like, for example, “I want you to lock the doors and wait for me.”
Yikes.
And that’s not even getting into the creepy lady Gretchen keeps seeing. Here’s the synopsis:
Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.
Cuckoo also stars Marton Csokas (Into the Badlands) as Gretchen’s father, and Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) as her stepmother. Director Tilman Singer’s last film, Luz, was about a cab driver and a demonic entity.
Early reviews of Cuckoo have been mixed, but Robert Daniels, writing at RogerEbert.com, offered an observation that might be enough to tip the scales in the movie’s favor: “Schafer is exceptional as this corroded wound, a girl barely holding herself together as she balances telling moments of silence and loud instances of hostility. But it’s Stevens, who’s often strongest when he turns weird, who is unforgettable, one-upping Andre 3000 as cinema’s premiere flute player.”
That last phrase is something I certainly didn’t expect. Cuckoo is in theaters August 9th.
