We’re still a couple of months away from the official start of spooky season, but there are plenty of upcoming horror movies and thrillers to keep you uncomfortable during your trip to the theater. Director Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo is among those, and according to critics who have screened the movie ahead of its August 9 release date, it might be one of the stranger theatrical experiences you’ll have this year.
Cuckoo stars Hunter Schafer, who has accepted multiple other roles as we wait for the highly anticipated Euphoria Season 3. In this movie, she plays Gretchen, an angsty teen forced to move to the German Alps with her father (Marton Csokas), his new wife (Jessica Henwick) and their young daughter to live at a resort run by Dan Stevens’ mysterious Herr König. Let’s see what critics are saying.
Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times rates it 3 out of 4 stars, praising Hunter Schafer’s first performance in a leading role as “funny, empathetic, powerful and resolute.” Of the movie overall, the critic says:
Writer-director Tilman Singer has delivered a tightly spun piece of twisted folklore, which has echoes of films such as The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby, The Island of Dr. Moreau and there’s even a callback to a flashback scene in The Godfather II, I kid you not. Much of what transpires in Cuckoo depends on your willingness to just go with it, and your forgiveness for a couple of loose ends that remain untied throughout. The fun here is enjoying the screen-popping performances by Schafer and Dan Stevens as a snarling villain, not to mention the quality Jump Scares and the overall creepy vibe.
Adam Graham of the Detroit News gives Cuckoo a “B,” calling the movie a “trippy, deranged, time-glitching mind-bender” that ratchets up the crazy and manages to keep viewers absorbed, even though it doesn’t always make sense. Graham continues:
Writer-director Tilman Singer invokes bizarro vibes throughout, pulling from everywhere from Rosemary’s Baby’s reproductive horror to A Cure for Wellness’ health spa from hell aesthetics. And it looks glorious, shot on 35mm film, which adds to its 1970s-style feel. Stevens, wearing monochrome wardrobes and hamming up a German accent, is delightfully bonkers, and Schafer is a fiercely engaging presence. The ‘whos?’ and ‘huhs?’ of what’s really going on may leave you scratching your head, but Cuckoo’s itch is one that doesn’t easily go away.
Lindsey Bahr of the Associated Press gives it 2.5 stars out of 4, saying that while she finds the movie’s big reveals a little “underwhelming,” this project from writer/director Tilman Singer is well worth the watch. Dan Stevens especially impresses with a performance that’s described as “wonderfully sinister” and “off-kilter.” Rarely is it a bad thing when a horror leans into style, Bahr writes, and Cuckoo fully commits. The critic continues:
Ambiguity can be wonderful for mystery and worldbuilding; It can also be frustrating. And more often than not, detailed explanations just make everything lamer. Cuckoo dips into all of the above. Even so, it is undeniably fascinating, original and even occasionally fun, in a very twisted and deranged way in which laughter is your involuntary response to something horrifying.
Reuben Baron of Looper rates the “supremely strange” movie 6 out of 10, with the critic struggling to decipher the film’s two big secrets to determine what happens and what it means (if anything). In the end, the critic is left with “mixed and neutral” impressions of Cuckoo, writing:
Is it fun despite this confusion? At times. Dan Stevens is having the most fun as the over-the-top creepy German motel owner Herr König, and Schafer brings a charismatic and sympathetic presence in spite of the many unlikable traits of her above-it-all protagonist, Gretchen. The cinematography is gorgeous, and the audacity of the twists can be darkly funny. But thinking about Cuckoo afterwards, I feel like I’m missing the key to making sense of and really connecting with it.
Travis Hopson of Punch Drunk Critics says Tilman Singer delivers on the title, with many different meanings of “cuckoo” making their way into the “wildly incoherent” flick. While the momentum stalls in the second act, according to the critic, the final stretch delivers “maximum freakishness.” Hopson writes:
Set in the atmospheric, mountainous Alps, where more horrors should be set by the way, the film takes bird analogies and sheer lunacy to the next level. With a vein of dark comedy coursing through it and a pair of unhinged performances by Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, Cuckoo is delightfully off-the-rails and creepy as Hell, a combo of Suspiria-esque paranoia thriller and something from the fevered brain of David Cronenberg.
While many critics express confusion and uncertainty about what exactly they experienced, their general impressions appear to be positive. Overall Cuckoo has been declared Certified Fresh with a 79% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
If you want to see what all the craziness is about, you can catch the film in theaters starting on Friday, August 9. Be sure to check out our 2024 movie release schedule to see what else is coming soon.