Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo was a much-hyped film at this year’s Berlinale. Shot on 35mm, this vintage-looking horror-cum-mystery takes us into the deep forests of Germany to reveal its strange happenings. Gretchen (Euphoria star Hunter Schafer) is sent to live with the father she hasn’t seen in years (Marton Csokas) – plus her stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and half-sister (Mila Lieu) – in a Bavarian Alpine resort where things immediately feel unnerving.
Gretchen misses her American home and her late mother, for whom she regularly leaves voicemails. The fancy, dated summer resort is owned by the menacing Herr König (Dan Stevens), and the family has been asked to renovate it. At least, that’s the reason we’re given for why König has brought them there. Gretchen begins having hallucinations that melt into reality, and things start going really, really off.
The film has a standard run time but still seems too long
The rest is a mashup of Final Girl tropes and secrets unveiled through a confusing plot – there’s a lesbian runaway, a medical testing centre and a woman who turns up to kill. The film has a standard run time but still seems too long, with grotesque moments that feel like a riff on other films. It’s overly-stylised and hard to pin down. Schafer makes good with what she’s given, and her performance gives it enough driving power to live up to some of the hype – but still, something doesn’t sit right. All the tropes are there, but the film takes itself too seriously, when it should instead lean into its B movie influences and away from the allure of being a prestige festival picture. ★★
- Starts Jul 18
