Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Cuckoo’ on Hulu, a Confounding Sort-of Elevated Horror That Plays Like a Frustrating Nightmare

I must confess that Cuckoo (now streaming on Hulu) may have been one confounding, artsy horror movie too many for me. Which is a way of saying, it might be me, not you, inspired writer/director Tilman Singer, who cast Euphoria star Hunter Schafer to stand in the middle of a nightmare-logic plot and try to make me feel something. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but either way, I’m feeling slightly defeated by this stuff.  

CUCKOO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Gretchen (Schafer) doesn’t want to be here, and neither would you. She’s just moved from America to a resort deep in the Bavarian Alps – her father Luis (Martin Csokas) and stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) have been hired to design an expansion of the resort for Herr Konig, who gives off some very proper Sinister Vibes, possibly because he’s played by Dan Stevens, who’s gifted at smiling at people in ways that make them feel rather uncomfortable. Gretchen’s younger stepsister Alma (Mila Lieu) is mute and doesn’t acknowledge her. The first thing Gretchen does is hide some cash and a butterfly knife under her mattress and call her mother, and the fact that she calls many times and only ever gets voicemail tells us that her mother is dead and Gretchen just wants to hear her voice. Teen. Angst.

And this place – it’s in the middle of nowhere. Dogs bark at the woods like there’s something malevolent about to emerge from the treeline, and occasionally Gretchen experiences strange occurrences where the whole world seems to vibrate and time seems to loop and warp and repeat itself, while an infuriating screech fills the air. Herr Konig offers Gretchen a job working the front desk at the resort, which has very few visitors. She sort of befriends her coworker Trixie (Greta Fernandez). Women repeatedly wander into the lobby looking out of sorts, possessed maybe, and throw up on the floor. Curious. More curious: Gretchen disregards Herr Konig’s advice that she never bike home after work in the dark, and is pursued by a woman in a headscarf, yellow coat and sunglasses who makes terrible noises and is altogether unpleasant, especially when she stretches her mouth open in a rather inhuman manner and emits a familiar screeching noise. Gretchen escapes to the hospital, but not before she bangs her head, inspiring an extreme closeup shot of her scalp wound being stapled together.

So Gretchen maybe feels kinship with the guy in that other movie who tried to Get Out. She gets an opportunity when Ed (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) checks into a room and Gretchen looks her in the eye and their hands touch and they feel something and they end up kissing and getting in Ed’s car and driving away, but the screeching woman appears out of nowhere and makes them crash. Back in the hospital Gretchen goes. Meanwhile, little Alma begins experiencing seizures, so she’s in the hospital too, once again rendering Gretchen as an afterthought to her own father. A cop named Henry (Jan Bluthardt) also turns up, claiming the screeching lady murdered someone, and Gretchen sort of helps him investigate. Oh, and then there’s a scene in which the screeching lady attacks Trixie and tries to impregnate her with a handful of goo? Is that what’s happening in that scene? It is a mystery. I feel like I’ve said too much; I feel like it doesn’t really matter, because as this summary resembles a collection of sentences that don’t fit together very well, this movie is a collection of scenes that also don’t fit together very well.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Longlegs and I Saw the TV Glow did this type of dream-state challenging-horror thing much, much better.

Performance Worth Watching: Stevens unleashes a few deliciously off-kilter line-readings that stand out among a series of performances/characters that are executed with earnestness while in a plot that’s too dense and indecipherable for its own good.

Memorable Dialogue: Sinister Dan Stevens: “You are here because your family belongs here.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: It pains me a little to assert that Cuckoo fails to pay off the near-random conglomeration of weird happenings that passes for its plot. There’s a lot to be said for ambiguity, artful flourishes or the confounding use of, for lack of a better word, unlogic – I Saw the TV Glow does it masterfully, focusing potent thematics to bolster the power of its point-of-view. Cuckoo occurs through Gretchen’s eyes, and maybe the bewilderment we feel mirrors her lack of emotional mooring, or functions as a metaphor for how teenagers’ still-developing brains attempt to make sense of the world and their rapidly changing perspective of it. 

Or perhaps I’m being too generous in my interpretation of a film that’s frustratingly opaque, and seems overcalculated to be mysterious, challenging and open to interpretation. Perhaps Tilman’s trying to create a nightmarescape inspired by David Lynch, but without the subliminal focus and consistency that holds his works together. So what we have with Cuckoo is stylish, oddly paced nonsense blending elements of conspiracy thrillers, body horror, low-key sci-fi and outsider-teen coming-of-age drama. I don’t want overwrought explanations or pat conclusions, but, you know, coherence might be nice. It’s fascinating in fits and starts, but more often tedious or frustrating – and stubbornly insists to be any fun whatsoever. 

Our Call: Cuckoo might make you . SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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