Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves to the German Alps with her family where her young sister is being treated by a smarmy doctor (Dan Stevens). The odd doctor gets her a job working at his resort where she begins experiencing weird déjà vu like flashes before something bad happens. Gretchen also suffers a series of accidents which everyone seems to blame on her. Also troubling is the random appearances of a crazy looking lady who may be the cause of her hallucinations.
Schafer gives an excellent performance in Cuckoo and it’s a shame the movie itself never matches her energy. Even when everything is circling the drain, she remains a charismatic presence on screen and gives 110%. I want to see the film she thinks she’s acting in. I’m sure it’s great. Stevens is amusing as the geeky German goofball who runs the resort who brings a much-needed kooky vibe to the proceedings. Sadly, they are about the only bright spots to be found.
The remote lodge in a foreign country is a great location for a horror flick, as it heightens our teenage heroine’s sense of isolation. The problem is writer/director Tilman (Luz) Singer never complements the setting with anything remotely horrific. In addition, the central mystery never really becomes all that intriguing, and the suspense and/or horror scenes mostly land with a big shrug. The biggest bust is the oddball lady who is at the center of everything. She just seems more like a case of the filmmakers coming up with a bunch of weirdness for weirdness’ sake than trying to create a mysterious supernatural entity to base a movie around. (It kind of reminded me of It Follows as the scenes of the old bag randomly appearing, screaming, and running towards the characters have a similar vibe.)
Ultimately, aside from the performances by Schafer and Stevens, there’s not much here to go cuckoo about.
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