There’s normal teen angst: It usually involves growth and hormones and love-life and fitting-in and homework and relationships … and then there’s advanced teen angst, which apparently involves nausea-inducing supersonic soundwaves in the Bavarian Alps where you’ve been sent to live with your father indefinitely as a consequence of the premature death of your mother. Admittedly, the latter is on the rare side. I think. That is to say: I hope.
The film is Cuckoo, and that’s an apt description. Our teen heroine is Gretchen (Hunter Schafer – scientists identify most early hominids as hunter-schafers). She wasn’t a fan of anything in her world … and that was before it got weird. We pick up with Gretchen being driven to her new German home. The fam of father/stepmother/step-sister seems good with the plan. Only Gretchen seems sour.
Oh Gretchen, this is the good part.
The family plan is to build a new hotel. Um, OK. Sure. Why not? The work will be overseen by Herr König (Dan Stevens), who offers to employ Gretchen as a hotel receptionist to give her something to do. Gretchen readily agrees, probably just to get away from her family. And then the weird stuff starts up … multiple hotel guests throw up in the lobby. Step-sister Alma (Mila Lieu) has a (sound-induced?) seizure. Herr König insists that Gretchen not work after nightfall for unspecified, but fearful reasons.
Turns out, Gretchen ignores Herr König’s pleas and what follows is a scene as good as any in horror of 2024. Picture Gretchen bicycling alone at night in the Bavarian Alps. No noise. No traffic. Little more than moonlight guiding her way. She has headphones on, clearly paying attention to whatever mus
ic she’s into. She’s in her own world and she’s alone, very, very alone. Off to the right, in the shallows of the woods, we see a figure running parallel apace with Gretchen on bike. It’s hard to make out the figure. Must be a person, right? Why are they running?
The camera sneaks peaks at the poorly lit woods. Is the runner still there? Hard to tell. The focus changes to Gretchen’s shadow on the pavement. As she passes under streetlights, we see the shadow move from front to back. Front to back. Front to back. And then, finally, there’s another shadow at the back of Gretchen’s bike reaching, chasing, grasping! The mysterious figure from the woods is now immediately on Gretchen’s heel with Lord-knows-what-intent-but-it-ain’t-good. If you haven’t got the patience to see all of Cuckoo, at least see the trailer which has this scene.
Cuckoo is from the genre of horror films out to confuse audiences. I can’t say this genre is effective, but I generally like where it’s headed. The deepening horror of Cuckoo is the combined confusion with Gretchen’s isolation as she becomes more and more desperate to return to “home” in the face of overwhelming and increasing despair. The viewer should note this is one of those films that kinda has to be explained even after it happened. The good guys and bad guys are clear, but what’s going on is, well, not … or not obviously, at least. Hence, I can only recommend this film to people who don’t mind saying, “What the Hell did I just see?” at the end of a movie.
There was once a teen named Gretchen
Whose life wasn’t terribly bitchin’
Horror night and day
When fam stole her away
And folks ‘round her constantly wretchin’
Rated R, 102 Minutes
Director: Tilman Singer
Writer: Tilman Singer
Genre: WTF?!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who like to be confused
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Have you ever turned on the Hallmark channel voluntarily? You.
