Review: Cuckoo

Official synopsis: 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem.

These pristine medical spas/resorts in the Alps are practically red flags themselves now. Cuckoo is here to further that stereotype. Gretchen just lost her mother, and is moving in with her father, his much younger wife, and their mute child together. She's clearly going through a lot of trauma, and her anger is misplaced against her younger sister. The head doctor, Herr Konig (Dan Stevens) seems to want to keep her busy, but we all know something is amiss.

Cuckoo is pretty damn creepy. It doesn't have elaborate effects, but it plays with shadows and quick cuts of someone lurking. I've never seen a random blonde woman in sunglasses look so scary. I can't help but compare it to Longlegs, another quiet, unsettling film I've seen recently, and where Cuckoo excels is that it never gives us time to drag and our lead actress properly reacts to what's around her.

Schafer is fantastic here. At first I was worried her character was going to be grating because she's really playing on the annoyed teen heavy in the film's early minutes, but all of that changes once she gets deeper into the mystery. 

I will say, the way they explain the central mystery is a bit clunky. It feels like the characters are talking directly to the audience instead of naturally to each other, but I still really enjoyed the story over all. This is what Longlegs should've been.

Grade: B