One of the year’s best horror films is going Cukoo on Hulu
German filmmaker Tilman Singer’s Cukoo premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival back in February and it hit American theater screens this past summer. Cukoo is now on streaming just in time for awards season, but not soon enough for the growing cult-following this weird and wild folk horror story continues to lure into its monstrous secrets.
Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is a grieving teenager who relocates with her family to a resort town in the Bavarian Alps following her mother’s death. With her father Luis, stepmother Beth, and mute half-sister Alma, they aim to help build a new hotel under the watchful eye of the enigmatic Herr König, who offers Gretchen a job at the front desk. Peculiar and unsettling occurrences plague their stay: female guests mysteriously fall ill; Alma experiences seizures; Gretchen has a terrifying encounter which the police dismiss as a prank. But, when Gretchen teams-up with a sympathetic detective, the pair uncover chilling truths about the resort, its connection to a mysterious creature, and the nesting habits of cukoo birds.
I haven’t seen many reviews talking about Cukoo as a folk horror film, but that’s exactly what it is. It’s all about a traumatized city girl getting rescued to a reclusive locale in a countryside surrounded by imposing mountains and verdant, vibrant — and vibrating — woods. The happenings in the hotel are mostly mundane, but often uncanny, and every weird occurrence is visually connected to the shadows beyond the treeline. Cinematographer Paul Faltz captures them like a 21st century Antonioni — the buoyant boughs and wind-blown branches made unsettling by the piercing shrieks sonically sculpted by Singer’s sound department. Don’t be surprised if you see them getting some love during awards season. Cukoo gives audiences a classic folk horror set-up of the natural confronting the man-made, chaos versus order. In the midst of that volatile combination, Singer — who also wrote the screenplay — plots a story about sibling rivalries, parents and children. You know, family stuff — the most terrifying of all.
Schafer (Euphoria, Kinds of Kindness) and the rest of the cast are all very strong. The actress does a great job of playing an anti-social, awkward teenager without indulging cliché affectations. Instead, she’s achingly sad when calling her dead mother’s answering machine. She’s also hilariously inept during her short-lived employment at the hotel’s reception desk. Dan Stevens’ Herr König is another highlight. Stevens plays the part on a tightrope between straight realism and high camp. Every friendly greeting sends a chill. Every threat reads like a punchline. Some might feel like Cukoo confuses its tone in an effort to be a serious drama that’s also drenched in B movie genre tropes. But for me the performances mostly sell the sillier bits. And, again, that says a lot about the acting here. Because Singer’s script occasionally gets sloppy with heavy-handed exposition, while simultaneously introducing baffling time-warping elements that seem impenetrably opaque.
But, Cukoo mostly balances-out as a fun, suspenseful film with a couple great performances, and plenty of folk horror weirdness for the witchiest of movie fans. It’s not surprising that Cukoo’s preoccupied with all things avian. But it’s also a movie that’s obsessed with movies: Cukoo’s haunted by Hitchcock’s The Birds; one character will remind scary film mavens of Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, but the finale reads early Tarantino. Singer and Schafer and Stevens play really well together and I’d love to see another film from this trio. Cukoo is a strong horror film in a strong year in a strong era for horror films.
Cukoo is streaming on Hulu
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.