Movie Review: CUCKOO

When her mother dies, American teenager Gretchen is forced to move with her father, stepmother, and younger half-sister Alma to an isolated resort in the Bavarian Alps. Here, she struggles with language barriers, grief, and a growing sense of detachment from her family. She takes a job helping out at the resort’s front desk to try and better acclimate to this new normal, but instead soon encounters a mysterious and terrifying figure: a hooded woman who chases and assaults her, uttering a shrill, disorienting screech. Despite Gretchen’s insistence that this woman poses a threat, her family and employer don’t believe in her existence, only furthering Gretchen’s sense of isolation and despair. The truth of the hooded woman’s identity, and why she’s stalking Gretchen, is a shocking twist you won’t see coming, but won’t want to miss.

Director Tilman Singer leads a capable cast that includes ​Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, and Dan Stevens in a fun, genre-bending story that mixes elements of thriller, horror, and sci-fi, and provides some genuinely tense, terrifying moments. Initially, the plot seems confusing, but by the end, it all makes sense, and although the first half lags in terms of pacing at times, again by the end, the film finds its stride and culminates in an exciting and unexpected climax.

I watched “Cuckoo” on the Hulu streaming service, but it’s also available to rent or purchase on Prime Video, Google Play, and Apple TV.