At The Movies: In Cuckoo, an Alpine idyll becomes a home to horror

Cuckoo (M18)

102 minutes, opens at The Projector on Sept 5
★★★★☆

The story: Teenager Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), her father Luis (Marton Csokas), stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) and stepsister Alma (Mila Lieu) head to the German Alps to live in a resort run by Herr Konig (Dan Stevens). Gretchen dislikes the place. It is too isolated, and the locals behave strangely, especially Herr Konig. A series of terrifying events convinces her that the resort is home to a cabal headed by Herr Konig.

In this German-American production, German writer-director Tilman Singer takes things that he loves from Gothic thrillers and drops them into the setting of a monster movie. Here is a gaslighted woman, Gretchen, whose fears are belittled and dismissed by those who speak of her unprocessed feelings about her late mother.

For the first third or so of the film, Singer holds out the possibility that Gretchen might be going through a stress-related mental health episode.

The plot solidifies into a survival thriller by the second half, but Gretchen’s disturbed psychological state remains pertinent. There is plenty of running and screaming, but the action is driven as much by the teenager’s inner turmoil as it is by her need to stay alive.

As the mysterious and menacing Herr Konig, English actor Stevens (period series Downton Abbey, 2010 to 2012; the Marvel series Legion, 2017 to 2019) has a great time as the classic Weird Northern European, the unflaggingly polite person whose every pronouncement is tinged with condescension.

Every “thank you” and “please” appears to carry the subtext, “go away, stupid American”.

Singer fills the Alpine forest with shadow and foreboding. Gretchen and her family are housed in pretty cottages, but after nightfall, the dwellings become points of light in a sea of darkness. Seen through Gretchen’s eyes, the leafy groves are less a hideaway for holidaymakers and more like an enclosure, a pen for animals.

Everything in the story is seen through the teenager’s eyes.

For American actress Schafer, whose main credit so far has been a supporting role in the drama series Euphoria (2019 to present), her performance in Cuckoo proves that she can carry a movie. From a sullen American teen dragged along on a family trip to a survivor struggling to live through the film’s bloody climax, Schafer never puts a foot wrong.

Hot take: This work of psychological horror transforms the sunny uplands of the German Alps into a vale of darkness through Singer’s deft use of atmosphere and Schafer’s versatility.