Cuckoo is a picturesque nightmare that struggles to get its point across

Coming connected the heels of Longlegs and Immaculate, manager Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo feels similar the adjacent signifier of Neon’s program to predominate this summertime of horror. The movie’s haunting ambiance and gorgeous cinematography marque it look primed to pat into Hollywood’s existent obsession with unsettling features moving connected spooky vibes alone. But for each of its hype and a coagulated show from its leads, Cuckoo suffers from a deficiency of thematic coherence. It’s decidedly the strongest of Neon’s caller scary movies, but that isn’t precisely a precocious barroom to clear.

Set successful a country of the German Alps wherever fewer foreigners thin to wander, Cuckoo follows arsenic sullen, American teen Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) is forced to determination successful with her estranged father, Luis (Marton Csokas), and his caller family. With each of Gretchen’s beloved bandmates and treasured possessions backmost successful the States, she can’t assistance but consciousness unsocial surviving with her stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) and mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu). And portion Gretchen doesn’t effort to fell her distaste astatine being uprooted for Luis’ occupation expanding a secluded edifice owned by Herr König (Dan Stevens), she lone feels comfy expressing the depths of her sadness successful voicemails to her unseen mother.

As Cuckoo first opens, Gretchen’s already dormant acceptable connected fleeing from her caller location wherever everyone seems a spot disconnected — particularly Stevens’ hammy König, who insists connected the moody teen moving arsenic his receptionist. The mode the resort’s fistful of guests sometimes rotation astir successful stupors earlier becoming violently sick is capable to marque Gretchen fishy thing is amiss. But it isn’t until she has a unusual run-in with a shrieking pistillate (Kalin Morrow) that Gretchen realizes leaving her household down mightiness beryllium a substance of beingness and death.

Singer and cinematographer Paul Faltz instrumentality their clip infusing Cuckoo with a hazy consciousness of dread reminiscent of Rosemary’s Baby and Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala’s Goodnight Mommy, different movie astir children distrustful of their parents’ bizarre behavior. Gretchen’s the lone idiosyncratic who tin spot past the resort’s picturesque situation to admit however weird everything astir the sterile, mostly bare spot is. And aft her brushwood with the screaming woman, Gretchen’s consciousness of alienation from her household lone intensifies due to the fact that of however hard it is for them to recognize (or believe) her confusing relationship of what happened.

Cuckoo uses clip loops to permission Gretchen (and viewers) disoriented — 1 of the film’s much caller tricks and 1 that becomes progressively effectual due to the fact that of however chill those sequences look. Just arsenic moments of panic sweat-drenched enactment look to beryllium winding down, world begins to pulsate, and Cuckoo flings you backmost close into the heavy of Gretchen being chased by …something. But arsenic that thing gets person and person to yet getting its hands connected Gretchen, Cuckoo starts to overexplain itself successful a mode that makes the movie consciousness uncertain of however to uncover its muddled cardinal mystery.

As a bid of alarming chases done the woods, Cuckoo is simply a fantastic showcase of Singer’s quality to conjure atmospheric unease and Schafer’s chops arsenic a rough-and-tumble last miss equipped with a switchblade. But arsenic a communicative — 1 that gestures toward ideas astir reproductive horror, paternalism, and returning to quality — Cuckoo doesn’t precisely bent unneurotic the mode it could if Singer focused much connected communicative cohesion than disturbing lore.

In its last act, arsenic it pulls retired each the stops to marque Gretchen’s combat for her beingness consciousness perilous, Cuckoo tries to weave each of its themes unneurotic by spelling them out. This makes the movie consciousness excessively complicated, convoluted by half-baked details that would person been amended shown alternatively than explicated,

In Neon’s increasing canon of arthouse thrillers, Cuckoo stands retired arsenic 1 of the studio’s much archetypal features, and the movie’s ocular artistry mightiness beryllium capable to person immoderate fearfulness lovers that its last-minute expositional denseness is really a motion of brilliance. But successful its dizzied unreserved to archer you everything that’s connected its mind, Cuckoo ends up revealing itself to beryllium a shining illustration of how, sometimes, movies similar this are served amended by doing a small less.

Cuckoo also stars Jan Bluthardt, Greta Fernández, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Konrad Singer, and Proschat Madani. The movie is successful theaters now.