Cuckoo Review
Cuckoo, a film I knew absolutely nothing about except the fact it was a horror. For me, going in blind was a great idea, I had a great time. If you are reading this however, I assume you have probably seen something about it on the internet. Personally, I had not even seen a poster for this movie, maybe because we are still a few days away from release date, maybe it’s just that the cast is made up of smaller names that it’s not getting the press that it deserves… but let me tell you, it does deserve it.
In this Cuckoo review, I will share my honest opinion on the film, the good, the bad and the ugly. As always this article is completely spoiler free.
The Review
Image by Neon
Let me start off by saying, I am not a huge fan of horror. I am very jumpy and the whole experience ends in me having a sore throat the next day. I do however enjoy a thriller, Cuckoo was very much a thriller with horror elements. The story was gripping with very shocking twists throughout, and the gore was not too much or unnecessary like I have found horrors can often be. There are however some flaws in this movie, one in particular broke immersion for me.
Without spoiling anything, there is a weird loop that occurs during parts of the movie, with characters repeating moments for brief periods of time. I’m not going to say why but I will say that the first time it happened I thought it was technical difficulties. Visually there were very minor changes to indicate that something paranormal was happening and it felt a little lazy. Just a side note while we talk about paranormal, the haunting ‘hooded woman’ looks absolutely ridiculous – not sure if the goggles were a fashion statement or what but it was definitely not a scary look… at first anyway.
My other main issue was with timing. At times, it felt like nothing was happening then at other times everything all at once – the short 102 minute runtime was to blame here. This did mean a lot of things went unexplained. We’re not even introduced to our main character properly before jumping into the action, although the character development we see was perfect.
Image by Neon
As for Hunter Schafer’s performance, I was very impressed! She pulled off the progression from grumpy teenage girl to the ultimate heroine so seamlessly, you could almost feel her courage grow with every obstacle. Her sister in the movie was a great actor too – seeing her pull off such sympathetic, and at times terrifying, characteristics without the use of a voice was incredible, and the two were believable siblings.
The parents however did not leave that great of an impact on me. They were so mean to Gretchen for reasons that literally did not make sense and were just partly unexplained – sure she was a grumpy teen, I would be too if that’s how my parents were treating me.
Everything about this movie felt like an indie horror, from the title font, to the music. This is by no means a bad thing and the film even sort of leans into this genre. Director Tilman Singer may only has 4 titles under his belt, but this man’s talent really shines throughout Cuckoo, some of the shots are so terrifying they had my wife cowering in fear muttering “this was a bad idea” and that’s a powerful thing for a horror to do to its audience, not just some jump scares to make your heart pace for a moment – horror should ultimately stay with you throughout the film itself.
Image by Neon
While Cuckoo was fantastic, I did find myself coming away with many unanswered questions and a lot of critiques. I honestly believe if given a longer runtime this story would have had slightly more depth which it was lacking at times. I don’t see this as a fault of the creators, the potential was certainly there. So, would I recommend you go see it? Honestly, yes, but only to certain people! For fans of cult classics and horror fans, yes. I think the fact this piece is so self aware that it’s an indie horror, it may not be enjoyable to those who prefer blockbuster films, or who tend to avoid the horror genres in general. For us at Nerdy Nook though, while appropriately terrified, we had a great time watching it.
I would not say no to a sequel and would even be excited to see how Tilman Singer expands on this universe he is creating, it can only go up from here in all honesty.
Aramis Mason
I’m Aramis! A life long comic book fan and Twitch Partner. I first learnt SEO in 2020 writing articles to help other streamers, but have now decided to put those skills to good use, with my wife and our friend, for Nerdy Nook.
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