Cuckoo… as the title might imply… is a real head trip. A creepy, bizarre film in the “never trust a health clinic in the middle of nowhere” sub-genre. I was engaged with it… but also skeptical. That is until the final act where the creep factor went up and the whole thing risked going off the rails… but didn’t.
It’s about a family who have relocated to the Bavarian Alps… in an area with rental homes, a hotel, and a mysterious clinic. The elder daughter starts to experience weird things and weirder people as she tries to figure out what any of this means… same, girl. Same.
This is one of the head scratcher movies that can easily fall into a pit of random gobbledygook or it can coalesce with just enough explanation to make sense… or go too far into Exposition territory. Cuckoo hits in the middle… explaining enough to make me think I got it, not over-explaining everything but leaving enough to make me want to figure it out.
The film is creepy as all bugged-out. It has a sense of weirdness that works… eerie and unsettling, especially with its sometimes vaguely seen villain character. And certainly the vibes from the not-at-all-evil clinic put me on edge (a familiar edge… this wouldn’t be the first mental health clinic to evince mind-warping scenes). It has an unnerving soundscape plus a series of odd and unique visual flourishes.
Plus a sequence or two that I think I’ve dreamt in a similar manner… while in between wakefulness and slumber. Grab that Ikea slat, girl. Keep trying!
The final act had me worried but it ultimately worked. The confrontation with the villain character is unique and creepy with a deeply unsettling look and feel. The sequence included a gunfire that I thought was ruining the film until an emblematic final moment.
I debated a final score and decided to go higher than lower just because the film is such a mood. And because it feels like it makes sense even if it doesn’t always. At least I felt like they had a lucid explanation just under the surface (and not just a bunch of hand-waving scenes inserted to extend the runtime).
At least, I hope that’s the case.
Score: 85