Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
After reluctantly moving to the German Alps with her father and his new family, Gretchen discovers that their new town hides sinister secrets, as she's plagued by strange noises and frightening visions of a woman pursuing her.
Cuckoo impresses most with its visual craft — director Tilman Singer wrings genuinely unsettling atmosphere from the alpine setting, using scope cinematography and a commitment to 35mm grain that gives it a distinctive, tactile dread. The premise blends folk horror with a time-loop mechanic in an intriguing way, and the central mystery sustains tension for much of the runtime. However, the third-act explanation somewhat deflates the carefully built ambiguity, and the ending struggles to satisfyingly resolve its own tangled mythology. The acting is serviceable — Hunter Schafer carries the film capably, and Dan Stevens brings eccentric menace — but the supporting cast is thin. As a genre piece it occupies a niche space but doesn't fully escape conventional horror scaffolding.