Rent Cuckoo (2024)

Dull and slow - Cuckoo review by Alphaville

Couldn’t get into this film at all. Well done the trailer makers for making it look interesting, but after nearly half an hour nothing had happened and I gave up. Gretchen moves to an Alpine resort with her father and starts work as a receptionist. Dan Stevens, her boss, has a creepy German accent and there’s some weird music on the soundtrack. A FF through the rest of the film didn’t reveal anything more interesting. And if you’re expecting some nice Alpine scenery, forget it. Most of the non-action occurs indoors. Soooo slow. Horror film? Horrific bore, more like.

Disappointing Horror, feels very B-Movie. Loved the mountains, though! - Cuckoo review by PV

This starts well. It was genuinely tense and mysterious. Act One promised a lot. Sadly the later acts, esp the final one disappoint.

NO SPOILERS but the ending makes this a real B-Movie. Just silly, mad scientist territory. Almost Frankenstein. But less scary or meaningful.

Just not scary enough to be honest. I liked the sound effects and visual trickery, but it;s never really explained. Another poster is correct - the trailer makes this film look excellent and very creepy/scary. It is not though and loses momentum a lot when it gets very silly in Act 2.

Influenced by all those films about aliens/monsters/viruses possessing people or zombies - THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS is the best of them.

Influenced by A QUIET PLACE too for sure. And maybe films like MIDSOMMAR. Even the classic THE OMEN. even ALIEN.

And it has been done way better in THE VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) the first and best film version of the novel THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS (1957) by John Wyndham.

So 3 stars - just. Maybe 2.5 rounded up

Original but flawed - Cuckoo review by NW

Well... erm... that was original, to say the least! It's a horror film, so from the off you can sort of guess what it's about from the title (cuckoo in the nest), and yes, that IS what it is about - but not in the way you expect.

Hunter Schafer plays Gretchen, a teen who accompanies her dad, his new wife and her sister to a resort town in the Bavarian Alps, presided over by Dr Konig (Dan Stevens - a genre stalwart from such fllms as The Guest, Colossal and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire). It's immediately obvious that 'Something's Off' and the mystery is well developed with strange noises from the woods, women unexpectedly throwing up, the sister (who is mute) having seizures and Gretchen being chased on her bike by a strange hooded woman.

This part of the movie is excellent and I was enthralled - but when it's all explained it all falls to pieces with so many unanswered questions. Weirdly, both too much and not enough is explained - we find out what's behind the strange happenings but not how the current situation at the resort came to be. How did Dr Konig and his cronies come to - well, spoilers! It all descends into action movie cliches with guns everywhere, disappointing. The story is good enough, the concept so original, that a better movie could have been made of it, a more sinister Wicker Man style affair. As it is the creepiness of the first hour is completely blown away - quite literally, with big guns.

And Gretchen is such a dislikeable character, that I could not engage with her plight at all. She's sulky, self-absorbed and selfish, and her hairstyle rather unfortunately reminded me of Harry Enfield's Kevin the Teenager character.

A shame - because at times this is wonderfully eerie and the concept behind it is unique and bonkers - but it didn't quite work for me.