‘Cuckoo’ Review: Chaos Reigns In Neon’s Cheerfully Yucky Popcorn Horror – Berlin Film Festival
deadline.comEveryone knows that hotels — preferably isolated, ideally with very few guests — make the best settings for horror films. All that sad anonymity, all that provisional space ready to be filled with something really nasty.
In Cuckoo, Alpenplatz, run by the excessively friendly Mr Konig (Dan Stevens) totally fits the bill. You never get a clear idea of its geography, apart from an enormous foyer fronted by a sort of supermarket where the odd disoriented guest wanders in to vomit into the freezer unit. “Oh yes, that happens sometimes,” says the flirty receptionist Trixie (Greta Fernandez), who has apparently just stepped out of one of Brigitte Bardot’s lesser movies.
There are also some bungalows — how close to the main building is not clear either — including one painted pink that Konig calls “the love nest.” In horror, that has to be a bad sign.
So a hotel is a good start. Throw in a sinister hospital up the road reminiscent of one of David Cronenberg’s mysterious “institutes,” where nasty experiments are inevitably taking place; add some more pick’n’mix genre elements, including a pair of jealous sisters, a policeman operating under some kind of remote brain control, a couple of jealous step-sisters and a woman in a blonde wig who keeps emerging from the night to attack Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) the heroine and destined Final Girl.
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