Cuckoo review – Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens carry bonkers Alpine body horror

Rarely was a film more appropriately titled. This giallo-inspired, vibes-over-plot horror mood piece by German director Tilman Singer is nothing if not bonkers. It’s the kind of hot mess that grows more incoherent the more it tries to explain itself. It isn’t unenjoyable, just as long as you prefer stickily gruesome body horror over stuff such as story clarity.

The movie’s main assets are Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens. Euphoria actor Schafer is excellent as Gretchen, a sullen American teenager who, after the death of her mother, is forced to relocate with her father’s new family (including mute six-year-old Alma, played by Mila Lieu) to a glumly down-at-heel spa resort in the German Alps. And Stevens, always enormous fun when he gets his teeth into the scenery, is gloriously over the top as Gretchen’s dad’s new boss, Herr König, who seems to have an unhealthy interest in the family.

Unpick it all and it’s fairly generic stuff, but Singer’s gift for crafting discomforting atmosphere is well deployed.

• In UK and Irish cinemas