With a title like Cuckoo, this 2024 film can either offer a horror story or a look at how the Swiss make clocks. As the cover art to the left implies, it pursues that first angle.

After her mother dies, 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Shafer) reluctantly moves from the US to a resort in the Bavarian Alps to reside with her father Luis (Márton Csókás). This places her among his “new family”, a clan that involves stepmother Beth (Jessica Jenwick) and mute eight-year-old half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu).

Before long, Gretchen starts to experience disturbing visions and upsetting noises. These send her on a dark journey that may reveal unsavory secrets.

A dark and potentially confusing journey, that is. To put it mildly, Cuckoo throws a lot at the viewer and it takes a good chunk of time for the viewer to connect various dots.

Through much of the film’s running time, it melds various genres. We get hints of “troubled teen” as well as psychological thriller, supernatural material, monster horror and probably a few I missed.

Despite the potentially messy stew involved, Cuckoo holds together surprisingly well. To be sure, the mix of themes can make the trek mildly off-putting, but it presents the disparate concepts in a compelling enough manner to keep the viewer involved.

It helps that this all builds toward a pretty wacked-out finale. Cuckoo lays down breadcrumbs to hint at where it will go, but it still comes with many surprises along that way.

The actors fill out their roles well. Stevens seems to channel Christoph Waltz to some degree, but he brings the right sense of slipperiness to his character.

As our lead, Shafer holds together the movie and handles a variety of challenges with aplomb. She resists the temptation to overact as she leads us on the crazed narrative.

Given its ambition, Cuckoo occasionally threatens to collapse under the weight of its disparate choices. Nonetheless, it largely connects and becomes a pretty fascinating little piece of cinematic weirdness.

Cuckoo appears in an aspect ratio of 2.39:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The movie offered pleasing visuals.

Sharpness worked fine. Some wider shots could come across as a little soft, but most of the movie offered nice delineation,

I saw no shimmering or jagged edges, and edge haloes failed to appear. As for source flaws, the image lacked specks, marks or other issues.

Colors appeared fine, as the film opted for a standard emphasis on teal and orange. Within these choices, the tones seemed appropriate.

Blacks looked dark and deep, and shadows were smooth. The image was good enough for a “B+“.

I also felt positive about the pretty good DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Cuckoo. The story’s freakier elements offered nice use of the side and rear speakers, and various components filled out the speakers in a fairly involving manner.

Audio quality was fine. Speech usually seemed natural and concise. Effects depicted the elements with acceptable accuracy and boasted pleasing low-end when necessary.

Music showed reasonable clarity and range, and they also packed solid bass response at times. This was a perfectly solid mix for the material.

We find a smattering of extras here and The Making of Cuckoo runs five minutes, 34 seconds. We find remarks from producer Markus Halberschmidt and Josh Rosenblum, costume designer Frauke Firl, production designer Dario Mendez Acosta, and actors Hunter Shafer, Márton Csókás, Kalin Morrow, Jessica Henwick, and Mila Lieu.

We learn about story/characters, the impact of writer/director Tilman Singer, cast and performances, set and costume design. Despite a couple decent tidbits, most of the featurette sticks with fluff.

The Cuckoo Video Diaries span seven minutes, 35 seconds. These involve notes from Shafer as she relates some of her experiences during the shoot.

Most of “Diaries” shows behind the scenes shots from the sets, though. These allow it to become moderately interesting.

Three On-Set Interviews ensue. We hear from Hunter Shafer (10:14), costume designer Frauke Firl (7:49) and production designer Dario Mendez Acosta (5:01).

Shafer discusses aspects of characters and the production, while Firl and Acosta talk about their costume and set choices. We see some of this material elsewhere, but we get more extended notes here.

Shafer turns into the weakest link, but she still manages a few useful insights. Firl and Acosta fare better and provide worthwhile insights.

Six Deleted Scenes occupy a total of nine minutes, six seconds. They range from 42 seconds to two minutes, 52 seconds.

We get some additional character beats, with a particular emphasis on Henry. A few small expository bits appear as well. None of these seem crucial, but some prove interesting.

The disc opens with ads for Anora and The Monkey. We also find both teaser and theatrical trailers.

A decidedly quirky mix of horror and other genres, Cuckoo comes with potential pitfalls. Happily, it mostly avoids these and turns into a strange and involving experience. The Blu-ray comes with solid picture and audio as well as a moderate mix of supplements. Though too odd for everyone, I think the movie works.