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It's certainly not a lie to say that I watched this film because Hunter Schafer is in it. Same with Audrey Hepburn films (Breakfast at Tiffany's, Sabrina, How to Steal a Million, Funny Face, Charade, etc.) (also, classic films are a vibe, and I've seen Breakfast at Tiffany's like 4 times and Charade like 3 times already. I have no idea why). Beautiful women... this must be why people visit museums to gander at statues, except me with gorgeous, gorgeous girls.
Anyway, I also enjoy horror, which this film is. I know what the cuckoo birds do -- I've seen the videos on TikTok -- but I didn't really understand how that title fit into the film when I watched the trailer, nor did I care that much but y'know... it's the title -- I've GOTTA think about it, even a little. Shafer's face covered in bruises and redness and one of her arms in a sling and cast captured my interest. I don't know if it's considered body horror, but I like a damaged human body, or an exposed human body (e.g., Kate (2021) starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead). It's rawness and viscera portrayed outright. It's why I enjoy films that deal with themes of cannibalism (e.g., Fresh (2022) starring The Winter Soldier and Bones and All (2022) starring Timothée Chalamet). I like witnessing it; I like seeing it broken down. Although, I'm not a big fan of the type of body horror that, say, Saw films portray (slasher genre?); they seem to focus more on the violence of it.
(interjection: this is probably better to write in Letterboxd, huh? I'll just paste it, haha)
One of the funniest fucking things that happened has to be because the "nonlinear storytelling" trend is going on right now on Twitter/TikTok and I did not expect to see anything of that variety in the film's editing, giving me whiplash as a result. I even thought my player was stuttering/buffering instead of it being a part of the film's story.
I don't give too much hoot about the plot. It's the story, they tell it, I listen and learn. I care more about the devices! In this case, it was the soundscape (or sonicscape??). I always enjoy sound as a plot device like in Baby Driver (2017), because they introduce psychological effects, which can sort of feel like a superpower either for the audience or the character it's affecting (Baby Driver can driver better and its a rhythm game -- gear shift match beats or whatever, A Quiet Place alien uses echolocation+super-hearing and is scary because of it, and Shafer's character falls under the hypnotic effects of sound (and nonlinear storytelling edits)).
Yes, the film uses sound as a plot device. The lore surrounding this is kind of confusing, but not something incredibly difficult to understand. I'm sure if I write out all the details about it, I can connect the dots and go, "Ohhhhh, yeah that makes sense," but as I watched it, I found it marginally difficult to keep up.
Spoilers incoming.
Was it scary? Kind of! It was definitely more thriller than horror. The suspense built because they're trapped in a hypnotic loop as the "creature" slowly approached them, instantly establishing a feeling of predator-and-prey situation. The helplessness of it all. You cannot escape, you are trapped to repeat what you just did over and over. It could just be unsettling if it weren't for the fact that you were definitely about to be killed. It's not just frightening to fall into an endless loop that you have memory of, that you are consciously aware you are repeating, but they had to add that you are simultaneously being hunted. The fact that you can't tell if you're safe or not because you don't know if you actually moved in reality.
Of course, the humans are always the most complex and complicated obstacle the protagonist is faced with. Nothing new about the cliche that the humans were the "monsters" all along. It was okay.
To reiterate, I just wanted to see Shafer get fucked up a little in a horror film. It's always nice to feel unsettled (that's why I enjoyed Longlegs (2024)). I enjoy the discomfort horror films give me, and I tend to focus on those feelings more than the execution of things like plot. Idk if the story was good -- it told me the story it wanted to tell so i thought it was okay.
7/10
nothing ground-breaking but definitely an enjoyable experience. worth watching in its entirety. typical horror, thriller experience. plus, it's got hunter shafer.
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