13 Nights of Shocktober: Phantasm

by A.J.

 

Night 5: Reggie Bannister Memorial Night 

"You play a good game, boy, but the game is finished. Now you die."

 

Phantasm 

 

Earlier this year, musician, actor, and producer Reggie Bannister passed away at the age of 80. That name might not be familiar to many, but to horror fans Reggie Bannister is beloved for his role in the Phantasm films as Reggie, the pony-tail sporting guitar playing ice cream man turned monster fighting action hero. Though Reggie became the unlikely lead and co-star of rest of the Phantasm series, which had is most recent and likely final entry only a few years ago, his character began as a supporting character in the first Phantasm, which is the only space to start the Phantasm series since each sequel is part of one continuous story. And it's also the best of the series.

Phantasm is a great example of a cult classic: it may not have mainstream recognition, and it may have flaws, but it has enthusiastic fans. Describing individual scenes and plot points can make Phantasm sound odd or even ridiculous and the plot itself does not hold up to scrutiny. Yet, Phantasm is effectively creepy and scary because it relies more on atmosphere and the main character’s fear and fascination with the things he witnesses and encounters than on plot. Dreams, nightmares, and the line between fantasy and reality also play a large part.  I suppose this is what some would call a vibes movie.

On that front, writer-director Don Coscarelli does a great job keeping us in the emotional and mental space of the main character, 13-year-old Mike (A. Michael Baldwin), who is still dealing with the death of parents. He also has anxiety that his older brother Jody (Bill Thornbury), a musician, secretly wants to leave him with a relative. After witnessing strange things around the local cemetery, Mike comes to believe that the tall, grim-faced undertaker has a sinister plan that involves stealing recently buried bodies. Of course, Jody is skeptical but as danger mounts, he and his friend, Reggie (Reggie Bannister), the local ice cream man, join Mike to stop the undertaker, also known as The Tall Man. 

 

Coscarelli makes great use of long shots that play out slowly. He also uses slow motion with eerie effectiveness when Mike sees The Tall Man walking through town. At first, it is jarring to see him out in daylight then he pauses by Reggie’s ice cream truck to savor the cool air from the freezer. The slow motion and exaggerated sound design make a simple moment unnerving and surreal.

 

On the more ostentatious side of Phantasm are the flying metallic orbs that stab people in the face with daggers and then drill a hole in their head and make blood shoot out the back. There purpose is clear: elaborate, horrific death. But like many things about Phantasm the “why” remains a mystery. There are also the hooded dwarves that Mike sees running around the cemetery. They resemble the Jawas from Star Wars, released only two years before Phantasm, but Coscarelli said this was a coincidence. Next to the orbs, what everyone remembers about Phantasm is Angus Scrimm as The Tall Man. Tall, slender, dressed in black, imposing and intimidating, he is like a personification of the boogeyman. The most frighting sight in Phantasm is Mike’s nightmare of The Tall Man looming over his bed.

 

Phantasm is more than the sum of its parts. From scene to scene its flaws are easy to overlook because the story is already on to the next thing. After the credits roll, it still casts a creepy spell. Horror spectacle does not stand in the way of exploring an adolescent’s fear and fascination with growing up and with death. The final scenes seem to come out of nowhere and close the film on an ambiguous note, but tonally and thematically they match everything that has come before. 

 

It is in these quiet and emotional scenes that Reggie has more lines and character depth than has in the whole movie and he and Mike develop a deep bond. Reggie and Mike’s relationship, essentially becoming an adopted family, is what drives the rest of the Phantasm films. Each is a horror film but Part II, made nine years later, is a horror-action movie (this is where Reggie combines two double barreled shotguns to make a super 4-barrelled shotgun, which of course becomes his signature weapon through the sequels). Part III: Lord of the Dead leans into comedy and is also a road trip movie. Part IV: Oblivion goes back to the meditative side of the original and even uses unused footage from the original shoot. The final entry, Ravager, which Coscarelli did not direct, aims for both action and esoteric meditation. Each is entertaining in its own way. Each has Reggie and Mike fighting The Tall Man and looking out for each other. Reggie Bannister is a most unlikely action hero and that is the appeal. He’s just a ponytail wearing, guitar playing ice-cream man who has to protect the people he cares about.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Tomb of Ligeia

by A.J. 

 

Night 4: Vincent Price Night 

"She will not rest because she is not dead…to me."

 

The Tomb of Ligeia 

 

It's just not Shocktober without Vincent Price. The Tomb of Ligeia is the 8th and final film of what came to be known as the Corman-Poe cycle, that is: movies produced and directed by the legendary Roger Corman, based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe (or at least titled after Poe works), released by American International Pictures, and starring Vincent Price (the only exception being The Premature Burial (1962), starring Ray Milland). These films, like a great many Corman movies, vary in quality, but Price and Corman together mean you are in for a good time.

Naturally, any movie based on an Edgar Allen Poe story requires expansion and it is a pleasant surprise to see the adaptation was written by Robert Towne, one of many Hollywood legends who got their start with Corman—Towne would later win an Oscar for writing Chinatown and become a revered screenwriter. While the screenplay adds a lot, the eerie gothic tone of Poe is strong as are many Poe-esque themes such as being haunted by a lost love, black cats, and mesmerism. Set in vaguely the 19th century, Vincent Price plays Verden Fell, a wealthy widower whose dead wife Ligeia, a scandalous figure when she was alive, still looms large over his life. Ligeia insisted that she would never die and Fell treats her as such until he meets Rowena, who is instantly drawn to his outsider charms and goth style. He indeed makes a striking impression dressed in black with a top hat, cane, and strange but stylish wraparound sunglasses, perhaps a bit too stylish for the 19th century. The sunglasses he says are "the result of a rather morbid reaction to sunlight." However, as the film goes on, he needs the sunglasses less and less until they are forgotten. Elizabeth Shepperton plays both the dark, evil Ligeia and the sweet Rowena. Not long after Rowena and Fell get married, she finds herself troubled by Fell’s inexplicable disappearances at night. It is clear the spirit of Ligeia means to possess Rowena, although the movie is not entirely clear on how this works, but a black cat seems to be involved. In one of the standout sequences Rowena follows a mysterious black cat through the house into a bell tower while Price’s voiceover delivers a monologue about Ligeia and death. This stylistic touch adds to the surreal off-kilter nature of the scene because it seems so out of style with previous Corman movies, or American movies in general, and more influenced by the French New Wave.

 

Price delivers a different take on the man-driven-to-madness character that he often played throughout his horror career, and especially in the Corman-Poe movies. He is more sympathetic here because as the movie goes on it becomes clear that he lacks agency—this is where the mesmerism comes into play. In at least one interview Price spoke fondly of "Ligeia" but it is a role that he almost did not get. Corman wanted a younger actor, but AIP would not fund the movie unless Price played the lead. Corman says that Price's age was his only concern with his casting; the producer side of Corman no doubt wanted a younger actor to bring in a younger audience. Price's performance is proof that he was the right choice.

 

The climax of the movie has Price battling an evil black cat, which of course is just a regular cat and/or cat puppet thrown at him from off screen. He does his best to sell it when the cat attacks (is thrown at) his face and he has to wrestle with it. On one hand it works in camp value and is fun, on the other it does not match the eerie gothic story we have just seen. Like Corman's infamous The Terror, one of the ultimate so-bad-it’s-good movies, Tomb of Ligeia requires a servant character to come right out and explain what exactly has been happening the whole time. Unlike The Terror, what the servant reveals more or less makes sense. Robert Towne admits that he and Corman were a mismatch creatively. Towne thought that supernatural and psychological explanations should be equally plausible. Corman wanted a straightforward horror story.

The gothic atmosphere is enhanced greatly thanks to filming, at least in part, on location in England. The half-crumbled walls and archways of Castle Acre Priory are great scenery and make for eye-catching shots. Even more gothic atmosphere comes surprisingly from the use of pre-psychedelic imagery: blue and green candles, Rowena's colorful flowing gowns and robes, and, of course, Price's sunglasses. Rowena's dream has some striking and surreal imagery like a bouquet of flowers with a bleeding fox head.

 

Unfortunately, The Tomb of Ligeia did not do as well at the box office. The Corman-Poe cycle felt played out and after 7 films together in 4 years, Corman, Price, and the public were ready for something different. Yet, this does not mean that Ligeia is a lesser entry in the Corman-Poe cycle. The Tomb of Ligeia is a good spooky-but-not-scary movie, a good moody horror movie bridging the transition from the classic to modern eras.

 

The Tomb of Ligeia is available to stream on Prime Video, Hoopla, and Youtube.  

13 Nights of Shocktober: Together

by A.J. 

Night 3: Body Horror Night

"What awaits is the ultimate intimacy in divine flesh."

Together

2025 was a very good year for horror with the two standouts being without a doubt Ryan Coogler's Sinners and Zach Cregger's Weapons both of which were box office hits, pop culture phenomena, earned critical acclaim, and even won Academy Awards. Lost in the shuffle between these horror juggernauts was the intriguing body horror movie Together. While it did not exactly go under the radar, it did not get the attention I felt it deserved. Now that it is available on DVD/Blu-ray and currently streaming (on Hulu), this Shocktober is your opportunity to have a squirm-inducing but emotionally provoking experience.

Real life couple Allison Brie and Dave Franco play Mille and Tim, a long-committed but still unmarried couple who move from their trendy city life to a secluded house in the country for Millie’s new teaching job. Their farewell party is marred by Tim’s awkward response to Millie’s surprise marriage proposal. Separately, their friends express reservations about their move and their relationship in general. While exploring hiking trails they fall into a cavern and end up drinking water from a natural well. Soon after they return home, they become physically drawn to each other, like magnets, with their body parts becoming stuck together.

First time feature writer-director Michael Shanks is not shy about his influences, especially John Carpenter's The Thing and Japanese Horror movies, like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure. Thankfully, he, unlike many filmmakers across genres today, takes only inspiration from these other films and filmmakers without drawing attention to his influences and references. Though Shanks did not mention David Cronenberg or Clive Barker as influences, there is a strong case for their work being an indirect influence. Shanks makes great use of the overhead, or God's-eye view, shot which adds a subtle, almost subliminal, off kilter feeling to those scenes specifically as well as to the movie as a whole. Shanks also plays with audience expectations, especially horror audience expectations, particularly in the scene where Millie uses a power saw to separate their now attached forearms. Tension builds as Millie and Tim realize this is somehow their best option. Just before the sawblade touches their skin Millie stops suddenly to point out that Tim was right about their bodies acting like magnets. It is a nice comic beat that acts as a mild release before the tension swells again.

Other scenes do not shy away from the body horror. Tim and Millie stuck in a compromising position in a public bathroom stall is graphic and very painful to watch. Another exploration of the cavern reveals what can only be described as “a creature” that is as disturbing as it is impressive; it’s the kind of thing you want to look away from but cannot. There is a fair amount of quality CGI effects, but also practical effects are used for great squirm inducing effect. Likewise, the sound of crunching bones does perhaps even more than the imagery to create the horror.

Of course, what pushes the special effects beyond shock value to being meaningful are Brie and Franco’s performances. It is not necessarily a given that a real-life couple will do well at playing a couple on screen. Thankfully Brie and Franco are very good for their respective roles. Tim and Millie have issues with themselves and with each other, but they have a functional relationship. Whether they are co-dependent or not, and whether that is necessarily a bad thing or not will depend on the viewer. This is an effective body horror movie because it is not a gross out movie. The horror is a manifestation of the fears and anxieties of the characters, which are relatable fears of many in relationships.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Jurassic Park

by A.J. 

Night 2: Sam Neil Memorial Night

An Adventure 65 Million Years In The Making

Jurassic Park

Earlier this year, the great Sam Neill passed away at the age of 78 leaving behind an eclectic decades-long filmography. He could play many different kinds of characters with ease whether they were supporting roles, villains, or the lead. I’ve previously recommended what I think are his best horror movies (In the Mouth of Madness and Possession), so this year my Sam Neill Memorial recommendation is his most famous movie: Jurassic Park

Is Jurassic Park a horror movie? Well, No, not really. Is it a monster movie? Spielberg says, no. He purposefully did not want to make a monster a movie and was determined to make something more than a "genre" picture [horror movie]. Jurassic Park is certainly something special, but I might argue that it is secretly a monster movie. Is it a nature run amok movie? Absolutely. Is it scary? Yes. Certain scenes are as frightening as anything from the best horror movies. Is it a Shocktober movie? Yes, most definitely.

Neill plays Dr. Alan Grant, a paleontologist who is invited, along with his girlfriend, Dr. Ellie Sadler (Laura Dern), a paleobotanist, by entrepreneur Mr. Hammond (David Attenbough) to tour, and hopefully endorse, his new “biological preserve.” The animals on the island preserve turn out to be dinosaurs, to the astonishment and wonder of the characters and audiences alike, but, unfortunately, the park is sabotaged during a tropical storm, and dino mayhem ensues. 

Even with a cast that includes Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, and Samuel L. Jackson, the real stars are the dinosaurs. It might be hard to explain to younger viewers just how groundbreaking and awe-inspiring the dinosaur effects were, but then again, maybe not because the CGI effects in today’s mega budget blockbusters does not come close to looking as good as even Jurassic Park's test demo footage from 1993. Jurassic Park may be one of the few movies where the reactions from the characters truly mirror that of the audience, whether they are wonderstruck or frightened.

Even though the movie has two kid characters, Lex (Ariana Richards) and Tim (Joseph Mazzello), the excitement and childlike wonder and joy of seeing living dinosaurs is conveyed most effectively through Sam Neill. The moment of him fumbling to get his sunglasses off is the perfect set up for the first time we see a dinosaur, a brachiosaurus eating from tree tops. In the shot of him lying on the belly of a sick triceratops feeling and listening to it breathe, Neill shows such genuine joy that of course the modern internet turned it into a meme. Even after the T-Rex attack and everything with the park goes wrong, Grant is still fascinated by the dinosaurs; by brachiosaur that surprises them in a treetop (“Just think of it as a big cow,” he tells Lex, who has had enough of being around dinosaurs); by the dinosaur eggs that prove life does indeed find a way; by the galimimuses that move like a flock of birds. Yet, Grant is also the main source of skepticism about a dinosaur theme park. His reaction to the very idea of velociraptors at the park tells us how dangerous, and clever, they are.  

The Tyrannosaurus Rex attack is terrifying. It seems to go on and on the way that real moments of terror feel like they will never end. The scene of Nedry (Wayne Knight), the park’s traitorous computer programmer, and the dilophosaurus in the rainy wilderness is a lot scarier than any scene of a teenager coming across a slasher in the woods. The scene of the raptors stalking Lex and Tim through the park’s large industrial kitchen really is like something out of a horror movie, specifically The Shining where axe wielding Jack stalks Danny through the Overlook Hotel’s large industrial kitchen. I think the scariest scene is the opening prologue where park workers load a new velociraptor into the raptor pen only for it to attack one of the workers. It is done very simply and we see very little, but it is very intense nonetheless. 

Even with two direct sequels and a multi-movie reboot franchise, the original is not diminished; it does not feel quaint by comparison. If anything, it holds up better than the sequels and reboots. Jurassic Park still holds wonder and adventure and thrills. 

Jurassic Park is currently available to stream on Starz, rent on Prime Video and other sources. It's also available on DVD/Blu-ray/4K and probably at your local library.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Golem (1920)

by A.J.

Night 1: Silent Horror Night

“He is my servant and my creation, called Golem. More I cannot say.”

The Golem (1920)

When it comes to silent horror films, the most famous are undoubtedly Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Phantom of the Opera (1925). The Golem (1920) is usually not far behind, and it certainly belongs in the cannon of silent horror classics. Like Caligari and Nosferatu, The Golem is a German Expressionist film, a style in which filmmakers sought to visually express emotions or psychological state rather than reality. This film does not have the extremely exaggerated and surreal production design like Robert Weine’s Caligari, but eerie sights abound. It may not carry the same kind of scares as Phantom, Nosferatu, and Caligari, but its blend of folklore and fantasy make for an interesting film.

The Golem: How He Came Into The World: Pictures Based on Events in an Old Chronicle by Paul Wegener: Five Chapters, or The Golem for short, is the only surviving film of a trilogy by director Paul Wegener, who also played the Golem. The first film, The Golem (1915), was based on a novel by Gustav Meyrink that moved the medieval story to modern times, and the second, The Golem and the Dancing Girl (1917), was a comedy. This third and final Golem film was meant to serve as a prequel of sorts telling the most well-known version of the legend.

In the Jewish quarter of Prague, the wise and mystical Rabbi Loew (Albert Steinrück) reads in the stars that a catastrophe is looming over his people. Then a royal decree is announced demanding all Jewish people leave the city before the next new moon. So, Rabbi Loew creates and brings to life the Golem, a large hulking figure made of clay, to serve him and save the Jewish people of Prague. Of course, if Rabbi Loew loses control over his new servant, it could mean the destruction of not only the Jewish quarter but the entire city and beyond.

The scene of Rabbi Loew summoning the dreaded spirit Astaroth to force it to reveal the animating word for the Golem is creepy and nightmarish. The entire scene is tinted green and eerie flames surround Loew and his assistant. Astaroth appears as a giant stone head with a gargoyle-like face, smoke bellowing from its mouth. The Golem itself is an odd-looking creation. Like Frankenstein’s Creature, he is a larger version of a man but with a bulky body, grim facial expression, and helmet-like hair that would put Dark Helmet from Spaceballs to shame. Since the Golem is a servant, he starts out doing errands like going to the market, which is an amusing scene.

Another striking scene comes when the Golem encounters a little girl outside of the city gates. It is an especially tense moment because by this point the Golem has already killed someone and begun his rampage. It is strikingly similar to the scene in James Whale’s Frankenstein (1931) where the Monster encounters the little girl by the pond, though both creations are at different points in their journeys and the results are very different. Since no such scene appears in Mary Shelley’s novel and the Hollywood horror filmmakers of the early 1930’s were influenced by German Expressionist films (The Golem cinematographer Karl Freund would go on to direct The Mummy (1932) and Mad Love (1935)), it’s not unreasonable to think that Frankenstein drew on The Golem in direct and indirect ways.

Like many silent films The Golem suffered from neglect and deterioration and had to be restored from various versions found in film vaults across the world. It is in the public domain and can easily be found Youtube, however, quality restorations can be found on DVD/Blu-ray released by Kino Lorber. It is also streaming on Kanopy.

13 Nights of Shocktober: The Addams Family (1991)

by A.J.

Night 13: Happy Happy Halloween!

“We danced the mamushka while Nero fiddled. We danced the mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the mamushka for Jack the Ripper. And now Fester Addams, this mamushka is for you.”

The Addams Family (1991)

Around Halloween time at Vulcan Video, I and the rest of the staff typically spent a lot of our time recommending scary movies and helping customers track down horror movies (part of why I started this blog). However, it was a bit more difficult to help parents find something they could watch with their children. Kids, especially around 12 and under, want to feel like they are watching something spooky without actually being scared. One of our favorite movies to cover this problem: The Addams Family.

Of course this is not a horror movie; it is a spooky themed comedy with a macabre but fun sense of humor. I remember when I was a kid and the reruns of the 1960’s The Addams Family and The Munsters TV series would come on Nick At Night. I admit that I didn’t like The Munsters because they were monsters, but The Addams Family were just a bunch of fun weirdos. The 1991 big screen version is a big ball of kooky, spooky fun even now in 2025. It’s actually probably more fun to watch now that I’m 40 and notice jokes like when Morticia tells the unemployment agent that her major was “spells and hexes” and the unemployment agent shrugs and puts down “liberal arts.”

The performances are really what make the whole movie work. Anjelica Huston and the late great Raul Julia are perfectly cast as Morticia and Gomez Addams. Huston is great at playing Morticia as a lowkey character. She is the opposite of Raul Julia’s high energy Gomez, yet they are a perfect match. They have great chemistry and it’s nice to see how absolutely in love their characters they are. Raul Julia really stands out as Gomez. His enthusiasm is infectious for other characters and the audience. Julia had an incredible career on film and on the stage and Gomez Addams ranks among his best work. Of course Christina Ricci also stands out as the deadpan Wednesday Addams, who more than any other character has become a fixture of Halloween. 

For this movie, Gomez’s long suffering lawyer, Tully (Dan Hedaya), concocts a scheme with a conwoman for her strange adopted son, “Gordon” (Christopher Lloyd) to impersonate the long lost Fester Addams and gain access to the Addams Family vault. Of course, the odd, macabre charm of the Addams family, especially Gomez, wins Gordon over. Christopher Lloyd, forever Doc Brown of Back to the Future, does a great job portraying another distinct memorable character.

The humor is dark and macabre but it is never grim, inappropriate, or mean spirited. Nothing about the Addams family is mean spirited; they do things their own way and have no problem with others being different. The only time when they come close to being judgmental is when the family goes to Wednesday and Pugsley’s school program. Gomez is bored out of his mind watching a class perform a showtune. Wednesday’s teacher talks to Morticia  about the class “heroes” assignment and expresses concern that Wednesday picked an ancestor who was burned at the stake. Other children picked people like President George H.W. Bush and Jane Pauley. Morticia replies with, “Have you spoken to her parents?” The humor follows the simple formula of it’s-funny-because-they-do-the-opposite-of-what-you-expect. It might take a bit for young kids to catch on. I told my 6-year-olds that the Addams family are like cartoon characters that live in the real world; which makes sense because The Addams Family began as a cartoon strip by Charles Addams, which I admit I only learned about after I started working at Vulcan Video.

It feels strange to call a movie from the 1990’s a classic, especially when it’s one you watched as a kid, even more so when it is such a silly movie, but the 1991 version of The Addams Family is a classic. I am happy to report that it holds up (unlike many movies I saw as a kid in the late 80’s and early 90’s). It’s fun for grownups and a great way to introduce kids to spooky sensibilities. In short, it’s a perfect Shocktober movie. Happy Halloween!

The Addams Family is available to stream on Paramount+ and free on Kanopy. It is also probably on DVD/Blu-ray at your local library.

13 Nights of Shocktober: Cuckoo

by A.J.

Night 12: Hotel Horror Night

"If I were you, I wouldn't want to get hurt even more."

Cuckoo

Part monster movie, part mystery, part suspense picture, all of the seemingly disparate elements of director Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo come together for a strange and very entertaining horror movie that delivers everything the audience might want while also being something that stands out because it feels so different. Though this is a strange movie, it is not hard to follow. Director Singer plays fair and clues are here and there but this is not so much about solving the mystery or what it all means. This is also the rare movie that remains intriguing and interesting even after the big secret has been revealed. Singer’s direction and screenplay expertly build tension and mystery, increasing the strangeness of events so that by the time we reach the climax anything feels possible.

Teenage Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves with her family (father, stepmother, and younger half-sister) to the Bavarian Alps for her father to take an architecture job at a secluded mountain resort. The owner, Herr König (Dan Stevens), is very helpful. He remembers that Gretchen’s father and stepmother stayed there on their honeymoon. He insists that the family live at the resort and even gives Gretchen a job working at reception desk, but he insists that she not work at night or have an escort at night. From the mysterious prologue we know that Herr König is up to something secretive and sinister. 

Schafer is great at playing a believable and relatable teen and the script allows her to do dumb teen things like steal from the cash register and blow off work to make out with a girl she just met. She ignores the warning about going out at night alone and this is when the creepiness and horror really kick into gear. In a brilliant moment, all the creepier because it is underplayed, Gretchen rides her bike at night and in the woods a figure runs alongside her. Then she is attacked by a woman with glowing red eyes. She gets knocked around and that her injuries don’t just go away is a subtle but effective touch of realism. By the time the climax plays out Gretchen has an arm in a sling and bandage around her head. 

Other bizarre occurrences include Gretchen’s half sister Alma’s trance-like seizures that may, or may not, be linked with, or cause, time jumps. There is also Henry (Jan Bluthardt), a distraught former detective lurking around the resort grounds, who is set on some kind of revenge though he does not fully understand what happened in the past or what is happening now. 

Dan Stevens practically walks away with the whole movie, showing off not only his mastery of the German language but also a dark and villainous side. He is believably benevolent and dangerous. Unlike the detective, König never comes across as mad, though he is essentially a mad scientist. The most disturbing thing about his character is how cool and in control he comes across at all times. 

We eventually do find out what Herr König is up to and it may, or may not, be a surprise. Once the secret is revealed everything we’ve seen before makes sense and what follows is entertaining, even riveting, though it relies more on suspense and action than horror. This one of the very few times when a shootout in a horror movie is not a disappointment or used to make up for a lack of creativity. Herr König , Henry, and Gretchen stalking around, each with their own goal and agenda, is a very tense sequence. There is humor sprinkled throughout so neither dark plot points or themes become overwhelming. Gretchen is still mourning the death of her mother, but this used to build her character and explain her outlook and behavior, rather than as a shortcut for substance and subtext. Whether it is using horror or mystery techniques or even indulging in action, Cuckoo is well executed. Nothing happens randomly or for the sake of shock. It is weird, wild stuff.  

Cuckoo is available to stream on Hulu/Disney+.