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‘Reptile’ Review: Unusual Suspects

Benicio Del Toro plays a detective investigating a suburban homicide in this overstuffed thriller.

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By Natalia Winkelman

The tortuous crime thriller “Reptile,” streaming on Netflix , at times feels like the unwise attempt to cram an entire season of a cops-and-perps show into just over two hours. The movie, peopled with a near-bottomless supply of unsavory rogues, tracks the aftermath of a grisly murder by trailing the policemen on the case. Domenick Lombardozzi (of “The Wire”) is even featured among the crew — although his presence is merely another reminder of the sharper stories this movie aspires to replicate.

Set in an overcast marsh town in Maine, the movie opens on a couple facing friction: Will (Justin Timberlake), a real estate mogul, and Summer (Matilda Lutz), an agent at his company, converse tersely while readying a house for a showing. The sheeny manor is all stainless steel and vaulted ceilings, a home that, in its moneyed facade and alienating interior, offers an apt metaphor for the pair’s domestic strife.

Once Summer is found stabbed to death in a for-sale property, however, the movie shifts into procedural mode. We swivel to center on Tom (Benicio Del Toro), a detective who’s fresh meat on the local force; he and his wife, Judy (a convincing Alicia Silverstone), decamped to the hamlet following a scandal in Philadelphia. Working under the stony police captain (Eric Bogosian), Tom presents as a weary but devoted enforcer of law and order. “There’s only one thing I love almost as much as I love you,” he smolders, less to Judy than at her, “and that’s being a cop.”

Thank goodness for that fidelity, for this particular homicide soon proves a Pandora’s box of treachery and pretense. The poised Summer, during her short life in suburbia, managed to mingle with a legion of kooks and creeps, including her ex-husband, Sam (Karl Glusman), an artist fond of stealing human hair for his sculptures, and her glum confidante, Renee (Sky Ferreira), who seems to resent her pal’s success. That’s not to mention the bratty, well-to-do Will, whose resting pout face is only partially the fault of Timberlake’s restricted acting range.

In his first feature, the director Grant Singer (who wrote the screenplay with Benjamin Brewer and Del Toro) demonstrates a knack for building suspense. In one stylish sequence, Tom dials a mysterious number that could be the key to cracking the case. As he listens to the tone, Singer cuts to multiple characters reaching for ringing phones. The small scene oozes with Hitchcockian tension.

The trouble with “Reptile” is that this impressive moment-to-moment control does not extend to the contours of the broader story, which the writers overstuff with clumsy twists and contrived devices. Once the film gets around to revealing the culprit, we have already lost interest, enervated in the face of a movie that, like an overeager snake, bites off far more than it can swallow.

Reptile Rated R for coldblooded murder. Running time: 2 hours 14 minutes. Watch on Netflix.

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Reptile Reviews

...way overwritten in terms of character traits, and underwritten in terms of meaningful procedural changes; it’s the kind of film which requires warnings for the unwary; despite the sheen, it’s a time-waster where the end doesn’t justify the means...

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 28, 2024

Benicio Del Toro’s solid lead performance can’t prevent Reptile from being a boring, forgettable procedural.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jul 12, 2024

Hat tip to Del Toro and company. I like scripts that present a familiar formula in a mystery, and then proceed to have fun with the whodunit.

Full Review | Dec 3, 2023

The script suffers from having an excess of twists executed at a slow pace... [but] the cast never makes it boring. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Dec 1, 2023

Reptile lets all the drama happen off screen with a third act deus ex machina. What could have been a knotty, suburban, coastal noir boils down to a detective story we’ve all seen before.

Full Review | Nov 13, 2023

This is a dreary and somewhat tense crime drama that features a fascinating and compelling lead performance. Del Toro crushes it, but the mystery surrounding his character doesn’t quite come together as intended

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 10, 2023

Excellent performances aren’t enough to salvage this labyrinthine slog saturated with equal parts premeditated diversion and gloomy atmosphere. Not even del Toro can make this work.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2023

Though the film’s plot, including its resolution, is routine, Del Toro and Silverstone keep things interesting. I’d love to see them return as these characters in a more compelling story.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 25, 2023

A pretty effective murder mystery... [Benicio Del Toro] has aged very nicely into this sort of role.

Full Review | Oct 21, 2023

Eventually, Reptile becomes tangled and leaves some of its subplots as loose ends, but Singer’s film is an impressively solid and slimy procedural.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 18, 2023

What begins as a taut crime story ends as anything but. In fact, the finale leaves a couple of questions unanswered.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Oct 13, 2023

Grant Singer puts in plenty of nice touches to stress a seedy environment, and del Toro gets a lot of lived-in aspects to his role to play with, but the film still can’t entirely shed the feel of being a “lesser than” attempt at a strong cinematic effort.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 11, 2023

Reptile, whose name is never fully explained, packs quite a lot into the fast-moving story, though at over two hours, it could have been condensed more.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 11, 2023

It's too convoluted and it feels like a low-rent "True Detective". At the heart of it, it could have been fantastic, but the execution of this film was poorly done.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Oct 6, 2023

Reptile shines in various aspects, and its flaws can easily be overlooked. Watch it for Del Toro's compelling performance and Fincher's influence (particularly in the first half).

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2023

Some leaps of logic lessen a well acted, twisty thriller.

Sadly, you still need to stick the landing, and Reptile does a good job of drawing us into the mystery, it just rushes the ending and that feels like a crime.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 6, 2023

Gets points for holding your interest, but loses them for botching the close...it twists itself into such pretzel formations in an attempt to surprise that by the end the ludicrousness has overwhelmed the mood it worked so hard to establish.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Oct 5, 2023

Benicio Del Toro makes this whole thing work. If it were an hour and a half, it'd be a 4-star. At it's current unwieldy length, it's a 3-star. Still a good watch.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 5, 2023

"Reptile" isn't a terrible film. There will be a specific crowd that enjoys it. There are just better offerings out there.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Oct 4, 2023

‘Reptile’ Review: Benicio del Toro in a Grisly Homicide Thriller Where Everyone’s a Suspect

Del Toro anchors a cop drama that keeps you watching, which doesn't always mean it's convincing.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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I saw “ Reptile ,” the new Netflix homicide thriller, at home on a link and decided to watch it with subtitles, since this is the sort of moody cop noir about life in the shadows where there’s a lot of murmuring going on. And I didn’t want to miss a clue. This means, of course, that the subtitles will keep cueing you with descriptives like “sinister music” or “quiet ominous music,” and I couldn’t help but notice that this happened around 50 times. So much quietly sinister ominous music! That’s fair game for the genre, though it’s laid on a bit thick in “Reptile,” and that’s an emblem of the film’s aesthetic, which might be described as understated overstatement.

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It could also be one of the cops. The central figure, a veteran homicide detective named Tom Nichols, is played by Benicio del Toro , who wears a mustache, a crown of dark hair, and a spiffy leather jacket. Tom operates in his own leisurely zone of deduction and holds his hunches close to the vest, something that del Toro is an ace at. In “Reptile,” the actor speaks volumes just by raising his eyebrows or lowering his voice to a gruff monotone. At moments, we may wonder if he’s the killer (a gambit that’s been done a few times). For Tom has a shady past and a mysterious stab wound on his palm.

Yet as we observe his interaction with his wife, Judy ( Alicia Silverstone ), who is close enough to him to help him solve cases (Silverstone, in an excellent performance, makes her ingratiating yet tough enough not to flinch), we think: Nope. Then we notice how jealous Tom is of the contractor who’s renovating his kitchen and flirting with Judy; that seems like a red flag. Then Tom sets the guy straight, and we think: Aha, it’s just chivalry. Del Toro plays all of this with a seesaw cunning that keeps the audience agreeably off balance.    

Tom’s cop crew is another story. They’re a band of brothers the film portrays vividly, as an ideal of old-school camaraderie, though we start to see cracks in the armor when Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi), the one with the rough edges, talks about the security company he’s starting; he sounds a bit too profit-fixated. And what’s up with the chief of this squad? He’s played by Eric Bogosian as an aging geek who has the demeanor of an accountant and seems like he’s never not hiding something.

On the level of Saturday-night watchability, “Reptile” is a solid notch above “The Little Things,” the 2021 thriller in which Jared Leto played what looked and moved like a serial killer, though the film never quite let you nail that down. “Reptile” tugs you along with a competent and accessible intrigue. Yet as it comes to light that we’re dealing with a conspiracy, the movie seems to forget something: that the sheer gruesomeness of the murder suggested a berserk sadist at work, while the actual explanation for the crime suggests something wholly different. So which is it? “Reptile” comes on as “smart,” but the movie, for all its sinister-ominous-music atmosphere, is opportunistic enough — or maybe just enough of a consumer product — to swallow its own premise, if not its own tail.  

Reviewed online, Sept. 25, 2023. MPA Rating: R. Running time: 134 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Black Label Media production. Producers: Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, Thad Luckinbill. Executive producers: Benicio del Toro, Rick Yorn, Rachel Smith.
• Crew: Director: Grant Singer. Screenplay: Grant Swinger, Benjamin Brewer, Benicio del Toro. Camera: Mike Gioulakis. Editor: Kevin Hickman. Music: Yair Elazar Glotman, Arca.
• With: Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, Michael Carmen Pitt, Frances Fisher, Domenick Lombardozzi, Ato Essandoh, Karl Glusman, Matilda Lutz.

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Reptile Is an Elegant, If Undercooked, Throwback Thriller

Early this year, a handsome, sleek, engaging thriller , Sharper , debuted to little fanfare. Which is a shame, because Sharper comes awfully close to recreating the artful mass-market genre movies that we were once so spoiled with. Perhaps Sharper has since found a life for itself on AppleTV+, but its theatrical run was brief and unremarkable. 

The new Netflix film Reptile, meanwhile, has been out in a very limited number of theaters since last Friday ahead of its debut on the streamer on September 29. I don’t think it has fared much better than Sharper, which is another shame: Reptile is also a good-looking, engaging B-movie made with uncommon intelligence. Music video director Grant Singer ’s feature debut is no perfect object, but it is decidedly, and often successfully, aspiring to be something more than just toss-off streaming content. 

Reptile is about the murder of a young, beautiful real estate agent, found stabbed to death in the bedroom of one of her listings. Her boyfriend Will, another realtor played with understated shiftiness by Justin Timberlake , is the prime suspect, but the lead investigator, Tom ( Benicio del Toro ), thinks the case is more than meets the eye. Tom has a shadowy past as a big-city detective; some long-ago sin has driven him into this relatively staid, suburban second act of his career. So he’s moody, and the suspect is moody, and the film is moody. Reptile has a sense of tone and texture, elevating its clichés into something of distinction. 

Singer—who has directed videos for Taylor Swift and Lorde , among others—stages Reptile with grand visual ambition. He and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis light the film with a chilly glow. The camera is constantly moving at a dreadful creep, panning across a nighttime house or pushing in on a character as they stand and consider something no doubt dark. Yair Elazar Glotman Arća ’s score groans and moans away ominously, lending this suburban murder mystery an eerie weight. 

Sure, it may all be a little Gone Girl , a little Prisoners . But thank god for a some style, for a modern Saturday-night entertainment that genuinely works to be worthy of one’s time and attention. The film’s script, by Singer, del Toro, and Benjamin Brewer , also reaches beyond its trappings; its dialogue is often sideways, strange. Reptile can be choppy, jumping from one slightly off-center scene to another, with seemingly little connective tissue binding them. That does at least urge the viewer to lean in, to listen more closely in order to suss out what, exactly, the film is doing. 

It turns out that, beneath all that aesthetic, Reptile is telling a pretty basic story of corruption and greed. That may come as a disappointment to those hoping that the film’s teasing, evocative presentation is leading somewhere more significant. Yet Reptile isn’t exactly unsatisfying. Its twists and red herrings may be fairly obvious, but its characters are idiosyncratic enough to keep motivation intriguingly murky. Del Toro, who is uniquely adept at a certain grizzled archness, does the most to shade his character. Is Tom a bad cop gone good? A bad one who’s stayed bad? Answers are elusive, but the likely answer is yes to both. 

Reptile has a wry approach to matters of economics as well. Will and his mother (played by an icy but underused Frances Fisher ) are pointed emblems of curdled wealth. And Tom’s obsession with nice kitchens (he and his wife are renovating theirs) pokes sly fun at the petty concerns of striving, bourgeois America. The film could probe more deeply into these matters—much as, well, Gone Girl did. But a sprinkling of class commentary is appreciated nonetheless; it is dismayingly refreshing to watch a contemporary mainstream movie that bothers with any kind of idea beyond its basic plot. 

Reptile also offers the surprising delight of seeing del Toro reunited with Alicia Silverstone , their first such pairing since the disastrous Excess Baggage in 1997. That movie is not one to be nostalgically revisited, but it is a pleasant nod to the past to have its stars back together again. Silverstone is a mild hoot as Tom’s shrewd wife, Judy, who is perhaps as good at investigation as any of Tom’s coworkers. Like the film’s politics, this dynamic could be fleshed out further, to give Silverstone more to do and to enhance the umami that Singer seems so determined to deliver. He gets more than halfway there in Reptile , an effort that merits a watch should anyone find it in the mixed-up files of Netflix.

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Reptile (2023)

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Review: ‘Reptile’ sheds the skins of too many other superior mystery movies

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Benicio Del Toro holds a movie frame like few in his profession. There’s an invitation to the viewer to take in all his facets — the piercing eyes from a cracked-pottery face, the hulking frame, the weary, coiled delivery — but in that allure lies a confidence that you won’t get everything, and that’s exciting too. He can ace the scene’s needs and convey there’s still more to discover, just you wait.

That’s the kind of actor you want in a crime story, or really any story that hinges on the tense and unresolved, on the things bad people want hidden. And “Reptile,” a studiously atmospheric, layer-peeling mystery from director and co-writer Grant Singer, foregrounds Del Toro — playing a calloused detective investigating a young woman’s murder — in a way that makes you want more of him. But also, regrettably, less of movies like “Reptile,” which tries to match its star’s unpredictable magnetism with a forced eeriness, only growing more ponderous and unfocused, like a case getting colder.

Before Del Toro’s lawman Tom Nichols enters the picture, we’re treated to a prologue of scenes (à la the elliptical openings of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”) in which smarmy real estate agent Will Grady ( Justin Timberlake ) preps a house, gives a seminar and generally looks shady until, after getting called out to one of his for-sale properties, he happens upon the mutilated body of his colleague and girlfriend, Summer (Matilda Lutz).

As lead investigator, Tom, with loyal partner Dan (Ato Essandoh), chase down leads: a stringy-haired, malevolent figure roaming the periphery (Michael Carmen Pitt), the victim’s shifty ex (Karl Glusman), curious business dealings in the outfit Will runs with his mother (Frances Fisher). Though Tom can be eccentric on the job, he’s observant, rules-driven and upfront, and in his downtime — square dancing and poker nights — clearly cherishes the support of his smart, forthright wife ( Alicia Silverstone ) and her extended family, which includes colleagues on the force (Eric Bogosian, Domenick Lombardozzi).

That these worlds will eventually collide in deception, revelation and further violence is never in doubt, because Singer’s directorial agenda is to have us questioning the motives of everyone, everywhere, always, whether it helps the story along or not (or even make sense). While there’s nothing wrong with a pervasive mood of mistrust — it was a defining feature of the ’70s thriller’s heyday, from “The Conversation” to “The Parallax View” — it’s the sole note here, drifting in variations of unease that feel cribbed from other sources: One moment is Pakula-esque, another like something out of “Fargo,” the next recalling Fincher. Even the dissonant, things-aren’t-right score from Yair Elazar Glotman seems borrowed from a haunted-house movie.

The fallout from all this purposeful gloom isn’t merely that nothing surprises us; even Del Toro’s committed portrayal of a careful man’s gathering disillusionment gets jammed up. (Del Toro also has a screenwriting credit with Singer and Benjamin Brewer.) There’s collateral damage to Silverstone too, whose wonderfully spiky, sexy rapport with Del Toro — reunited after 25 years and “Excess Baggage” — often is treated as paranoia dressing, rather than the building blocks of a character. But at least Silverstone comes across as a figure we’re interested in getting to know. Timberlake, Lombardozzi and Bogosian barely register as anything but cogs in a plot.

That said, Singer’s indifference to coherence doesn’t entirely disabuse a viewer of staying the course. Even a rambling mystery with solid elements — like the proverbial broken clock — strikes the occasional note of worthy tension or insight. If “Reptile” were kicking off a brooding television procedural, you might even forgive its stilted apprehension and narrative malaise for the promise of more Del Toro: A pilot episode’s kinks can be worked out, but a star’s a star.

'Reptile'

Rating: R, for language, violence and some nude images Running time: 2 hours, 14 minutes Playing: Now streaming on Netflix

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Reptile Review

Just wait for the real david fincher movie coming to netflix.

Some thrillers coast on mood. Reptile slowly drowns in it. For nearly two-and-a-half hours, this plodding murder mystery sustains a single note of hushed unease. Every scene has the same vibe, a pinprick of vague dread amplified by the low hum of what the Netflix subtitles refer to as "tense music." A man walking into a building? Ominous. A couple dancing at a bar? Ominous. A detective admiring an automatic kitchen faucet? Believe it or not, that's ominous too. Because the film never strays from this atmosphere of impending doom, it quickly loses its persuasiveness, like a boy crying wolf one too many times.

For a little while, though, it's an effective approach. The opening minutes have a seductively sinister pull, efficiently drawing you into the apparent New England dream life of two young real estate agents, Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz) and her boyfriend, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake). It's not just the overcast lighting scheme that clues us to storm clouds forming on the horizon. There's also the way Juice Newton's timeless "Angel of the Morning" rises triumphantly on the soundtrack, only to be swiftly cut off by an opening door. The movie's first and arguably only true shock arrives just as abruptly, as Will comes home to find Summer brutally stabbed to death. The title slams dramatically across the whole screen, obscuring our view of her mutilated body.

What's your favorite Benicio del Toro movie?

Seasoned detective Tom "Oklahoma" Nichols (Benicio del Toro) catches the case and works it, very gradually. The pool of suspects is small but almost comically filled with plausible psychos. We can't rule out the boyfriend, thanks to how close to the chest Timberlake plays his emotions. There's a dirtbag ex-husband (Karl Glusman) who looks like a police sketch personified, with his pencil stache bracketed by sharp cheekbones. And what gumshoe wouldn't turn his magnifying glass on Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), a townie who pulls the classic serial-killer move of appearing among the gaggle of onlookers outside the crime scene and holds a grudge against Grady's local real-estate dynasty? Eli also has the misfortune of being portrayed by Pitt, the frequent onscreen creep who gave TV's Hannibal and the English-language Funny Games remake some additional notes of distress; how obvious the movie will become hinges partially on whether he's the culprit or an easily profiled red herring.

Making his feature debut, director Grant Singer fits a profile, too. He stages scenes just like a guy who cut his teeth on music videos: obsessed with surface effect, less so with how well his story tracks from one carefully composed image to the next. The clipped editing, seedy overhead illumination, and periodic plunges into file cabinets mark Reptile as another entry, like The Little Things or Prisoners before it, on the growing log of David Fincher imitations. In fact, the movie often plays like the work of someone who caught Zodiac or Gone Girl on cable years earlier and is trying to recreate it from memory, getting some of the sickly sleekness down but remaining foggy on the specifics.

Reptile Gallery

This movie could really use a Gillian Flynn pass. It has the veneer of a Fincherian procedural, but not the density of clues or complications or studiously observed lead-chasing. Singer, who also cowrote the screenplay, portentously stretches out his ho-hum mystery, which gets less interesting the closer the detective comes to solving it. (The biggest revelation, the one that cracks the whole case, is uncovered thanks to laughable carelessness on the guilty party's part.) Padding out the protracted runtime are scenes of the detective's intersecting personal and professional lives. That his wife, played by Alicia Silverstone, is an encouraging, unofficial partner is a nice subversion of police-movie convention. A more playful thriller might have some fun with their dynamic instead of folding it into the general gloom.

There's some craft to admire at least. The cinematographer, Mike Gioulakis, supplies some of the same creeping menace he previously lent films by Jordan Peele , David Robert Mitchell , and M. Night Shyamalan . He has an expert eye for the evil lurking in the cracks and crevices of suburban life. Beyond the polished imagery, it's the performances that prop Reptile up. Del Toro, especially, draws you close with his understatement. He downplays everything, raising an eyebrow but never his voice, even when threatening the man flirting with his wife. Is that lawman strategy or essential temperament? There's much more intrigue in the actor's carefully subdued delivery than what the whodunit provides.

Then again, maybe he's just drowsy. The audience probably will be. Reptile drones through its mystery, almost daring viewers to zone out, perhaps in hopes that we might miss a few key details and walk away thinking we've seen something more suggestive and complex than we have. The film has no ups or downs, just a flatline of disquiet connecting one identically inflected moment to the next. It's the detective thriller as foreboding white noise machine.

Benicio del Toro's understated performance as a soft-spoken detective is about the only interesting thing about this new Netflix thriller, which drowns a thin murder mystery in lots of ominous atmosphere. Making his feature debut, music video director Grant Singer dabbles in the sleek procedural style of David Fincher, but this is no Zodiac or Gone Girl; it has mood to spare, but little in the way of genuine intrigue. Wait for The Killer instead.

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Common Sense Media Review

Grisly violence, language in dark detective mystery.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that murder mystery Reptile contains graphic descriptions of violence, some explicitly violent scenes, and plenty of swearing. A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene, and the brutality of her murder is described in detail. People are shot and killed on and off-screen. A tooth…

Why Age 16+?

A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene. The mortician describes speci

"F--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "hell," "goddamn," "bitch," "piss," "t-ts."

Couples kiss. A man talks about "fooling around," and another mentions "sleeping

There is reference to dealing "heroin and coke," and two scenes involve heroin d

Car brands form part of the investigation. An HP laptop is seen regularly, and o

Any Positive Content?

Most, but not all, bad deeds get punished. Crime doesn't pay. People are complic

Everyone in the film seems to have layers to them. There are criminals, drug dea

The film's lead actor is Puerto Rican-born, but this isn't part of his character

Violence & Scariness

A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene. The mortician describes specific details of the brutality of her murder, which involved being stabbed in the vagina. There's discussion of rape and bite marks. Elsewhere there are references to suicide, being "abused, harassed, and tortured," using human hair to make art, stats on female homicide, serial killers, car crashes. People are shot and killed on and off screen. A tooth impression is taken from a dead body. A man describes dreaming of being shot, and a woman admits to fear when her husband used to sleep with a gun under his pillow.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Couples kiss. A man talks about "fooling around," and another mentions "sleeping" with a woman. Another offers a male friend his choice of two women and suggests he could cheat on his wife and nobody would know. A couple discusses losing their virginity in high school or to "a prostitute." There's mention of sperm potency testing, "hookers," and a scene with a nude blow-up doll tossed around as a joke. A man and a woman pose for "sexy" photos at a crime scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

There is reference to dealing "heroin and coke," and two scenes involve heroin drug busts. Adults drink alcohol at events and parties. A woman mentions smoking a cigarette. A man has a box of loose marijuana in his drawer.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Car brands form part of the investigation. An HP laptop is seen regularly, and one scene involves discussion of a Rolex watch.

Positive Messages

Most, but not all, bad deeds get punished. Crime doesn't pay. People are complicated and not always what they seem from the outset.

Positive Role Models

Everyone in the film seems to have layers to them. There are criminals, drug dealers, and corrupt authorities. There are also hard-working people trying to do the right thing, and loving couples.

Diverse Representations

The film's lead actor is Puerto Rican-born, but this isn't part of his character. His detective partner is Black. Most, but not all, other characters are White. Some make homophobic jokes and sexist comments.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Parents need to know that murder mystery Reptile contains graphic descriptions of violence, some explicitly violent scenes, and plenty of swearing. A woman is found murdered at a grisly crime scene, and the brutality of her murder is described in detail. People are shot and killed on and off-screen. A tooth impression is taken from a dead body. There's discussion of rape, bite marks and wounds, references to suicide, being "abused, harassed, and tortured," using human hair to make art, stats on female homicide, serial killers, car crashes, dreams about being shot. Sexual content is mostly limited to some mild kissing and jokes and references about cheating, fooling around, sex workers, and sperm tests. A nude blow-up doll is tossed around as a joke. Men make sexist comments and a homophobic joke. Adults drink regularly. Heroin dealers are caught. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "bulls--t," "ass," "hell," "goddamn," "bitch," "piss," and "t-ts." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (2)
• Kids say (1)

Based on 2 parent reviews

This movie also uses the Lord and Savior JESUS CHRIST name in vain multiple times. Philippians 2:10-11 New King James Version 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

What's the Story?

When a woman ( Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz ) is found brutally murdered, detective Tom Nichols ( Benicio del Toro ) is brought in to investigate at the start of REPTILE. Nichols and junior partner Cleary ( Ato Essandoh ) consider the woman's boyfriend, real estate broker Will Grady ( Justin Timberlake ), a primary suspect. But as clues to the crime unfold, the case gets more and more murky. The woman's ex-husband, Sam ( Karl Glusman ), and a disgruntled man ( Michael Carmen Pitt ) with a grudge against Grady's real estate company appear involved in some way. Meanwhile, Nichols' own shady past lingers over him and his wife, Judy ( Alicia Silverstone ), and some clues are pointing uncomfortably toward people close to them.

Is It Any Good?

Starring a brilliant Benicio del Toro, this detective noir employs an assortment of genre tools to construct its dark tale. Reptile , whose name is never fully explained, packs quite a lot into the fast-moving story, though at over two hours, it could have been condensed more. With a hangdog look and a world-weary air, del Toro plays the aging detective masterfully. The camera closes in on him, especially his eyes, frequently, and as his own skepticism and distrust grow, so does ours. But his character also has human foibles, from his deep and protective bond with his wife (a fabulous Silverstone) to his coveting of a fancy faucet for his kitchen remodel.

There are also more than a couple of hints that del Toro has something to hide in his past, as do most others in this cast of characters. As del Toro goes through the paces of the investigation, the film builds suspense with an onslaught of ominous music, unexpected camera angles, creepy scenarios, and frequent plot twists. All the while, the script (which del Toro and director Singer helped co-write) fleshes out subtle character details, from the way suspect Grady (an enigmatic Timberlake) is groomed by his doting mother, to the family and family-like relationships among the policemen. The production design also does a great job conveying the cops' lives, from wall-papered living rooms to square dancing and poker gatherings to homophobic jokes and other macho banter.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the title of the film Reptile . What do you think it refers to?

How does the film reveal clues that peel back layers of each main character? At the end of the film, which characters were still the same in your eyes as at the start?

The film has graphic details of violence. Were these necessary? What factors do you think filmmakers take into consideration when deciding what violence to include (or not) in a movie?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : September 29, 2023
• Cast : Benicio Del Toro , Alicia Silverstone , Justin Timberlake
• Director : Grant Singer
• Inclusion Information : Latino actors, Female actors, Latino writers
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Thriller
• Run time : 135 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : language, violence and some nude images
• Last updated : November 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

True Detective

The Conversation

The Usual Suspects

Thriller movies, thriller books for teens.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

Reptile Review

06 Oct 2023

Reptile opens with seemingly idyllic imagery of the American middle and upper classes: large white houses standing as symbols of desirable affluence. It’s imagery that is, of course, soon to be undermined by the dark detective drama that follows, if not the murder of an estate agent that ignites it. Investigating the crime is Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro), who as far as movie cops go, seems like a relatively well-adjusted one. He lives in a nice house that he’s remodelling (and obsessing over what new taps he’s going to buy). His relationship with his wife Judy (Alicia Silverstone) and his coworkers is, by all appearances, solid. That’s all set to change when Tom’s investigation turns up unpleasant truths nestled close to home.

Grant Singer’s debut feature (co-written by Del Toro and Benjamin Brewer) never feels like it fully capitalises on this suburban nightmare, despite handsome visuals courtesy of cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, whose work on Us and It Follows helped foster a sense of dread. Reptile tries to build a similarly haunting mood as Gioulakis’ camera prowls around. But those pretty textures only go so far, and the imagery and acting is left to prop up uninspiring scripting, which aims for (and misses) Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners , or David Fincher’s flinty cop stories.

Reptile often tips into parody rather than meaningful pastiche.

As a result, Reptile often tips into parody rather than meaningful pastiche. This feels especially true when overwrought score-cues underline characters’ thoughts in laughable fashion, or when Justin Timberlake unconvincingly raises his voice at some weirdos who fetishise the crime scene where his girlfriend was murdered. There are some moments that are intentionally silly — like tense strings playing into a scene that transitions to Detective Nichols admiring pictures of kitchen taps on his work computer — but such moments feel few and far between.

Del Toro is still a formidable screen presence, though everything around him is so stale that it makes little difference, no matter how much the actor teases out more twisted depths in his character or environment. What is there is stretched thin over a mind-numbing two-and-a-quarter hour runtime, with little to show for it.

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Reptile Review: A Twisted Tale of Deception and Discovery

.sadopjpasdmksladnklsandlksadsaipdjhpsiajdpksampdjsajdpoajsdjjjjReptile , directed by Grant Singer in his feature-film directorial debut. The movie offers an intriguing premise with an extremely talented cast, including Benicio del Toro , Justin Timberlake , Alicia Silverstone , Eric Bogosian , and Ato Essandoh . With a screenplay co-written by Singer, Benjamin Brewer, and Benicio del Toro, and a story co-crafted by Singer and Brewer, Reptile promised to be a dark and gripping thriller. However, as the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but feel that the film fell short of its potential. Reptile delivers a narrative that was at times convoluted and lacked the emotional depth it desperately needed.

Reptile opens with the brutal murder of a young real estate agent. This heinous act sets the stage for what should be a gripping noir thriller. Benicio del Toro stars as Detective Tom Nichols, the lead investigator tasked with unraveling the layers of deception surrounding the case. Del Toro’s portrayal of Nichols is one of the film’s strengths. His weathered, world-weary demeanor, coupled with a relentless determination to uncover the truth, adds depth to his character.

Justin Timberlake plays Will Grady, the victim’s boyfriend, and his performance is one of the film’s weaker points. Timberlake struggles to convey the necessary emotional range for his character, leaving the audience disconnected from his plight. Alicia Silverstone, as Judy Nichols, Tom’s wife, adds a sense of domestic tension to the film. The problem is that her character is seriously underutilized, and her chemistry with Del Toro is never fully explored.

Eric Bogosian as Captain Robert Allen, Nichols’s boss, brings a commanding presence to his role, effectively portraying the bureaucratic pressure that often hinders investigations. Ato Essandoh as Detective Dan Cleary, Tom’s partner, delivers a solid performance, but his character’s development is stunted by the film’s convoluted narrative.

The film’s plot is where Reptile starts to unravel. While it promises a gritty and complex mystery, it often meanders through a convoluted narrative that struggles to maintain a coherent thread. The screenplay seems to prioritize style over substance, resulting in a disjointed storytelling experience. The film tries to be clever by interweaving multiple timelines and perspectives, but this approach often leaves the audience feeling disoriented and disconnected from the characters.

Grant Singer’s direction, while visually striking at times, lacks the finesse needed to guide the audience through the labyrinthine plot. The film’s cinematography, courtesy of Mike Gioulakis , is a standout element, with moody lighting and visually arresting compositions. However, the striking visuals can only carry the film so far when the storytelling falters.

One of the film’s major flaws is its inability to establish a clear emotional connection with the audience. While Detective Tom Nichols is a compelling character, his personal journey is overshadowed by the convoluted narrative. The film hints at the dismantling of illusions in Nichols’s life. It hints at them but it fails to fully explore this theme in a meaningful way. As a result, the emotional impact of the film is limited, and the audience is left wanting more depth from the characters.

Additionally, Reptile struggles with pacing issues. The film moves at a slow and deliberate pace. This pacing can work in a noir thriller if it is used to build tension and suspense. However, in this case, the slow pace often feels plodding and frustrating, with the narrative dragging in places where it should be accelerating.

The film’s climax attempts to tie together the various narrative threads. The issue is that it does so in a way that feels rushed and unsatisfying. It leaves too many loose ends and unanswered questions, which may leave some viewers feeling unsatisfied and confused. The resolution lacks the emotional resonance that should accompany the conclusion of a character-driven thriller.

In terms of its technical aspects, Reptile excels in some areas but falters in others. The film’s sound design and score create an eerie atmosphere that enhances the sense of unease. However, the editing can be jarring, with abrupt transitions between different timelines that disrupt the flow of the narrative.

Reptile had the potential to be a gripping and thought-provoking noir thriller, thanks to its talented cast and promising premise. Unfortunately, the film is hindered by a convoluted and disjointed narrative, underdeveloped characters, and pacing issues. While Benicio del Toro delivers a strong performance as Detective Tom Nichols, it’s not enough to salvage a film that falls short. Reptile ultimately leaves the audience feeling disconnected and unsatisfied, making it a missed opportunity for a genre that thrives on tension, mystery, and emotional depth. Grant Singer’s directorial debut shows promise, but it ultimately needs a tighter script and more coherent storytelling to truly captivate its audience.

• Acting - 6/10 6/10
• Cinematography/Visual Effects - 7.5/10 7.5/10
• Plot/Screenplay - 4/10 4/10
• Setting/Theme - 5/10 5/10
• Watchability - 5/10 5/10
• Rewatchability - 3/10 3/10

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Reptile’ on Netflix, A Perplexing Police Procedural

Where to stream:.

• Reptile (2023)
• Benicio Del Toro

Netflix’s ‘Reptile’ Trailer Features a Grizzled Benicio Del Toro Interrogating a Shifty Justin Timberlake

Stream it or skip it: ‘the french dispatch’ on hulu, in which wes anderson further perfects his wonderful peculiarities, ‘what if…’: does the collector’s collection include a ‘thor: love and thunder’ easter egg, where to watch ‘the french dispatch’.

If you’re on the other side of Benicio Del Toro as a cop in a movie, you should probably start saying some prayers. But if you’re on the other side of the screen watching Benicio Del Toro as a cop in a movie, as you would be if you fire up Netflix original Reptile , then you’re probably in for something gripping. You don’t have to know the other similar characters he’s played to the one here to understand the movie, but it certainly adds to the sense of terror and dread that pervades the film.

REPTILE : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: There’s something off from the start about the murder of the realtor Summer Elswick (Matilda Lutz) that sets off alarm bells in the head of Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) as he begins trying to identify the culprit. The initial obvious suspect, a long-term lover Will (Justin Timberlake) whom she’s taken since separating from her husband Sam (Karl Glusman), gets initially cleared. Each successive discovery in the case points him less toward a single person behind the death and more in the direction of a wider network of shady, connected interests. Real estate seems tied up with fishy investments, which then extend to the drug trade, and finally into the security apparatus. That’s both a private group and the police themselves … which hits especially close to home given that Tom’s wife Judy (Alicia Silverstone) is the niece of the chief, Allen (Eric Bogosian).

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: With the muted color palette and general ambiance of creeping dread, Reptile gives off the energy of a David Fincher ( Se7en , Zodiac ) or Denis Villeneuve ( Prisoners , Sicario ) film.

Performance Worth Watching: Benicio Del Toro in his morally ambiguous law enforcement figure bag — think Traffic and, again, Sicario — is never anything short of riveting to watch. No wonder he keeps getting cast in roles like this. He makes them exciting each and every time.

Memorable Dialogue: “I don’t have to be redeemed,” Tom matter-of-factly tells a suspect in the case. “Do you understand?” It’s a chilling statement that shows while he’s not sure of much going around him, Tom is sure of his own rectitude.

Sex and Skin: The only skin you’re seeing here is one shed by a snake that Summer finds ominously right before her murder.

Our Take: Reptile is ultimately a very boilerplate police procedural movie, but that doesn’t mean you won’t feel the heat at various points. Something about the idea clearly resonated with Benicio Del Toro, who not only stars in the film but also receives his first feature writing credit for it. Tom’s character journey is always interesting as he tries to sort through the miasma of corruption pervading his small New England town. But surely there’s a way to get that across in much less than 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is really stretching just how much this story can sustain — even with a wide ensemble of characters. It’s not necessarily an impossible plot to crack, especially given how it ultimately throws up its hands in favor of a somewhat unearned fatalism about everyone’s interconnected guilt.

‘Reptile’ Ending Explained: Benecio del Toro’s Whodunit Netflix Movie Is Confusing AF

Nonetheless, this a promising first feature for director Grant Singer, a prominent music video director making the jump over to narrative. Perhaps there’s just a bit of overcorrection from the faster-paced, rhythmic cutting of the music video form to this languid police thriller.

Our Call: SKIP IT. You’re better off rewatching one of the movies Grant Singer is aping with Reptile . Like the snake of its title, it slithers ominously enough to send some shivers up the spine. But it’s also a bit too slow and deliberate for its own good, even if its venomous bite can draw some blood.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.

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• The Netflix movie Reptile boasts an eclectic cast and a twist-filled plot, keeping viewers on their toes until the unexpected ending.
• The murder of real estate agent Summer leads to a deep dive into drugs, money laundering, police corruption, and real estate, unraveled by detective Tommy Nichols.
• Tommy uncovers a web of police corruption involving his colleagues and even his wife's uncle, leading to a tense climax where he takes matters into his own hands.

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for The Reptile.

An eclectic cast stars in the new Netflix movie Reptile , which boasts a twist-filled plot and unexpected ending. Benicio del Toro , Justin Timberlake , Eric Bogosian , and Alicia Silverstone all come together to tell the story of a murdered real estate agent and the ensuing police investigation. It seems a little strange seeing del Toro and Timberlake share scenes considering the former is a very serious dramatic actor who has shined in dramatic and thrilling titles like the Sicario movies, The Usual Suspects , Traffic , and 21 Grams among many others, while Timberlake is a fine actor, but has largely earned his bona fides as a pop music star. Throw in the eccentric actor/playwright/novelist Bogosian who recently played Senator Gil Eavis on the hit HBO drama Succession , and the cast of the Grant Singer -directed movie on Netflix that debuted at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is a veritable hodgepodge. Somehow it all comes together pretty well to tell a whodunit story involving drugs, money laundering, police corruption, and real estate. But what happens in the end, as the chilling psychological thriller Reptile slowly uncovers who is responsible for the initial murder and why?

What is 'Reptile' About?

Timberlake stars as Will Grady, a prominent young real estate agent who works with his girlfriend Summer ( Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz ) and his mother Camille ( Frances Fisher ) in the family firm. When Summer turns up dead in a house that they are showing to potential buyers, there is no shortage of suspects in the small town to choose from. Summer and Will look to be on the outs and about to break up, which makes him the number one suspect. Additionally, Summer has an ex-husband named Sam ( Karl Glusman ) who happens to be a heroin dealer. There is also Eli Phillips ( Michael Pitt ), a young man who has had a beef with the Grady family since his father committed suicide following a real estate deal that left him financially broken. He has a personal vendetta against the Gradys and blames them for the death of his dad. Any one of these characters plus a handful of others each has the means, motive, and opportunity to sexually attack and strangle Summer Elswick. But in the end, it's the reason why she is killed that provides a terrific and serpentine twist in the aptly named Reptile .

Why Is Summer Killed in 'Reptile'?

Initially, it appears as if Summer is murdered in retaliation for the misdeeds of her and the Grady family. But as the twisty yarn unfolds and Head Detective Tommy Nichols (del Toro) and his partner Dan Cleary ( Ato Essendoh ) dig deeper and deeper into the various suspects and facts surrounding the case, it becomes clear that there is something far more sinister at play. Someone wanted to quiet Summer, who was threatening to expose crime and corruption. As Tommy continues to peel back the layers of the onion, his colleagues — who are also best friends with him and his wife Judy (Silverstone) — start to fall under his microscope. It becomes apparent that it may be one of his police brethren who had something to do with the murder. Tommy doesn't know who he can trust, and director Grant Singer does a worthy job of slowly building the suspense and getting as much psychological juice as possible out of a relatively standard plot device.

Benicio Del Toro's Tommy Nichols Fights Against Deep-Seated Police Corruption

Eli gets his hands on a thumb flash drive and gives it to Tommy. On it, he discovers that Will Grady and his mother have created a shell company called White Fish Securities that has received all the profits from the houses they have sold. To go along with the suspicious real estate company, one of Tommy's best friends, who is also a cop in the department, Wally ( Domenick Lombardozzi ), has started up a moonlighting private security firm called Active Duty Security Counseling. Neither of these companies is anything more than a front to launder money from large heroin deals that are being run through Grady's real estate company. So Tommy knows that he can't trust his buddy Wally or Will, and isn't sure who else within the department is in on the corruption. His captain (who is his wife Judy's uncle) Robert Allen (Bogosian) is also in on the criminal activity. It's particularly painful for Tommy to learn of Captain Allen's involvement, because he sees him as a father figure, and it actually makes him wonder if his wife knows. It's a nice twist to learn that the misdeeds rise all the way to the Captain , but Singer then doubles down and delivers another great curveball when Tommy discovers that even the Chief of Police Marty Graeber ( Mike Pniewski ) is dirty, too.

RELATED : 'Reptile' Cast and Character Guide: Who Stars in the Netflix Crime Thriller

Who Kills Summer in 'Reptile'?

Tommy is shaken to the core as it seems like he is the only one of his circle of close friends who keeps his hands clean, being left out of the loop on the heroin side hustle. When Captain Robert Allen finds out that Tommy knows and that the jig is up, he tries his best to protect his niece's husband and friend from Wally and Chief Graeber who want him dead. Tommy finds out that Judy has nothing to do with the conspiracy, and eventually goes over to Robert's home to find him and Graeber discussing what they are going to do now that he knows their secret. The music is haunting as Robert whispers to Tommy, "Get outta here! You gave them the drive. They know!" Graeber has excused himself to the bathroom while Robert heads up the stairs. As he reaches the top, he is shot in the head by an unseen assailant and tumbles to the bottom. Tommy draws his sidearm and slowly makes his way to the downstairs bathroom where Graeber is. Graeber opens the door and Tommy sticks his weapon in his face. The chief tries to talk him down, but he pulls the trigger and blows the dirty cop's brains all over the bathroom mirror.

He immediately turns around to see Wally with his gun drawn. The two best friends have a quiet standoff in the living room for what seems like an eternity. It isn't until a Frisbee from outside hits the large front window of the house that Wally is distracted just long enough for Tommy to unload three rounds into him. Tommy slowly approaches Wally, who is groaning in pain. He tells Tommy he can't feel his legs as Tommy places the barrel of his pistol right up against his forehead. Tommy thinks better of it and pulls his weapon back, sits down, and calls 911 as the kids playing with the Frisbee look on from outside the window. The next scene sees Will Grady being arrested while playing golf for the actual murder of Summer, who was threatening to expose the drug money laundering scheme. The final shot of the film is Tommy cleaning his wounded hand underneath a motion sensor sink similar to one that he had commented on much earlier in the movie in a nice little callback from Singer.

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Reptile review: benicio del toro skillfully leads uneven, frustrating crime drama.

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• Reptile is a murder mystery that holds deeper secrets and twists, but it can feel frustratingly generic and predictable.
• The rock-solid cast, including a great performance from Del Toro, adds an extra edge to the film.
• Despite its technical skill, the script withholds information in a way that can lead to annoyance or confusion, and the eventual resolution relies on familiar crime drama tropes.

Not everything is as it seems in Reptile , the new Netflix movie from director Grant Singer. What looks like a fairly straightforward, if shockingly brutal, murder holds deeper secrets and plenty of twists and turns. And yet, for all of its intrigue, it can't help but feel frustratingly generic at times. There's a distinct feeling of familiarity, so there's a very good chance viewers will predict where the plot is going. That doesn't entirely hinder its watchability, but it does make for a less memorable experience. Reptile gets an extra edge thanks to its rock-solid cast and sufficiently gripping mystery, but it never coalesces into anything incredible.

When pretty, young realtor Summer (Matilda Lutz) is found dead in one of the houses she was attempting to sell, seasoned detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) boards the case with his newer partner Cleary (Ato Essandoh). The two start with the typical suspects, from Summer's boyfriend Will (Justin Timberlake) to her ex-husband (Karl Glusman). Tom soon narrows in on a likely killer, but even when the case appears to be closed, he can't overlook the details that don't add up. As he continues to dig into the strange circumstances behind Summer's death, he soon realizes there's far more to this case than he initially thought, and it even has devastating ties to his own life.

Of the positives within Reptile , Del Toro gives a great performance as the quiet, calculating Tom. There are frequent references to his past, which included a crooked partner at his previous precinct, though no concrete details are ever given. This is actually for the better, as it casts Tom in an intriguing shadow that Del Toro plays exceptionally well. Alicia Silverstone, reuniting with Del Toro after Excess Baggage, also gets in a solid part as Tom's wife, who he frequently turns to for her perspective on the unsettling case. Timberlake is sufficiently solid as the grieving boyfriend hiding his own secrets; after all, no one in Reptile is exactly who they seem to be at first glance. Of the supporting cast, Essandoh's Cleary makes for an interesting contrast to Tom, and Eric Bogosian stands out as Tom's boss, though he doesn't get as much depth as one might like, even after some late twists call things into question.

Now, this can be attributed to the fact that, ultimately, Reptile is about Tom and his ever-growing investigation. Singer, in his feature film debut, exhibits a clear talent for striking images, and editor Kevin Hickman gives the whole production a bit more flair with some precise cuts in key scenes. And yet, despite the technical skill at hand, Reptile can't avoid the frustration that arises from its script. Penned by Singer, Benjamin Brewer, and Del Toro (from a story by Singer and Brewer), the screenplay appears designed to throw viewers off track more than anything else, presenting sequences that withhold information in a way that only leads to annoyance or confusion. It's clear the creative team wishes to keep audiences in suspense, but since the eventual resolution relies on very familiar crime drama tropes, it doesn't quite work.

That leaves Reptile with an ultimately unsurprising conclusion, though Tom's climatic showdown with the culprits does get the heart racing. This movie has the feel and story of an old-fashioned, hard-boiled detective story, and anyone looking for thrills of that kind will probably enjoy what Singer is offering here. However, there isn't enough going on to truly make Reptile stand out from the myriad mysteries that have been populating the big and small screen for years. It's a worthy effort from a first time feature director, but perhaps not one that will stand the test of time.

Reptile is now playing in select theaters and will begin streaming on Netflix Friday, September 29. It is 136 minutes long and rated R for violence, language, and some nude images.

Reptile is a dramatic crime thriller by director Grant Singer and follows Benicio Del Toro's Tom Nichols, a detective in New England who begins to follow the trail of a killer after a real estate is murdered. However, his progress is impeded by his own past, forcing him to unravel the barriers built up in his mind to find the truth - leading to some starting revelations. 

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Director: Grant Singer Writers: Grant Singer, Benjamin Brewer, and Benicio del Toro Stars: Benicio del Toro, Justin Timberlake, Eric Bogosian

Synopsis: Nichols, a hardened New England detective unflinching in his pursuit of a case where nothing is as it seems, one that begins to dismantle the illusions in his own life.

Reptile is an atmospheric Southern crime thriller dripping with an ominous and obsessive style that gradually seeps under the skin, keeping the viewer on edge and making them uneasy. Grant Singer’s haunting tale excels when the script delves into fear and explores how good people create a moral gray area to unburden themselves of the guilt of doing very bad things.

The story follows Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro), a once-celebrated Philadelphia detective who has taken a job in a small township. His wife, Judy (former del Toro Excess Baggage co-star Alicia Silverstone), arranged the position, and his uncle, who suffers from multiple sclerosis (Eric Bogosian), secured the job after a scandal back east left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. That move pays off when Nichols is assigned to investigate the scandalous murder of a local real estate agent.

Her name was Summer (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz), and she was separated but dating a wealthy real estate magnate, Will Grady (Justin Timberlake), who discovered her brutally murdered body in a house they were both preparing to put on the market. Summer was stabbed so brutally that the murder weapon was left behind, lodged in the victim’s pelvis with sheer force. Assisting in the investigation is Nichols’s partner, Detective Dan Cleary (Ato Essandoh), another officer with aspirations beyond the police department (Domenick Lombardozzi, exceptional here), and a mysterious sleuth (Michael Pitt) with an agenda.

This is Singer’s directorial debut after directing music videos for some of the industry’s mega-stars, including The Weeknd, Sky Ferreira, Lorde, Sam Smith, and Skrillex. In short, the man knows style. Still, what makes his debut feature so surprising is its autonomy. From an ominous climb up a dark staircase to a shadowy figure trapping its prey, minimalist symmetry is clean and conveys a visual sense of order and balance. Yet, this is all an act to give the appearance of order when what is happening around the characters is nothing but sinister.

The film’s title refers to the cold-blooded nature of people. In the first few minutes, a character finds a snake that has shed its skin, a metaphor for how some can shed their covers, exposing their cruel nature. Singer co-wrote the script with del Toro, and Benjamin Brewer has infused this discerning story with that sentiment, loading the frames with the subtlest of symbolic imagery. By the time the third act rolls around, the smallest revelations are enhanced by the carefully meticulous plot, the unsettling cinematography of Mike Gioulakis, and the sinister musical score by Yair Elazar Glotman and Arca.

Generally, I never have an issue with a movie’s running time because movies have to be as short or long as they need to be. As Roger Ebert would say, no great film is long enough, and no bad film is short enough. While this review is very positive, Reptile has a longer-than-expected run time, but upon a second watch, most of it was needed to understand the plot. With the exception of the puzzling beginning dinner scene (and the divisive ending sequence), the film’s visual and pitch-perfect pacing hardly make the 132-minute running time barely noticeable and never drags along. While some subplots within the first two acts seem like filler, everything works out in the end.

Even at Reptile’s weakest moments, the film never fails to entertain, even if the ending has a giant plot hole involving witnesses looking through a window, which can be maximized based on how you interpret the conclusion, which is meant to create discussion points.

Regardless of the perspective, Reptile can gracefully navigate the viewer with a steady hand thanks to del Toro’s magnetic performance, which effortlessly seizes your attention. Disregard those critics intent on comparing Reptile to the king of underbelly crime thrillers, David Fincher, which is an unnecessarily high standard. Movies deserve to be evaluated on their own merits, and they have entirely missed the point because they were not carefully paying attention.

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“Cuckoo” gets more confusing the more it explains itself. The further writer-director Tilman Singer goes in articulating the strange goings-on that drive this stylish, unsettling thriller, the less compelling it becomes.   

Trying to comprehend the hows and whys of this twisted mystery creates a distraction from which the film never recovers. Either we needed to know more, or we needed to know less. Ambiguity actually would have been preferable; Singer creates such a foreboding mood, it would have been enough to hold us in its spell. Instead, we go from “Whoa” to “Wait, what?” 

Still, deeply committed performances from Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens keep us hanging on, at least for a while. Both actors are doing extremely different things here, and that friction creates both humor and tension from the get-go. As he has in films as disparate as “ The Guest ,” “ Abigail ,” and “ Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga ,” Stevens uses his gorgeous looks to sinister effect. (And as he did in “I’m Your Man,” he speaks perfect German.) There’s a slickness about him, a piercing quality to his eyes that makes him untrustworthy yet fascinating. Schafer grabs us in a totally different way: She’s our straightforward conduit, the only one who recognizes that something is seriously wrong within the film’s idyllic setting and is willing to call it out. But, reminiscent of Florence Pugh ’s struggle in “ Midsommar ,” no one will listen to her in this beautiful and dangerous foreign land. 

Schafer stars as Gretchen, a 17-year-old American who’s recently lost her mother. In a fog of grief, she’s forced to move with her father ( Marton Csokas ), his new wife ( Jessica Henwick ), and their young, mute daughter ( Mila Lieu ) to a resort in the Bavarian Alps. Working with cinematographer Paul Faltz , Singer frames this breathtaking place as a brutalist prison, shooting from the bottom of the mountains upward to signify how trapped Gretchen feels. 

Stevens’ smarmy Herr König runs the place and has invited the family to stay a while as he works with Gretchen’s father on his next development. From the start, though, severe shadows and chilly reflections indicate to us that this is anything but a relaxing retreat. And Herr König’s demeanor, which morphs from merely passive-aggressive to outright controlling, makes her even more desperate to flee. The exaggerated way he pronounces her name, leaning hard into the R in Gretchen, is amusing but also symbolic of his arrogant cruelty. 

But unnatural forces also seem to be holding her in place. One particularly gripping sequence finds Gretchen riding her bike home at night after reluctantly working a shift at the hotel’s front desk. With expert pacing, Singer and editors Terel Gibson and Philipp Thomas reveal just enough beneath the streetlights to terrify us. Similarly, there’s a hypnotic repetition of sequences that occurs over and over again, each time building to a startling crescendo. A seismic shimmer and a high-pitched shriek accompany this structure; while this sound design choice is disturbing at first, it eventually grows annoying, especially once we discover its source. 

And yet, because she is grieving, we don’t know what’s real and what’s the manifestation of her trauma. The amorphous quality of her torment is sorrowful and unnerving, and the messages she leaves on her deceased mother’s answering machine never provide the catharsis she seeks. Schafer has such an accessibility about her that we feel every emotion, and as Gretchen taps into her fierceness, we root for her to use her physicality to triumph. She also has such a deadpan way of addressing the increasing absurdity around her that she brings some welcome comic relief within the tension. 

But then we find out what’s really going on – or at least, we think we do. Somewhere in here, there might be a dark fairy tale about the importance of letting women do what they want with their bodies, but that message gets muddled within the chaotic narrative. Whether or not you truly understand it, or it’s even capable of being understood, “Cuckoo” will likely drive you mad. 

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Every ‘Alien’ Movie Ranked, from Worst to Best, Including ‘Romulus’

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[Editor’s Note: This list was originally published in May 2017. It has since been updated to coincide with the release of “Alien: Romulus.” ]

With such a heavyweight one-two opening punch, the “Alien” franchise really had nowhere to go but down. But that hasn’t stopped the powers that be from plugging along, trying to create a follow-up that would recapture the magic that Cameron and Scott created. There was David Fincher’s disowned and controversial “Alien 3,” and the universally disliked “Resurrection.” There was the cheesy ridiculousness of the “Alien vs. Predator” crossover series, and Scott’s frustrating but compelling aborted prequel trilogy, which started with the enigmatic “Prometheus” before morphing into the near-brilliant “Covenant.” Now, with Scott presumably not making that third film any time soon, the Xenomorphs are back for an interquel, “ Alien: Romulus ,” which plays more than any installment in the franchise like an attempt to chase the indelible terror of Ripley’s first run-in with H.R. Giger’s disturbing monsters. Whether it succeeds is in the eye of the beholder, but the fact that audiences keep anticipating a new “Alien” film is proof of the hold that this franchise’s original perfection still has on the popular imagination.

With “Romulus” out in theaters now, we refreshed our look at one of cinemas’s most beloved franchises. Read on for all nine “Alien” movies ranked, from worst to best.

9. “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” (2007)

Of course, not being able to see anything on screen was as much of a blessing as it was a curse because this was the movie that introduced the world to the garbage hybrid “Predalien,” which stalked the poor townspeople of Gunnison, Colorado. Yes, after decades of threatening to unleash the Xenomorphs on Earth’s civilian population, the franchise finally went for it in the most bastardized way possible. Both unwatchably stupid and also brash enough to end with a half-assed origin story for the second name in Weyland Yutani, “Requiem” is an unmitigated disaster. Xenomorphs coming to Colorado would be bad, but this movie playing in Colorado multiplexes was even worse. —DE

8. “AVP: Alien vs. Predator” (2004)

The first half of the film traffics in the same kind of ominous wonder and awestruck discovery that carried so much of the original “Alien” — the idea of finding a pyramid buried 2,000 feet below an Antarctic island is plenty compelling, and the movie is at its best when it poses its victims on the surface and has them peer down into the darkness of the funnel they’ve drilled. But, uh, the quality of the film sinks pretty severely as the story goes below sea level. The biggest problem here, and the hardest to solve, is that the Predators simply aren’t as interesting as the Aliens. On one side, you have H.R. Giger’s soulless killing machines, hatched directly from our most hellish nightmares. On the other side, you have moody teenagers with very big guns (and very bad skin) who have essentially come to Earth for their intergalactic Bar Mitzvahs. It’s not much of a fair fight, and Anderson never finds a way to make these space nemeses as interesting as the shapeshifting arena in which they’re fighting each other, but God bless Sanaa Lathan for stoically playing scenes where she’s forced to become friends with a Predator. There’s a moment where they almost high-five, and she pulls it off. That’s acting. —DE

7. “Alien: Resurrection” (1997)

For one thing, it brings the Xenomorphs’ adaptability to its logical conclusion; Ripley provides the missing link between human and alien, her pregnancy re-contextualizing the chest-bursting imagery as an expression of birth rather than death. For another, it completes the series’ prolonged round trip back to Earth. Joss Whedon’s seriously compromised screenplay doesn’t spark with his usual wit, but the saga’s first “female” android (a pixie-haired Winona Ryder!) is a nice complement to Ripley’s complicated femininity. And while “Resurrection” doesn’t stick the landing in any sense of the word, it does have a scene where Dominique Pinon — playing a quadriplegic space mechanic — shoots at Xenomorphs while being carried by Ron Perlman in a reverse Babybjörn. So there’s that. —DE

6. “Alien: Romulus” (2024)

It’s a shame, then, that the strong setpieces are attached to an overlong, utterly dull story about an unlikable and anonymous group of space colonists attempting to pull a heist on a derelict space ship. The attempts to string some emotional or thought provoking questions out of the dead-in-the-water bond between action girl Rain and her android brother Andy just frustrates more than anything, despite Cailee Spaeny and David Johnsson’s more than capable talents. What really leads “Romulus” astray, though, is its utter lack of imagination and offputting attempts to resurrect the magic of the original two films with callbacks and shout outs that land with decided thuds. The garish and unpleasant use of CGI to resurrect the late Ian Holm as an unnerving copycat of his original android Ash feels like an apt metaphor for a film more concerned with chasing the past than charting itself a new course. —WC

5. “Prometheus” (2012)

A blockbuster creation myth that peers into humanity’s uncertain future by retconning its past, the film clumsily combines the basic trajectory of an “Alien” movie — people fly a bit too close to the sun, land on a planet they never should have found, and then die all the deaths — with the existential inquisitiveness of “The Leftovers.” It’s the first movie of a (since-abandoned) trilogy that didn’t know where it was going, and, in keeping with the spirit of its greater franchise, let its ultimate destination be determined by throwing a hundred options at the story and seeing which survived the fans’ reaction. The result is a visually astonishing mish-mash of ideas that range from the interesting (Michael Fassbender as a Peter O’Toole-inspired android with ulterior motives!) to the inane (everything that leads to the moment where Charlize Theron says “FATHER”), an uneven prequel that’s nonetheless wildly compelling. —DE

4. “Alien 3” (1992)

And that’s a good thing, because the special effects have never been worse. The result of a (truly) visionary director making his first feature in the pre-“Jurassic Park” era of CGI, “Alien 3” is a hot mess of awkward digital animation, overambitious puppeteering, and the kind of sloppy composite work that Fincher would never tolerate again. Sill, the experience clearly proved formative for the young Fincher, who survived this studio nightmare and emerged from it with the kind of perseverance that would make Ripley proud. —DE

3. “ Alien: Covenant ” (2017)

2. “Aliens” (1986)

No, “Aliens” is not a perfect movie. I know it feels like a perfect movie, and flows like a perfect movie, and that it manages to run for more than 150 minutes while still boasting the rewatchability of an incredible Vine, but none of that matters once you notice Paul Reiser’s blazer . Seriously, James Cameron created an entire planet for “Avatar,” and he couldn’t be bothered to imagine that — in the 150 years between 1986 and 21whatever — the only advance in the fashion world would be that corporate weasels are wearing jackets with stiffer collars? Embarrassing. A real genius like George Lucas would have gone back and digitally inserted some CG patterns or something by now. What a disgrace.

1. “Alien” (1979)

Studio movies today have way too much story (and that most definitely includes both “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant”). There are like four things that happen in “Alien” — it runs two full hours and it’s one of the best films of all time. Some blue-collar space workers detect a strange transmission from an unknown planetoid, and their ship’s A.I. decides to wake them from hyper-sleep to investigate, because the ship’s A.I is definitely on their side (after all, Mother knows best). The crew investigates, John Hurt gets a stomach ache, and a woman named Ripley is the only one who manages to find the cure. But oh, how Ridley Scott fills in the parts between the plot points, milking Dan O’Bannon’s immaculately sparse screenplay for every drop of sinister goodness.

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It’s also a movie that comes with a deep funny-book pedigree, considering the history of the handle. The Blue Beetle’s first appearance was in 1939, roughly a year after Action Comics debuted Superman and a few months after Detective Comics gave us Batman. Three different companies — Fox Comics, Charlton Comics, and DC — have published stories featuring the character fighting for truth, justice, and the insect-costumed-vigilante way; DC bought the rights to the superhero’s name and eventually refashioned him in 2006 as the alter-ego of a Mexican-American teenager named Jaime Reyes. This is the Blue Beetle we get in this late-breaking DCEU entry. And it is the key difference that separates this otherwise generic take on the form we’ve come to know, love, and become seriously fatigued by .

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What comes next is the usual bangzappow! , done in a way that isn’t particularly distinguishable from a million other comic-panel-to-screen blockbusters. This is Stock Superhero Cinema 101, done in a manner that’s functional but almost instantly forgettable. Or it would be, if the entire multiplex-friendly template wasn’t a sort of secret conduit to something extra. Blue Beetle knows what it needs to do, i.e. sell a third-tier superhero that partially ties in to an extended universe of endless callbacks and cross-promotion. (Still, sweet Gotham Law sweatshirt, bro!) What Soto and Dunnet-Alcocer seem more interested in showing you, however, is what’s happening in, around, and right on the periphery of the story. They’ve infused a strong sense of Latino and Latin American culture throughout, as well as a potent strain of social commentary.

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And Blue Beetle isn’t afraid to call out enemies of that culture that don’t exactly come from comic books. The real supervillain here isn’t a power-mad industrialist or a mech-suited killer, but gentrification — there are a conspicuous amount of “For Sale” signs on houses and foreclosed storefronts on display. You don’t hear someone taunting a rival with “Shouldn’t you be pillaging cobalt from some third-world country?” every day. Racism rears its head in both casual (a receptionist keeps mispronouncing Jaime’s name as “Jay-mee”) and not-so-casual ways (Victoria continually refers to a scientist, played by What We Do in the Shadows ’ Harvey Guillén, as “Sanchez”… which, as you may have guessed, is not his name). When was the last time you saw a superhero film that indirectly hinted at a character’s Zapatista past and then made it pay off? Or directly namechecks the School of the Americas , our nation’s involvement in South American conflicts, and Guatemalan child soldiers ?

Blue Beetle does all of this, often with a righteous sense of fury that’s noticeable beneath the same ol’ sturm und drang of a typical loud, clumsy, fumbling blockbuster. It doesn’t transform the film into the second coming of Black Panther, still the gold standard, but it does make it feel a lot more personal and remarkable while it’s padding a corporate bottom line. Especially since, in terms of the pre-reboot DC cinematic universe, this is essentially a white dwarf. (Confusingly, newly appointed D.C. Grand Poobah James Gunn says that while his upcoming Superman film is “the first full DCU movie”, Reyes is the first character in his DCU . It’s complicated.) A post-credits sequence hints at another chapter, which the movie likely won’t get. The pity is that we probably don’t need another Blue Beetle adventure. What Soto and company have done with the saga of Jaime Reyes, however, suggests a formula that may save this whole genre from simply going down, down, and away.

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Movie Review: ‘Cuckoo’ is a stylish nightmare, with a wonderfully sinister Dan Stevens

This image released by Neon shows Dan Stevens in a scene from “Cuckoo.” (Felix Dickinson/Neon via AP)

This image released by Neon shows Dan Stevens in a scene from “Cuckoo.” (Neon via AP)

This image released by Neon shows Greta Fernandez in a scene from “Cuckoo.” (Felix Dickinson/Neon via AP)

This image released by Neon shows Hunter Schafer in a scene from “Cuckoo.” (Felix Dickinson/Neon via AP)

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Let’s get one thing out of the way first: I did not entirely understand everything that happens in “Cuckoo,” a new indie horror in theaters Friday .

This could be more of a me problem than with the storytelling, but there are a lot of strange things happening at this particular Alpine resort. It’s run by a bespectacled German hotelier named Herr König, played with an off-kilter menace by Dan Stevens.

Some of the occurrences are underexplained, others underexplored. Herr König seems particularly worried about things that happen after dark, but not so much about guests wandering into the reception and general store in a wobbly stupor and vomit. Are they drunk? Sick? Should someone help them? All we get is: “It happens.” The hospital, too, is eerily empty. Sonic vibrations often ripple through the land, causing scenes to repeat until reaching a violent crescendo. And no one seems to listen to or care about anything 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) has to say, no matter how banged up she gets. The quick escalation of her injuries, and the widening disinterest of her father, approaches comedy.

Ambiguity can be wonderful for mystery and worldbuilding; It can also be frustrating. And more often than not, detailed explanations just make everything lamer. “ Cuckoo ” dips into all of the above. Even so, it is undeniably fascinating, original and even occasionally fun, in a very twisted and deranged way in which laughter is your involuntary response to something horrifying. In her captivating lead performance, Schafer really goes through it, both physically and emotionally.

It also features Stevens sporting tiny, rimless glasses with sinisterly scandi-cool monochrome outfits, and a screaming ghoul with Hitchcockian glamour in a hooded trench and white-framed oval sunnies. Rarely is it a bad idea for a horror film to lean into style, and “Cuckoo” fully commits.

“Cuckoo” is the brainchild of German director Tilman Singer, but credit also goes to Singer’s predecessors: The works of David Lynch and Dario Argento among them. Gretchen is a reluctant resident in the idyllic, modern home with her detached father (Martin Csokas), stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu). She leaves increasingly desperate messages on her mother’s answering machine in America.

It’s certainly an exaggerated but apt portrait of a new family where the remnants of the old are treated like a nuisance. When Alma starts having seizures during the vibrations, which no one but Gretchen seems to remember or acknowledge, the parents’ attention turns fully to the young girl. They can barely be bothered to care about Gretchen’s miraculous survival of a horrifying car wreck; Alma is in the same hospital because of the episodes.

As with many horrors, the big reveals were, for this critic, a little underwhelming — a strained attempt at a unifying theory for this weird place that doesn’t add much ultimately. And yet the emotional connection to Gretchen and her complex relationship with Alma does pay off in unexpected ways.

Also, Stevens deserves special acknowledgement for his contributions to “Cuckoo.” This is a man who could have easily languished in blandly handsome leading man roles and instead is becoming one of our great character actors. He is regularly the best and most memorable part of whatever he’s in just by his sheer commitment to going there, whether it’s his Hawaiian shirt wearing titan veterinarian in “Godzilla x Kong,” his Russian pop star in “Eurovision” or any number of his deranged horror characters. He and Schafer, always a compelling presence, make “Cuckoo” very much worth it. They exist far too comfortably in this dreamy, nightmarish world dreamt up by Singer that is well worth a watch.

“Cuckoo,” a Neon release in theaters Friday, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “language, brief teen drug use, bloody images, violence.” Running time: 102 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

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Cuckoo review: an admirably offbeat horror thriller

“Director Tilman Singer's Cuckoo is a strange, frequently thrilling surrealist horror film.”

• Tilman Singer's sharp direction
• Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens' performances
• Paul Faltz's rich, bright cinematography
• A lackluster central mystery
• A messy third act
• Several superfluous supporting characters

Not enough movies are set in secluded mountain resorts. They’re environments that are uniquely capable of eliciting emotions like fear, restlessness, and — above all else — paranoia. Emotions, in other words, that form the foundation of any great thriller or horror story. No movie has, of course, ever utilized a mountainside resort as well as The Shining , which uses sinister ghosts and tragic domestic strife to turn a sprawling, mansion-like hotel into a suffocating source of intense cabin fever. Many films since have unsuccessfully tried to replicate that classic’s singularly unsettling effect, but few have truly seized on the brilliance of its setting.

Cuckoo does the latter, and wisely avoids committing the former mistake. It’s an imperfect film where the resolutions prove less satisfying than the buildup to them. The latest thriller from Luz writer-director Tilman Singer is, nonetheless, undeniably the product of a storyteller with an unconventional style and a penchant for capturing the uncanny. Those two talents are employed to impressive effect in Cuckoo , an eerie thriller soaked in paranoia that is greatly elevated by the extremely game performances of its two leads and Singer’s sharp rendering of its central locale.

Cuckoo exists in a world of crooked perspectives and slanted lines — one where shadows don’t just stretch and twist, but also reach toward you. This is made apparent in the film’s exquisitely composed opening image, in which a staircase bannister divides the frame in a diagonal line and separates the darkened interior of a stairwell’s second level from the light shining in from the floor below. In that light are the twisted shadows of two arguing adults. It is a scene, unconventionally shown, of recognizable familial turbulence. Then, in a move that cuts like a sharp prick and only intensifies the unease growing in the pit of your stomach, Cuckoo cuts to an even more unnerving sight: That of a young girl writhing in her pink-walled bedroom as her hands grip her long red hair, which covers her face and body like a shawl, and threaten to tear entire chunks out.

These are images of domestic familiarity that, thanks to a few key framing and blocking choices, are imbued with a sense of bizarre, underlying horror. It’s this deliberately off-key note that Cuckoo attempts to maintain across its entire 103-minute runtime. The demands of its mystery box plot, unfortunately, prevent it from doing so in its final half. For much of the film’s first hour, though, Singer succeeds at keeping the viewer and his protagonist off-balance. He does so even while introducing his unlikely hero, Gretchen ( Euphoria star Hunter Schafer), an angsty teenager who’d rather be making music with her band than moving to a resort in the German Alps with her father, Luis (Marton Csokas), stepmother, Beth (Jessica Henwick), and half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu). The recent death of Gretchen’s biological mother has, however, forced her to start living with Luis and his new family full time, much to her and her father’s apparent frustration.

Her situation only worsens when she meets Luis’ boss and the owner of the resort they’ve relocated to: Herr König (a delightfully hammy Dan Stevens from Abigail ), a German businessman whose odd demeanor immediately rubs Gretchen the wrong way. Her obvious dislike of König doesn’t stop her from accepting his offer to work a salaried position as his resort’s front desk clerk, though, and it’s during her first few shifts on the clock that Gretchen witnesses strange instances of exhausted women throwing up in the resort’s lobby and meets Ed (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey), a French tourist she immediately wants to run away with. Things quickly take an even more nightmarish turn when Gretchen finds herself chased one night by a screaming, red-eyed woman (Kalin Morrow) capable of terrifying feats of strength and speed.

Singer and cinematographer Paul Faltz make the most out of Gretchen’s first run-in with her dangerous stalker. The duo constructs the sequence out of long, steady pans and tracking shots that first emphasize the deserted, winding nature of the mountainside road that Gretchen must take on her bike to get home. Then, in one shocking flourish, they announce the arrival of her pursuer with a shot that drifts from Gretchen’s back to a side view of a nearby assortment of guest houses as a hooded woman bursts out of one and breaks into an unnaturally fast sprint. Singer and Faltz follow up this moment with several seconds of pure, dread-filled silence as Gretchen’s eyes drift from the dark tree branches that hang above her down to the shadows they cast on the road — a shift in her gaze that reveals the presence of another, shadowed figure running behind her with its arm outstretched.

There’s a level of directorial control present in this sequence that is consistent throughout all of Cuckoo , which ranks along with Osgood Perkins’ Longlegs as one of this year’s most visually striking horror films. Singer builds his latest effort using patient, often sharply composed images that accentuate both the beauty and surreality of Cuckoo ‘s mountainside resort. Meanwhile, production designer Dario Mendez Acosta’s use of pale pinks and greens for the resort’s hotel rooms and hospital walls, as well as the aged-wood paneling of its lobby, creates an effectively odd, discombobulating juxtaposition of old and new when paired with the spotless white and glass walls of Luis and Beth’s hyper-modern home. The resulting effect is one that only further heightens the off-putting and yet alluring strangeness of Cuckoo ‘s story and desolate world.

While Singer does an effective job of introducing the mysteries surrounding both his film’s strange, red-eyed monster and her relationship with Stevens’ obviously shady Herr König, Cuckoo loses a bit of its steam once the full picture of what’s really going on within the grounds of König’s resort starts to become clear. By the time it has devolved into a shoot-’em-up, cat-and-mouse chase through a single building in its third act, Cuckoo has already started to feel less like the high-concept, hallucinatory horror film it initially seemed to be and more like a standard action-thriller. The loss of the enticing, unearthly haze that covers so much of Cuckoo ‘s first half immediately renders the film significantly less interesting and also retroactively reveals just how shallow its story has been all along.

What Cuckoo lacks in dept,h it tries to makes up for in style and flair. Not only do Singer, Faltz, and editors Terel Gibson and Philipp Thomas fully commit to the film’s freaky ideas and rhythms, but Schafer and Stevens also give it their all with performances that could not be further apart. Schafer’s turn is one of tightly wound nerves and barely contained emotions that inevitably come spilling to the surface. If Cuckoo were any other film, it might seem like she was bringing too much to the table, but her work is both countered and complemented by that of Stevens.

The latter actor has emerged over the past 10 years as one of the greatest go-for-it performers working today, and he responds to the raw vulnerability of Schafer’s performance with a knowingly evil turn that is simultaneously over-the-top and perfectly tuned into Cuckoo ‘s idiosyncratic sensibilities. Schafer and Stevens’ performances are both uncomfortable and also provoke discomfort. They are each doing heightened and slightly askew work here, and that’s fitting for a film like Cuckoo , which presents a version of our world that seems familiar and not — straight and yet slanted. Its lasting power may be limited, but anyone who seeks it out should find it difficult in the moment to refuse Cuckoo ‘s call.

Cuckoo is now playing in theaters.

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