By Hunter Schafer finally gets her leading role! As a fan of hers since season one of Euphoria, I was so excited to hear she was starring in a horror film. Cuckoo, the second feature by director Tilman Singer, is a strange film that unfortunately doesn’t stick the landing – despite strong performances by the cast.
Cuckoo
Director: Tilman Singer
Release Date: August 9, 2024 (US)
Rating: R
Cuckoo follows Gretchen (Schafer) as she relocates to a resort in the German Alps with her father, Luis (Marton Csokas), stepmother, Beth (Jessica Henwick), and half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu). Gretchen is the black sheep of the family and distances herself from them by taking a job working for the resort owner, Herr König (Dan Stevens). She starts noticing weird things around the resort, including strange bouts of confusion and vomiting from the women staying there. Things begin to escalate when she is chased home one night by an odd blonde woman.
Dissatisfied by her family’s refusal to believe her story and missing the home she shared with her recently deceased mother, Gretchen attempts to run away with Ed (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey). The two get in a car accident and both end up in the hospital. Gretchen meets Detective Henry (Jan Bluthardt) and he believes her story regarding the mysterious blonde woman. They stake out one of the resort lodges in an attempt to catch the woman but fail.
From Neon.
After a fight with her dad, Alma suffers a seizure and the family leaves Gretchen behind to take her to the hospital. Herr König convinces Gretchen to come with him, but he traps her in his house and reveals the identity of the strange blonde woman: she (and another unnamed woman we saw at the beginning of the film) are cuckoo/human hybrids who inseminate women to preserve their species. Henry frees Gretchen and the two go to the hospital.
It’s revealed that Alma is one of the cuckoo hybrids. Henry wants to kill her to end their species, but Gretchen refuses and stabs him to free Alma. Henry and Herr König fight over Alma’s fate, all while Gretchen continues to be chased by the blonde woman. She finally manages to kill the blonde woman by using headphones to thwart the cuckoo’s hypnotic abilities. In a final showdown between the sisters and the two men, Alma uses her cuckoo voice to confuse the men, leading to their deaths. Gretchen and Alma escape the hospital and run into Ed outside. The three of them leave the resort.
From Neon.
There’s a lot about Cuckoo that worked for me. Gretchen’s character is both aloof and badass and she uses music to escape the picturesque hell her father dragged her into. I loved Cuckoo’s homage to the plot stylings of 70s British and Italian horror – complete with a disgraced detective and mad scientist. The anachronistic setting was also really fun. You’re as likely to see an iPhone as an 80s perm, which adds to the overall eerie atmosphere of the resort. And, of course, Cuckoo is unafraid to have an odd premise.
Unfortunately, Cuckoo also had some issues. There was so much going on, especially in the second half of the film, that certain plot points feel rushed or holey. Why did the cuckoos have the ability to warp time? What happened to the other women at the resort? If the hospital was so deserted, who was taking care of Ed? I had a lot of questions after watching the film (most of which are not that significant) but I think the film could have offered a much more interesting queer approach considering its central theme of motherhood and what we consider to be a deviation from the norm of “mother.”
From Neon.
Perhaps the biggest letdown was the underutilization of Cuckoo’s setting. The Bavarian forest in the German Alps is a spooky place full of history and folklore, including many creatures and stories. Framed by these picturesque mountains, the setting could have pulled a lot of weight if given the chance. Unfortunately, much of Cuckoo is uninterested in the specific location aside from a brief moment where Herr König talks about the cuckoo bird.
While Cuckoo’s story suffered from a little too much happening at once, the overall effect of the film was fun and gory. It was still kind of a let-down for me, but Hunter Schafer definitely delivered as Gretchen and I hope this film paves the way for her to star in more films.
