You’ll Go Cuckoo (2024) for This Wild Hunter Schafer Led Creature Feature

Title: Cuckoo

First Non-Festival Release: August 8, 2024 (Theatrical Release)

Director: Tilman Singer

Writer: Tilman Singer

Runtime: 102 Minutes

Starring: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Márton Csókás

Where to Watch: Check out where to find it here

Imposter syndrome can extend past the workplace and appear in other areas of life. When families change over time, the dynamics can make individuals contend with their place in the structure. It’s hard to feel like family when commonalities are few and far between.

Forced to move across the world to a tiny village in the Alps, Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) seethes with indignation at her father Luis (Márton Csókás) for making the trek. She’s joined by her stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) and her half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu), whom she also has a complicated relationship and love for. Upon their arrival, Gretchen’s sour attitude gets her in trouble a lot. Isolated and feeling estranged from her family, Gretchen looks for a way out. Her plan is to save enough money to move out of the house and live her dreams far away from her family. Little does Gretchen know that family ties, no matter how tenuous, are hard to break.

Bonkers creature feature Cuckoo excites with its off-beat approach to horror.

A standard horror setup morphs into something special as Cuckoo glides through its story with flare. The mystery behind the series of attacks plaguing the small Alpine town is unraveled rather quickly, even if the details take time to come together. Shrewd detectives, bitchy co-workers, and newcomer Gretchen all find out all too late what’s wreaking havoc through a botched stakeout leading to a series of riveting chase sequences that keep our leads on their toes. While not structurally unique, Cuckoo employs enough inspired choices in story progression and characters to warrant celebration.

Gretchen comes to life thanks to an impassioned performance by Hunter Schafer, who refuses to soften the edges of her angst-ridden character. At times antagonistic and whiny, Gretchen still remains a teenage girl hurting from her mother’s death. Wanting to move past her guilt and grief for herself, her outbursts show a clear lack of guidance in handling her emotions thanks to her largely absent father and stepmother. Schafer brings all of these nuances to life by fully giving herself to the role: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Her transformation into sulky teenager with the heart of a survivor feels earned thanks to Schafer.

Dan Stevens deserves recognition for his strong character work as the diabolically cooky researcher Herr König. Tinkering around with a menacing aura that’s hard to articulate, Stevens plays with the role, leaning fully into the film’s campy nature. Be it his delightfully thick German accent or his relish in tormenting Gretchen, Stevens plays König as the mad scientist with tunnel vision fully. His commitment makes Cuckoo a stronger film.

The film’s most unusual aspect, its creature, is inspired in design and function. Not usually depicted in horror, and certainly not shown in this manner, Cuckoo crafts its scares by keeping the audience guessing exactly how they operate even if their greater concept is easy to understand. The design is simple but effective in drawing on the most human-like qualities to make the beast look familiar while still giving it a few stand out features.

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Perhaps easy to grasp from the title, the cuckoo creatures serve as a metaphor for replacement in a film about family transitions. After losing her mother, Gretchen longs for the connection she once had with her. Having to swallow her pride and move in with her father and stepmother makes that process of grieving more difficult. Gretchen clearly doesn’t feel like she belongs when nearly everything she says or does is met with criticism by her parents. Even severe hospitalizations take second seat to her stepsister.

Her father and stepmother’s fawning over Alma breeds resentment within Gretchen, even if she has no ill will towards her. Gretchen sees a childhood in Alma that was ripped from her when her mother passed, and her father stopped caring. Much like a cuckoo bird that invades the nests of other birds to raise their young, this creature breeds with humans to create perfect hybrids, draining their families of the energy and resources at the expense of the original offspring. Gretchen fights for her survival throughout the film, but still looks out for Alma even though she has been indirectly involved in her own peril. Perhaps, this is Alma’s effect on her as a half-creature or Gretchen’s desire to ensure no child feels the way she has. Either way it makes for complicated and compelling characters worth dissecting.

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An unusual theatrical release for sure, Cuckoo isn’t afraid to get silly with its ridiculous premise. A memorable creature, strong characters and performances, and a decisively campy approach to horror make Cuckoo an easy recommendation. It doesn’t go too far in terms of horror and is far faster paced than necessary, but it remains a fun horror film all the same. Don’t doubt yourself, you’ll go Cuckoo for it as soon as you give it a chance.

Overall Score? 7/10