Cuckoo (2024 film)

Cuckoo
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Tilman Singer
Written by	Tilman Singer
Produced by	Markus Halberschmidt Josh Rosenbaum Maria Tsigka Ken Kao Thor Bradwell
Starring	Hunter Schafer Jan Bluthardt Marton Csokas Jessica Henwick Dan Stevens
Cinematography	Paul Faltz
Edited by	Terel Gibson Philipp Thomas
Music by	Simon Waskow
Production companies	Neon Fiction Park Waypoint Entertainment
Distributed by	Weltkino Filmverleih (Germany) Neon (United States)
Release dates	February 16, 2024 (2024-02-16) (Berlinale) August 9, 2024 (2024-08-09) (United States) August 29, 2024 (2024-08-29) (Germany)
Running time	103 minutes
Countries	Germany United States
Languages	English German French
Budget	$7 million
Box office	$3 million

Cuckoo is a 2024 science fiction horror film written and directed by Tilman Singer, and starring Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, and Dan Stevens. A co-production between Germany and the United States, the film follows a teenager (Schafer) who moves to the German Alps to live with her father (Csokas) but becomes disturbed by strange occurrences as her father's boss (Stevens) embroils her family in a sinister plot.

Cuckoo had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival on February 16, 2024. The film had a theatrical release in the United States on August 9, 2024; it is scheduled to be released in Germany on August 29, 2024.

Plot

In a cold open, a young woman steps outside of her house during a loud, violent argument between her parents. She hears screeching emanating from the nearby woods and begins to experience a seizure. She sprints off into the forest.

After the death of her mother, grieving teenager Gretchen moves with her father Luis, stepmother Beth, and mute half-sister Alma to a resort town in the Bavarian Alps. The family is there to help build a new hotel, overseen by the enigmatic Herr König, who offers Gretchen a job at the front desk to help her adjust. Soon after their arrival, strange things begin to happen. Gretchen encounters multiple female guests vomiting while working at the reception desk, Alma suffers seizures triggered by a mysterious reverberating shriek, and Gretchen has a terrifying encounter with a hooded woman while biking home one night, but the incident is dismissed by the police as a prank.

Gretchen meets a detective named Henry who is investigating a murder linked to the hooded woman. Gretchen also becomes close to a guest named Ed, and the two plan to run away together. However, their escape attempt is thwarted when they experience a disturbing time loop, nearly run over the hooded woman, and crash their car, leaving Gretchen severely injured and confined to the resort. Henry explains to Gretchen that he believes the hooded woman is responsible for at least one murder; her strange screeching disoriented the victim's husband and the victim choked to death on her own vomit. They believe one of the vomiting women Gretchen saw earlier may be connected. She and Henry stake out a cottage, where the hooded woman attacks Gretchen’s coworker, Trixie, in an attempt to implant her with a mysterious slime.

The next day, Gretchen confronts her father and König, expressing her disapproval of their involvement in the resort. During the argument, König accidentally reveals a package addressed to the family containing Gretchen's mother's old belongings. Luis is forced to confess that he sold their old family home. Enraged, Gretchen retreats to her room and listens to her mother’s old voicemails. Among them, she hears a voicemail from Alma, using text-to-speech, asking Gretchen’s mother to come visit. Gretchen emerges from her room to find her family missing. König tells her that her outburst caused Alma to have a seizure and they took her to the hospital. He says he will take her to the nearest train station so she can leave but first, they will drive to his house so he can give her some money. There, König reveals the truth: Henry is a disgraced police officer, and the hooded woman is not human but a member of a near-human species that relies on brood parasitism, much like cuckoo birds. The species' females, like Alma, are placed among human families until they are ready to join their true kind. König has been experimenting with preserving this species at the resort, and Gretchen is seen as a threat to their survival.

König locks Gretchen in a pool house that has been converted into a bedroom and sprays her with pheromones. He then uses a flute to summon a teenage specimen of the species, the same girl seen fleeing in the woods at the beginning of the film. The adolescent cuckoo is drawn to Gretchen and attempts to inseminate her using slime. However, Henry arrives just in time, shooting König and killing the creature.

Henry and Gretchen race to the hospital, where König’s staff, led by Dr. Bonomo, are preparing to reunite Alma with her true mother—the hooded woman. Gretchen realizes that Henry intends to kill not only the adult cuckoo but Alma as well. Desperate to save her sister, Gretchen stabs Henry. A still-alive König returns and kills Dr. Bonomo, determined to see the experiment through to the end. After Alma is rescued, the mother appears but is kept at bay by Gretchen feigning a threat to stab Alma, who pushes Gretchen and flees. Giving chase, Gretchen is pursued by the hooded woman, who stalks her through the records room. Henry knocks the shelves over, trapping the woman and Gretchen, who uses a pair of headphones and a Walkman to muffle the woman’s screeching. In a final confrontation, Gretchen stabs the hooded woman in the throat with her butterfly knife, killing her.

As Gretchen reunites with Alma, they find König and Henry in a standoff. Gretchen regains Alma's trust. As the girls carefully attempt to leave, both of the men threatening the girls, Alma covers Gretchen’s ears and lets out a powerful shriek, disorienting both men long enough for the sisters to escape, and Henry and König shoot each other dead. Outside, the sisters are met by a recovering Ed, who drives the girls to safety and the three flee the resort.

Cast

• Hunter Schafer as Gretchen
• Dan Stevens as Herr König
• Jessica Henwick as Beth
• Jan Bluthardt as Henry
• Marton Csokas as Luis
• Greta Fernández as Trixie
• Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey as Ed
• Mila Lieu as Alma
• Konrad Singer as Erik
• Proschat Madani as Dr. Bonomo
• Kalin Morrow as the Hooded Woman

Production

It was reported in August 2021 that Tilman Singer would be writing and directing his second film for Neon, with Hunter Schafer, John Malkovich, Gemma Chan, and Sofia Boutella set to star. In July 2022, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csokas, and Greta Fernández joined the cast, while Malkovich and Chan dropped out due to "timing issues".

Cuckoo was co-produced by Düsseldorf-based Fiction Park and the United States' Waypoint Entertainment.

Principal photography took place in North Rhine-Westphalia over a span of 35 days from May to July 2022 and was shot on 35mm film.

Release

Hunter Schafer and Tilman Singer at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival

Cuckoo had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in the Berlinale Specials section on February 16, 2024. The film also screened at South by Southwest on March 14 and at the Overlook Film Festival on April 4. It opened at London's Raindance Film Festival on June 19, 2024, as part of the festival's special focus on Germany; and was also screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 30, 2024.

The film was originally set to be released in the United States by Neon on May 3, 2024, but the release date was pushed back to August 9, 2024.

Cuckoo is scheduled to be released in Germany by Weltkino Filmverleih on August 29, 2024. It will be released in the United Kingdom by Universal Pictures on August 23, 2024.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, Cuckoo was released alongside Borderlands and It Ends With Us, and made $1.4 million on its first day, including $435,000 from Thursday night previews. The film grossed $3 million from 1,503 theaters from its opening weekend in North America.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 77% of 135 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's consensus reads: "Directed with inventive flair by Tilman Singer while given flavorful personality by stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, Cuckoo is a madcap madhouse horror that's on the right side of deranged." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 68% positive score.

Schafer and Stevens' performances were praised. BJ Colangelo of Slashfilm wrote, "Schafer's strong-willed, straight-shooting, absolutely sensational performance is the anchor in this chaotic storm. ... Schafer commands every scene." Adam Solomons of IndieWire called Schafer's performance "impressive" but gave the film a C- grade, writing, "The biggest crime of Cuckoo is that it won't lean into being a B-movie, something it might've been good at. The performances — especially Stevens' — are silly and sincere, and the action competent enough for Cuckoo to have worked as pure pulp. But this film takes itself too seriously and pokes fun at its own silliness, a fatal combination". RogerEbert.com's Robert Daniels also praised Stevens, noting, "Every choice Stevens makes as Mr. König doubles as a lampoon and a threat, as equally hilarious and sadistic." Jessica Kiang of Variety called the film "an energetically outlandish fusion of stylish atmospherics, old-school reproductive horror and pro-flickknife advertorial".

The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney ended his review with, "It's ultimately too silly to be truly chilling, but with Neon behind it, Cuckoo might just be cuckoo enough to draw some cult attention". German critic Dieter Osswald wrote, "Tilman Singer pours out his fantasy cornucopia of horrific sequences with obvious pleasure and elegant nonchalance."

External links

• Official website at Weltkino Filmverleih
• Official website at Neon
• Cuckoo at IMDb