Dealing with parents who’ve separated can be hard enough, but when seventeen year old Gretchen is forced to move with her father to a different country, her life seemingly goes from bad to worse. Stuck in a foreign land with people alien to her, it starts to feel like she’s losing her mind. Hunter Schaffer (Euphoria) stars alongside Dan Stevens (Legion) with Tilman Singer in the director’s seat. The film was co-produced by Neon and Weltkino Filmverleih and released August 9, 2024.

Setting for Tension

Cuckoo is a horror comedy with emphasis on horror. Two important parts for any horror film is the setting and build up of tension. Tension is important for horror as a jumpscare doesn’t really work without the proper build up and the setting helps in building up said tension. If, for example, a scene for a zombie film were to take place in a cemetery then the tension would automatically be established (Return of the Living Dead). Cuckoo does a great job of creating tension and this is due in no small part to its setting. Set in a secluded resort out in the German Alps, there is an element of uncanny valley present for much of the film. Another horror film that does something similar is It Follows which has a similar uncanny feeling despite being set in the United States. Similar to that film, the setting’s uncanny nature results in a constantly tense atmosphere where viewers never get to fully relax. 

Due to the setting’s uncanniness, Gretchen’s interactions with characters and this world in general can often feel alien and create a sense of isolation. Gretchen is already separated from her friends and American life and when coupled with her being an outsider in her father’s life, creates a unique tension that works better than one would expect.In one scene early on, Gretchen is warned to never stay in the building past a certain time. Naturally, the average viewer will be able to predict the inevitable. Despite that, however, that tension that gets built up still works regardless. 

2D Characters

Hunter Schaffer has an immaculate aura in this film. It’s just too bad that no one else seems to match it. While it can be easy to sympathize with Hunter’s character, some of the other characters come off as laughably flat. Gretchen’s parents, for example, are kind of insignificant. Perhaps this is an unintended result from trying to make Gretchen feel isolated. Martin Csokas (Equalizer) and Jessica Henwick (The Matrix: Resurrections) play her father and step mother respectively and often just feel like stereotypical 1980s parents. There’s never much reason for viewers to really like or understand either of these characters. She also has a half sister who feels sort of unremarkable in the first half of the film. The problem is that she suddenly becomes important towards the second half despite not too much time being spent on her so she doesn’t even feel like a character until they decide that she is. Then there’s the villain who also feels kind of flat. With modern day cinema, it has become the norm for villains to often have an incredibly sad backstory or any kind of background that makes the audience sympathize with the antagonist. There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a villain who is evil just for the sake of being evil or has no redeemable qualities. The problem is that there is a way of doing that without making the villain seem flat or insufferable which this particular antagonist fails to understand. 

Another major issue that this film suffers from is the marketing. The film industry, especially horror, has long had a strained relationship with trailers. The art of making a trailer that can peak interest in the film without spoiling it is much more difficult than it seems. This is especially true with horror as a trailer can easily ruin an entire movie. While the trailers don’t spoil the story, they certainly ruin the impact of seeing the film’s “monster” for the first time. Most of the trailers for the film put a lot of emphasis on the monster’s appearance so it kind of softens the initial impact of seeing this thing for the first time. This is kind of a shame since the film does such a great job of building up tension only for the end result to be softened up for less impact.