Cuckoo is an aptly titled movie. It’s wonderfully strange, daring, funny, and chilling. It’s exactly the kind of movie you’d hope and expect to see Hunter Schafer make her horror debut in, and one made for Dan Stevens to twirl his metaphorical mustache while weaponizing his disarmingly sinister good looks.
The film, which comes from German writer and director Tilman Singer (Luz), follows Gretchen (Schafer), a 17-year-old who has begrudgingly moved with her father, step-mother (Jessica Henwick), and little sister to a resort in the German Alps, run by a charismatic if disquieting man named Herr König (Stevens). She takes a job at the resort and soon discovers that, despite the picturesque setting, this resort is home to something truly horrifying. It looks almost human and hunts her at night, watching her with glowing, hungry eyes. This is no run-of-the-mill monster movie, however; it’s one that plumbs the depths of fears over bodily autonomy, reproductive freedom, and the egomaniacal, all too human monsters who feel they have the final say over both.
Felix Dickinson/Courtesy of NEON
It’s also just so weird, darkly funny, atmospheric, and very queer in every sense of the word. So, should you make time to see it this weekend? Oh yes. It’s utterly bonkers in the best way and exactly the kind of bizarre cinema that continues to make horror the most dynamic, compelling, and relevant genre for these unprecedented times.
Apparently, it also was fun, and perhaps even a bit, well, cuckoo to make. When reflecting on their favorite moments from the set to PRIDE, Schafer giggles as she remembers Stevens playing a flute on the set. (It serves an important role in the film that we won’t spoil.)
“I think any time Dan started playing the flute, we were all sort of…” began Schafer, “Aroused.” Henwick jumps in, eliciting a surprised but delighted laugh from Stevens. “That’s how I would sum it up. I like Dan with a flute. I don’t know what it is, just real hot,” she continues.
“We were filming one of the flute scenes and thunder came in at one point and just perfectly echoed after that moment,” recalls Schafer spreading her arms to illustrate the point.
“It was so crazy. It was like the universe,” says Henwick, as they all laugh and nod in unison.
Courtesy of Neon
There’s something a bit alchemical about a film as unique and special as Cuckoo coming together. For Schafer, taking the role of Gretchen really came down to Singer’s writing.
“What struck me about the script, and honestly, seeing Tillman’s first movie Luz, is the world-building,” Schafer tells PRIDE. She saw it as an opportunity to get lost in the role. “I really like to approach filmmaking or making anything with a sense of playfulness and curiosity. So sometimes I feel like I don’t even realize because I’m just in the world and in the character,” she explains.
It wasn’t until after the fact that some of the messaging and ideas behind the film really began to occur to her. “I didn’t even realize the way it implicates stuff that’s going on in real life until I’m promoting it and starting to see parallels, which is a really cool after-effect or side effect of making movies or making TV shows,” Schafer explained further.
While this may be Schafer’s first foray into horror, Stevens has rapidly become one of the most exciting actors working in the genre, most recently in Abigail, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, and previously in Apostle, Legion, and the woefully under-appreciated The Guest. Once again he throws himself into the villainous role with a winking glee that is a joyous, if horrifying, sight to behold.
Courtesy of Neon
Stevens does have some rules about what kinds of genre films he makes, however. “For me, especially with horror, if it’s unremittingly just awful, and there’s no real theme or some little kind of commentary underneath it, then it doesn’t really entice me,” Stevens tells PRIDE.
Cuckoo certainly fits the bill: not only is there a wicked sense of humor running throughout, but the film has plenty to say about a small subset of men who have too much power and money but woefully deficient self-awareness. “I think the idea, particularly of somebody who is just doggedly following the traditions of our forefathers with no thought for the harm that it’s doing to people. Just continuing this blind tradition with sort of the utmost faith, that was something I remember reading in this and thinking, ‘Oh, that’s worth interrogating, right now,’” recalls Stevens. “It doesn’t need to sort of directly poke at any one particular global situation. I just think, like that, that’s a very big question of our age.”
Courtesy of Neon
Henwick’s character, Beth, adds another layer of complication and nuance to the themes of the film. Without straying too far into spoiler territory, Beth can be read as an exploration of the way the oppressed can sometimes make the mistake of believing that cozying up to an oppressor will offer safety, protection, or the crumbs of their power. Henwick appreciates that audiences are seeing and engaging with those themes — but perhaps, best of all, having an absolute blast with the film at the same time. “I love that audiences are picking up on [the film’s relevance],” she tells PRIDE, adding, “But it’s also a really fun edge-of-your-seat kind of thriller, and it’s a ride. I love it when a film has themes that are relevant to today, but [Cuckoo] isn’t a ‘message’ film, it’s packaged in a way that’s really interesting and palatable and fun.”
She’s not wrong: the movie does allow you to either sit back and let the story wash over you, or to dig a little deeper and explore its ideas, and those are the best kinds of film
