Tilman Singer premiered his hypnotic debut feature Luz at the 2017 Fantasia Film Festival to critical acclaim and he returns this year after a buzz-building festival run with his ultra-weird, super-spooky sophomore horror Cuckoo. Starring Dan Stevens (Abigail), Hunter Schafer (Euphoria), and one hell of a scary villain, Cuckoo is a mind-scrambling experience of pure terror, and truly one of the strangest movies you’re bound to see this year.
This slow-release cinematic capsule of eerie insanity unfolds over the backdrop of a secluded resort in the German Alps. Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) and her family have relocated to this quite mountain escape hidden from the world, while her parents help to construct a new addition to the resort for the charming and alarming owner Mr. Konig (Dan Stevens). All the while, an unseen presence haunts the forest at night. It’s cries in the distance are the only warning that something awful is about to happen, and if you are one of the unfortunate few to hear its haunting wail, it’s already too late…
“A mind-scrambling experience in pure terror, and truly one of the strangest movies you’re bound to see this year.”
And that’s about all you’re going to get out of me in the way of plot reveals. The second half of Cuckoo is one of the best kept secrets of the year and I hope someone in the marketing department at Neon is getting a raise for cutting one of the best damn trailers of the year. A trailer that gives away NOTHING.
Although more approachable than his arty debut Luz, Cuckoo is loaded with experimental techniques and touches that are bound to secure it a spot on a few year-end lists for its sheer originality. It’s a movie loaded with wickedly fun cinematography and editing that bend reality, a villain with a truly insane MO, and a trio of killer performances (including frequent Singer collaborator Jan Bluthardt) tying the whole nightmare together.
“A slow-release cinematic capsule of eerie insanity”
Hunter Schafer carries the emotional arc of the story, largely through one-sided phone calls with her biological mother but Dan Stevens is the real showstopper. Stevens has been doing great work for a long time but he’s having one hell of year with his dangerously chill scientist in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, his arrogant career criminal in Abigail, and now his clinically sinister Mr. Konig. The normies have gotten an overdose of Glenn Powell lately, but Dan Stevens is for the cool kids.
If you’ve been dying for something weird and outlandish, something genuinely scary and unpredictable, (something that definitely won’t be classified as a thriller thankyouverymuch!) Cuckoo is the horror movie you have been waiting for. It’s a long overdue dose of deranged doom and is sure to make Singer one of the premiere wierdos in the genre space alongside Jordan Peele, Osgood Perkins, and Brandon Cronenberg. Cuckoo is, for my money, one of the best directed movies of the year and a singular vision of Horror.
“Weird and outlandish, genuinely scary and unpredictable […] a singular vision of Horror”
Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo celebrated its Montreal Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival. Click HERE to follow our continued coverage of the festival and be sure to let us know if you’re stoked to see this insane horror movie over in the Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
