Body horror is a fascinating subgenre and one that tends to make a lot of people particularly squeamish. With films like The Fly (1986), about a scientist who becomes a human fly hybrid, and Crimes of the Future (2022), where people have surgery for pleasure, director David Cronenberg is known as the master of body horror. The female form is often the focus of horror movies, from the final girl trope, the last survivor of a masked killer, such as Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), to feminist horror, which uses various types of monsters to reflect female sexuality instead of the woman being the victim, like in films like A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014) where the monster is a vampire. Female directors like Julia Ducournau are doing amazing work in the female body horror realm. Her films Raw (2016), about a teenage girl awakening to her own sexuality by realizing she’s a cannibal, and Titane (2021), which follows a woman’s journey of self-discovery after having a titanium plate inserted into her head, are brutal, beautifully told stories about the horror of how society views women, as well as how the women in her films take back control of their lives and their bodies.
Hunter Schafer as Gretchen in CUCKOO Photo Credit: Felix Dickinson, Photo Courtesy of NEON.
German director Tilman Singer may be a man, but he still has some compelling things to say about female body horror and bodily autonomy. His follow-up to Luz (2018), about a female cab driver who is possessed and desperately tries to regain control of her body, Cuckoo (2024), is the story of a teenager named Gretchen who is struggling with the usual difficulties of being a teenage girl, but is forced to fight for her own bodily autonomy, and her life, when she moves to an odd little town in the German Alps. Two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned in the U.S., female bodily autonomy and women’s reproductive rights are a topic of frequent discussion, making Cuckoo an extremely timely film and even more disturbing.
For a spoiler-free exploration of Cuckoo, head over to the Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 review from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Seventeen-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) isn’t thrilled about leaving her home and moving to a resort in the German Alps with her father Luis (Marton Csokas), stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick), and young, mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu). Gretchen is homesick and her father doesn’t seem interested in spending time with her, so she frequently calls her mother, but always gets the answering machine and leaves increasingly frantic messages begging her mother to call her and let her come home. The owner of the resort, the very eccentric Herr König (Dan Stevens), calls himself a preservationist and takes an immediate, almost uncomfortable, interest in Gretchen. He gives her a job working in the gift shop of the resort with the outgoing Trixie (Greta Fernández), and promptly warns Gretchen that she is not to go out alone at night. While working at the gift shop, Gretchen notices multiple female guests experiencing episodes of vomiting and disorientation. One night, Gretchen is riding her bike home and is chased down the road by a mysterious hooded woman wearing sunglasses, with her eyes glowing red, her mouth open in a scream, and her hands reaching out for Gretchen. When Gretchen reports the incident to the local police, they dismiss it as a prank. Not long afterwards, a strange piercing shrieking sound causes Alma to have a seizure and end up in the hospital. A detective named Henry (Jan Bluthardt) approaches Gretchen and tells her he believes her story because he is investigating a murder he thinks is connected to the hooded woman (Kalin Morrow).
Greta Fernández as Trixie in CUCKOO Photo Credit: Felix Dickinson, Photo Courtesy of NEON.
The standout performances in Cuckoo are Dan Stevens as König, who is excellent at playing weird creepy villains in movies like The Guest (2014) and Abigail (2024), and Hunter Schafer as Gretchen. Known for her work on the television series Euphoria, Cuckoo showcases Hunter Schafer’s range as an actor as she effortlessly conveys everything on the emotional spectrum from grief to rage, and ultimately terror. Schafer does a superb job portraying Gretchen as fiercely independent, but shy, and in that awkward period of adolescence we all go through where she is still in the process of connecting with her own sexuality. When she meets a guest at the resort named Ed (Astrid Bergès-Frisbey), she is immediately attracted to her but lacks the self-assurance to make the first move and is initially nervous and clumsy around Ed. Schafer’s portrayal of Gretchen, and all the uneasiness she experiences throughout the film, feels authentic.
Hunter Schafer as Gretchen in CUCKOO Photo Credit: Felix Dickinson, Photo Courtesy of NEON.
Cuckoo is well-written, the dialogue feels organic, and it has impeccable production design. The film is beautifully shot; the colors are vivid and prismatic. Cinematographer Paul Faltz shot Cuckoo on 35 mm film, because he believes film gives warmth and vitality to a movie that digital is unable to duplicate. The crisp colors and brightness of the scenery counteracts the dark subject matter in a way that works in the film’s favor. Faltz also worked with Tilman Singer on Luz, which was shot on 16 mm. Faltz utilizes up close visuals, such as the creature’s neck pulsating when it shrieks, to achieve an intimacy that is especially unnerving.
For hundreds of years, women have fought for equal rights, but in 2022 Roe v. Wade was overturned and women in America lost their bodily autonomy, the right to make any decisions about their own bodies, especially when it comes to reproductive rights. If that doesn’t make you angry, it should. Can you imagine a world where men had no bodily autonomy? You can’t, because, unfortunately, many societies have always viewed men as the superior sex. Art, and movies specifically, have always been a reflection of current events of any given era, especially when it comes to the sociopolitical climate. So, it’s no surprise that in 2024 we’ve seen movies like Immaculate, about a nun (Sydney Sweeney) who is impregnated and forced to give birth to what the church believes will be the new messiah, and The First Omen, another story of a nun (Nell Tiger Free) forcefully impregnated by the church. Cuckoo is the latest film to address female bodily autonomy and young women being impregnated against their will and the fact it introduces a horrifying creature into the mix makes it all the more fascinating and terrifying.
Dan Stevens as Herr König in CUCKOO Photo Credit: Felix Dickinson, Photo Courtesy of NEON.
**Spoiler alert **
There is a mystical creature living in the woods near the small town in the German Alps where Gretchen and her family now live, and the diabolical König not only knows about its existence, but he’s also been helping it reproduce — by forcefully impregnating young women in a bizarre, ghastly ritual. The hooded woman who chased Gretchen is one of these creatures, which rely on brood parasitism to reproduce, similar to cuckoo birds, by inseminating a host with a slimy substance and then waiting for the host to give birth to and raise its young. König refers to himself as a preservationist because he wants to ensure that these creatures are able to reproduce, guaranteeing the survival of the species.
He kidnaps a young woman to be the host, sprays her with pheromones, and then summons the creature by playing a flute so it can inseminate the captive woman. It’s an appalling and unsettling ritual and the fact that König is a man and controls the entire thing makes it all the more disgusting. It’s interesting to note that König, and any other men present during a ritual, wears headphones to block out the birdlike shrieking sound the creatures make because it has a disorienting affect on humans. None of this is about preservation, it’s about control. Control over women and their bodies. The metaphorical cuckoo bird in Cuckoo could be the hooded woman, it could be König because he’s so controlling, or it could even be Gretchen’s father and stepmother, who seem to want to push her out of the family. There is also the symbolism in an early comment in the film about Alma consuming her twin in the womb, called Vanishing Twin Syndrome, after it is later revealed that Alma is actually the offspring of one of the creatures.
Hunter Schafer as Gretchen in CUCKOO Photo Credit: Felix Dickinson, Photo Courtesy of NEON.
Cuckoo is one of those completely bonkers horror movies where anything could, and sometimes does, happen, and there is a peculiar creature, making it a fun watch. But it is also a chilling commentary on female bodily autonomy, forced birth, and misogyny, and is very relevant to our current sociopolitical environment.
As far as bonus features on the Blu-ray of Cuckoo, there are “The Making of Cuckoo;” “The Cuckoo Video Diaries;” on-set interviews with Hunter Schafer, Frauke Firl, and Dario Mendez Acosta; and deleted scenes.
Available on Blu-ray and DVD October 22nd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official NEON Cuckoo webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Recommendation
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