We’re big fans of Tilman Singer’s Luz, which burst onto the genre scene in 2018 without much fanfare and quickly became one of the more accomplished Giallo riffs — and the shortest, at just 70 minutes — that we watched in the ’10s. Seriously, you should check that out if you like your horror nasty, brutish, and short or if you’re wondering what the next wave of German cinema is cooking up. Like good beer, chocolate, and hard-to-maintain-and-insure cars, it was only a matter of time before he became a coveted import, and his English-language debut is hitting screens this summer.
The film’s called Cuckoo, and it boasts a cast befitting a Neon release, with Euphoria star Hunter Schafer, man-around-town Dan Stevens (whose fluency in German is being put to good use), and Jessica Henwick starring in what’s sure to be a mindfuck of a motion picture. Neon dropped a trailer for the movie earlier on Wednesday — it premiered last month at Berlinale to solid reviews and now’s a pretty solid time to kick off a major marketing campaign. Or so we think.
Peep it:
Here’s a synopsis:
“Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.”
Cuckoo hits theaters on August 9. Is this the year Neon unseats A24 as the horror kings of the indie box office? It’s possible, unless the latter’s got something insane stashed away for the fall. Either way, we’re still winning.