Starring: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Jan Blurhardt, Martan Csokas
Director: Tilman Singer
Country: Germany
UK Distributor: Neon
Young trans actress Hunter Schafer (The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes, Euphoria) is decidedly a star on the rise. In Cuckoo, the new German Queer horror to hit cinemas, she takes centre stage as scream queen Gretchen, facing zombie-like creatures terrorising her family.
Gretchen’s father (Csokas – Æon Flux, The Equalizer) has relocated his family to Germany. Staying at a new holiday park in Bavaria run by the enigmatic Herr König (Stevens – Downton Abbey, Beauty And The Beast), Gretchen is soon recruited to work on the reception desk, but begins to witness strange occurrences in the middle of the night, with guests sleepwalking and vomiting across the park. It isn’t long before her half-sister falls ill and Gretchen realises that she’s being pursued by a disturbing – and seemingly crazed - woman.
A slick and atmospheric monster movie, the action is contained within the confines of the park, feeling claustrophobic and intense. The setting is beautiful, with towering mountains high above and dense pine forest all around them. But while all is picturesque during the day, the contrast is sharp with the brutal terror let loose once night falls.
Full-throttle and pulse-racing, Gretchen is forced to sprint away from 28 Days Later-esque creatures running at full speed. And, inevitably, her injuries mount up, with her body bandaged and blood-spattered by the finale, battling maniacal women with her arm in a sling in iconically bad-ass fashion. Schafer is superbly cast as the plucky heroine, who’s dead-beat lethargy is shrugged off to be replaced by an energetic determination to survive.
Its sci-fi/horror mash-up might have been done many times before – its parallels with Cabin In The Woods are pretty obvious throughout – but this is a sturdy horror that delivers thrills a-plenty and is suitably unsettling from the start. It looks, sounds and smells the part; plus this is a really good vehicle for Schafer’s star in ascendence. Add to that a lesbian subplot and this is one of the strongest Queer horrors of the last few years.
UK Release: Out now in cinemas, released by Neon