Movie · 2024 · Horror, Mystery, Thriller · 1h 43m · R · English
Curator score: 1.9/10 (342.3K ratings)
Fear its call.
Overview
After reluctantly moving to the German Alps with her father and his new family, Gretchen discovers that their new town hides sinister secrets, as she's plagued by strange noises and frightening visions of a woman pursuing her.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.9/10
IMDb: 5.7/10
Letterboxd: 2.87/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 79%
Metacritic: 62
TMDB: 5.7/10
Director
Tilman Singer
Production
Waypoint Entertainment, Fiction Park, 100 Zeros, Sierra/Affinity, NEON
Cast
Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Mila Lieu, Greta Fernández, Proschat Madani, Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey, Konrad Singer, Kalin Morrow, Johannes Benecke, Matthea Pedersen, Veronika Bachfischer, Joshua Hupfauer, Philipp Arnold, Conny Brandt, Laura Pröll, Christoph Cordes, Massimiliano Monticciollo
Where to watch
Hulu
Curator Review
Verdict
A stylish, high-concept eurohorror with strong atmosphere, oddball energy, and a committed lead performance, but it’s also messy, under-explained, and more interested in vibes than clean payoff. If you like strange body-horror-adjacent thrillers that escalate into chaos, it’s worth a look; if you want tight plotting or consistent logic, it may frustrate you.
Best for
fans of surreal horror and mystery
viewers who enjoy chaotic, high-concept genre films
people looking for a bold lead performance
audiences who like grotesque practical effects and uneasy atmosphere
Skip if
you need a coherent, fully explained plot
you dislike tonal whiplash or narrative messiness
you prefer restrained, slow-burn horror
you want straightforward scares over weirdness
Overview
Cuckoo is the kind of horror movie that announces its intentions early: it wants to unsettle, disorient, and keep you off balance. The German Alps setting gives it a cold, isolated texture, and the film leans hard into strange noises, visions, and a sense that something deeply wrong is happening just out of frame. It has a nasty little streak of invention that makes even its sillier turns feel alive.
Worth noting
What keeps it watchable is the energy. Hunter Schafer gives the movie a sharp center, and the film around her is full of jagged movement, bizarre imagery, and a willingness to get ridiculous in public. It’s not especially tidy, and some of its ideas feel like they’re fighting each other, but the movie’s confidence in its own weirdness is part of the appeal.
Bottom line
If you’re in the mood for horror that behaves more like a fever dream than a puzzle box, this lands. If you’re hoping for clean mythology or a perfectly engineered thriller, it may feel like a promising mess rather than a fully satisfying one. Still, it’s the kind of mess that genre fans often remember more fondly than the polished alternatives.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Blue Ghosts (4★) · 10251 likes
A lesbian always saves the day I’ll tell u that much
jeaba (3.5★) · 8963 likes
does anyone else think that longlegs and that woman would look really cute together
noen (2.5★) · 8253 likes
When I say "I watch it for the plot", I mean Hunter Schafer
laurietessa (1.5★) · 6017 likes
So messy. I have so many questions but also don’t care at all