Hunter Schafer is off the deep end in the new trailer for Cuckoo, an upcoming horror film from writer-director Tilman Singer.
Schafer stars as Gretchen, a 17-year-old American who leaves home to live with her father in a resort in the German Alps. While living in her new residence, Gretchen takes a job working for her father’s boss, Mr. Herr König (Dan Stevens). Then, the trailer goes off the rails, with Schafer descending into madness and Stevens acting completely deranged. “If I were you, I wouldn’t want to get hurt even more,” König tells Gretchen in the trailer.
Besides Schafer and Stevens, Cuckoo’s cast includes Jessica Henwick, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Greta Fernández, and Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey.
Cuckoo is written and directed by Tilman Singer, a German filmmaker best known for his 2018 horror Luz. Producers include Markus Halberschmidt, Josh Rosenbaum, Maria Tsigka, Ken Kao, and Thor Bradwell.
Cuckoo stems from Neon, an independent film and distribution company that is off to a terrific start in 2024. Earlier this month, Longlegs outperformed expectations and registered Neon’s biggest opening weekend at the domestic box office with $22.6 million. The serial killer movie starring Nicolas Cage and Maika Monroe has grossed over $47 million worldwide against a budget of around $10 million.
Neon continued its impressive streak at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival when Anora won the Palme d’Or. The win marks the fifth-consecutive Palme d’Or for Neon, which previously won for Parasite (2019), Titane (2021), Triangle of Sadness (2022), and Anatomy of a Fall (2023). Anora hits theaters in October.
Cuckoo premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February and later screened at the 2024 South by Southwest in March.
Cuckoo arrives in theaters on August 9, 2024.