‘Cuckoo’ Review: Hunter Schafer Enters Scream Queen Territory in Wild, Blood-Soaked Thriller

Berlin 2024: Director Tilman Singer takes inspiration from Dario Argento for this slice of Euro-horror

"Cuckoo"
"Cuckoo" (CREDIT: Courtesy Berlin Film Festival)

Boldly going where many an actress has gone before, Hunter Schafer makes the leap from teen soap star to scream queen with “Cuckoo,” a horror mind-bender that exhilarates and exhausts with equal frequency.

If, in the abstract, the blood and guts genre has always readily welcomed TV ingénues looking to break free from their breakout roles, the particulars here are a touch subtler (and are just about the only element of this wildly over-the-top romp that can claim such a distinction).

For one, given Schafer’s initial showcase in the avowedly TV-MA “Euphoria,” the actress hardly needed to adultify her image when choosing her first leading role; for another, given the auspicious perch “Cuckoo” secured at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, the film is anything but your run of the mill slasher fare.

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