Hunter Schafer's Cuckoo lives up to its name in first trailer
Schafer stars as a fish out of water in a German resort in the bloody thriller that hits theaters on August 9
It’s finally Hunter Schafer’s turn to lead her own blockbuster after her Euphoria co-stars Zendaya, Sydney Sweeney, and Jacob Elordi paved the way, and—like Sweeney in Immaculate—she’s veering hard into bloody, in-your-face body horror. The Daily Beast was right when they called the Sam Levinson show “TV’s Best Horror”—these actors were clearly going to school for something on that set.
After a few months of only seeing that one picture of Schafer with an ace bandage on her head (you know the one) over and over whenever Cuckoo was mentioned, we finally have a full trailer for the thriller from sophomore feature director, Tilman Singer (Luz). Regardless, we still aren’t really any closer to knowing what the movie is actually about, which—in an age in which studios love to reveal the entire arc of a film in one two-minute preview—is genuinely thrilling.
Here’s what we do know, per the film’s official 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.
What this shocking secret is is anyone’s guess. Based on clues from the trailer it seems like the resort might be some sort of Audubon-style preservation society, but for people? It’s not clear. But the journey to find out looks like it’s going to be a whole lot of fun—for the audience if not for Gretchen, who seems pretty freaking miserable the whole time. In her defense, it looks like the torture starts pretty early. There are a lot of visual callbacks to The Shining, which isn’t a story anyone in their right mind would want to be trapped in, as well as a really gnarly shadow shot of a mysterious woman chasing our protagonist down on a bike. Horror is back, baby!
Cuckoo premieres August 9 in theaters.