Cuckoo 2024 / Hunter Schafer moves to a strange, strange place in this creepy though uneven horror thriller

When your parent decides to marry another person with kids, it can feel like you’re not really part of the family, more so, if you’re forced to move to a completely different country altogether. This is the unsettling feeling that drives Cuckoo, directly inspired by the way some cuckoo species engage in brood parasitism, or rely on other birds to raise their young. It’s an interesting concept, and the feeling of exclusion and being out of place is evoked expertly by Hunter Schafer of Euphoria fame, but why Gretchen’s antagonists would bother to do all of this is over-explained yet still feels quite nonsensical. For horror fans willing to go on this bizarre ride, Cuckoo is visually inventive, unnervingly scored, and decently performed, and would be enjoyable, as long as you don’t really think about the logistics of this strange parenting situation.