Cuckoos in Horror

By: Myriam Akbar

A horror film from 2024 that found its way on many fans’ top ten lists yet also confused most, is Cuckoo which stars Hunter Schafer as the protagonist. It follows a teenager who goes to live with her father after losing her mother. Strange occurrences take place and she is targeted by a hooded woman. Until the explanation is given, I’m not even going to pretend that I understood what was going on. I was intrigued and entertained by the imagery associated with the hooded woman and vibrating screeches. Despite not being essential for me in a horror film, those were the most “scary” aspects. The acting and cinematography were great, but my main issue with Cuckoo is that I had to research afterwards to understand it. I like a film that is thought-provoking, but here the unfamiliarity factor made the film less effective than it could have been with more world-building and foreshadowing. 

While rewatching, I decided to research an explanation of how the cuckoo bird relates to the story’s plot twist. Although it quickly made sense, I feel there were wasted opportunities to inject the science of it into the story. To summarize without spoiling every detail of the plot: cuckoo birds rely on brood parasitism, a behavioral pattern of animals that rely on others to raise their offspring. In the film, there is a near-human species that does the same. Their screeches affect humans and trigger the development of their young. With that, I felt satisfied. However, I ironically and unintentionally came across a television series that helped it all make even more sense. 

In 2022, The Midwich Cuckoos was released and is based on the novel of the same name. As I’m watching, I not only see the similarities between it and Cuckoo but another film that I haven’t seen in years — Village of the Damned. All it took was a few clicks, to learn there was a connection. I’ve seen both versions of the film but am most familiar with the 1995 version, because I watched it all the time as a kid. From my memory, the plot involved a bunch of pregnant women and their seemingly dangerous children. Similar to the plot of There’s Something Wrong with the Children. I remembered their silver hair and blank stares, but certainly did not know how they related to the cuckoo bird. Long story short: the plot follows a village where the women fall unconscious and give birth to children who are brood parasitic aliens. Like any television series based on a film, it expands on the story world and lore. However, not every series does this so brilliantly. It’s basically a fully fleshed out version of the plot-twist from Cuckoo, if it had implemented more sci-fi elements. 

Photo Creds: Wikipedia.com, Rottentomatoes.com