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With Season 3 of Euphoria still on the horizon, in 2024, Hunter Schafer made her mark on the big screen with a small role in Yorgos Lanthimos' Kinds of Kindness and a lead role in the horror film Cuckoo, which just landed on Hulu. In Cuckoo, written and directed by Tilman Singer, Schafer stars as Gretchen, a 17-year-old American girl forced to move to a German resort town with her father, stepmother, and sister after the death of her mother. Strange occurrences seem to follow her, and Gretchen tries to uncover the truth about the resort manager while grieving her mother and getting iced out by her father. Cuckoo does plenty to unsettle, confuse, and keep you guessing throughout, but the film's most important relationship—that between Gretchen and her mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu)—brings about one of its most powerful scenes and has almost nothing to do with horror.

Tilman Singer’s latest horror film (after the chilling 2018 film Luz), Cuckoo, is a similarly unsettling terrifier that takes us into the world of a remote Bavarian resort. With a plot that keeps pushing new and mysterious elements that tease of psychological tension, supernatural horror, and family drama, Cuckoo explores themes of isolation, grief, and the dangers of not trusting one’s instincts. Starring Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, and Jessica Henwick, the film is intermittently captivating, building an eerie atmosphere and unnerving narrative. However, Cuckoo is never truly able to bring all the elements together, especially that baffling ending; it is crucial to look closely at it.

In the following article we will take a look at everything major that will help you understand the twisted horror movie better. Please be aware of spoilers.

Cuckoo (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

The film opens with 17-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) being uprooted from...

Neon’s cerebral horror feature Cuckoo had to perform more than a few clever maneuvers on its flight path to theaters.

Like many projects, the coronavirus pandemic pushed its 2020 start date. Then, delays on lead Hunter Schafer’s HBO hit Euphoria resulted in Cuckoo being pushed even further, which led to some castmembers needing to move on to other commitments, forcing the production to pivot to find new actors to join Schafer.

Writer-director’s Tilman Singer’s project was finally headed toward preproduction in West Germany when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, resulting in the German government taking Cuckoo’s filming locations to house Ukrainian refugees. It was a more than necessary response to a humanitarian crisis, something the Cuckoo team understood. But it left the production in need of other locales to shoot.

“There were a lot of swings taken in a difficult time by a lot of different people,...

Across 2024, Dan Stevens has been delivering performances that are increasingly… well, cuckoo. Whether dishing up gleefully gory carnage (and withering onion-based put-downs) in Abigail, or replacing kaiju canines as monster-dentist Trapper in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the former Downton heartthrob is in full embrace of the weird and wonderful. Offbeat horror Cuckoo continues that streak admirably. Here, he plays the seriously shifty Herr König, owner of a Bavarian holiday resort that simply emanates bad vibes. Whether menacingly invading people’s personal space (“Guten Tag!”), menacingly sniffing asparagus, or menacingly trilling a little wooden flute, it’s a delight to see Stevens in such playfully bonkers territory.

Except it’s only Hunter Schafer’s Gretchen who seems to clock how seriously off König is. In fact, the whole resort is odd. Guests keep throwing up. A weird signal is emitting from the nearby woods. A mysterious figure runs around in the dead of night.

Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo, which premiered at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival in February of this year, stars Hunter Schafer—best known for her captivating role in the HBO teen drama series Euphoria—in one of her best performances yet. Dan Stevens, who has previously impressed in The Guest and Downton Abbey, delivers a chilling and magnetic performance. The film also features Jessica Henwick and Marton Csokas and newcomer Mila Lieu.

After her mother’s death, grieving teenager Gretchen (Schafer) moves with her father Luis (Csokas), stepmother Beth (Henwick) and mute half-sister Alma (Lieu) to a resort town in the Bavarian Alps. The family is there to help build a new hotel, overseen by the enigmatic Herr König (a gloriously sinister Dan Stevens), who offers Gretchen a job at the front desk to help her adjust.

Soon after their arrival, strange things begin to happen. Gretchen encounters multiple female...

Cuckoo is a disturbing, bizarre horror movie about a girl battling a sinister force at a German resort. The film delves into Blood Parasitism and a twisted experiment that connects Gretchen to the Hooded Woman. Despite head-scratching moments, most of Gretchen's injuries result from a car crash, leading to a surprising conclusion.

Released to critical acclaim on August 9, 2024, Cuckoo is one of the most bizarre and outlandish horror movies of the last few years. Hunter Schafer commands the screen as Gretchen, a young woman increasingly tormented by a sinister presence while visiting her estranged father in the German Alps. What begins as a paradise getaway soon devolves into a disturbing tale of abduction, forcing Gretchen to rescue her half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu).

Living up to its title, Cuckoo denotes an extremely loopy story of kidnapping and cruelty that goes to bizarre lengths to reinforce its villain's madness. The title also...

Includes Spoilers for Cuckoo.

Unanswered questions in "Cuckoo" revolve around the mysterious creatures, Knig's motives, and the time loop mechanic's purpose. Alma's transformation into a creature, the involvement of Gretchen's parents, and Luis' loyalty to Knig add to the film's intrigue. Director Tilman Singer's creation of an eerie world with unexplained elements in "Cuckoo" sparks discussions beyond the surface plot.

Hunter Schafer's new Neon horror movie, Cuckoo, leaves audiences with plenty of unanswered questions. Schafer stars as Gretchen, a young woman from the United States who goes to the German Alps with her father, stepmother, and stepsister after her mother passes away. In the resort town she's staying at, Gretchen discovers dark and mysterious happenings involving her father's boss, Herr Knig (Dan Stevens). It's revealed in the Cuckoo ending that he's involved in preserving the lives of deadly, unnamed creatures and is using local humans to breed more of them.

Deep in the forests of Germany, there is a resort, a quaint getaway nestled right at the bottom of the Bavarian Alps. Step out of your car, and you immediately feel like you’re stepping into a postcard; you half expect men in lederhosen, hoisting large steins of Pilsner, to greet you as walk toward the lobby. It’s so picturesque that you might not notice the strange noise emanating from within the woods right next to the guest houses. It’s faint, but very shrill. Something feels weird about that sound,...

Quick Links What Is Cuckoo About? What Does the Cuckoo Title Mean? How Cuckoo's Dual Meaning Enhances Its Themes

Opening theatrically on August 9, 2024, Cuckoo is an acclaimed American thriller with shades of Cronenbergian body horror. The story concerns Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), a 17-year-old American who begrudgingly travels to the German Alps to live with her estranged father at a paradise resort. At the resort, Gretchen's mute sibling Alma (Mila Lieu) becomes increasingly targeted by their father's boss, Mr. Konig (Dan Stevens).

Using a clever pun, the title Cuckoo connotes a certain madness that defies the horrific action that unfolds and an avian parasite that reinforces the movie's disturbing theme. The latter meaning is explained at the end by Mr. Konig, a riveting yet risible Bond-like villain who overexposes his dastardly plot and forces viewers to rethink the plot. Although the second half does not live up to the first half,...

“Cuckoo” is here.

The new film from German director Tilman Singer, whose thesis film “Luz” became a sleeper hit, is absolutely bonkers. It follows Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), who, following the death of her mother, moves with her father (Marton Csokas), stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and young half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu), to a retreat in the Bavarian Alps. Her father and stepmother are meant to help the director of the retreat (Dan Stevens) on a new project. Of course, far more sinister implications begin to emerge, as Gretchen is chased one night by a mysterious woman, who also thwarts her attempts to escape with a guest of the hotel named Ed (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey).

What is really going on at the seemingly serene retreat? And will Gretchen make it out alive?

Let’s break down the ending of “Cuckoo.” Major spoiler warning, of course.

What’s the deal with the scary woman?

Apparently...

Hunter Schafer is best known for portraying the bedazzled high schooler, Jules, in HBOs hit series, Euphoria, but in Cuckoo, she dons a bloodied bandage around her head. After having to move to Germany from America to live with her estranged father and his new family, Gretchen (Schafer) quietly observes her new surroundings. Her fathers boss, Herr Knig (Dan Stevens), takes an interest in her family, specifically her mute half-sister, Alma (Mila Lieu). As Gretchen begins to have nightmarish visions of brutality and gore, she soon believes that the scenic resort they live in is not as peaceful as everybody else seems to think. The more questions she asks, the more she discovers that her gut instincts were right all along. However, in doing so, she learns about a terrible secret that involves Herr Knig and her family, which might have deadly consequences. This psychological thriller will keep you questioning...

Plot: A 17-year-old girl is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem.

Review: 2024 has been the year of the well-marketed horror film. With Longlegs already blowing audiences away, now it’s Cuckoo’s turn to prove itself. Presented as less of a crime thriller and more of a “what the hell is happening?” mystery, Cuckoo isn’t afraid to get weird. And that’s often where horror can be the most interesting. Nine times out of ten, the unexplained is more terrifying than the truth, so there’s always a concern about a film expounding too much. I’m happy to report that the film manages to maintain its mystery.

I’m going to make this review as spoiler-free as possible since I know there’s still a little bit of time till this releases theatrically. If you’re one of...

Hunter Schafer thrives in Cuckoo's action-heavy lead role, showcasing new sides of her talent. Dan Stevens embodies a sinister mystery inspired by German folklore, adding depth to the dream-like horror. Jessica Henwick shines in a complex role, exploring the mother/monster dynamic in the eerie atmosphere.

2024 has been a great year for horror movies and the latest is Cuckoo, a strange and dream-like feature from director Tilman Singer. Only his second film, Singer also wrote the film, which stars Hunter Schafer as Gretchen, an American teenager who is sent to live with her father and his new family as they move into a resort in the German Alps during the off season.

Gretchen, already desperate to return home, rebels against her father and stepmother, played by Jessica Henwick, even as Dan Stevens' Her Konig tries to make her assimilate to her new environment. What that entails is unclear, but...

Tilman Singer’s debut feature Luz didn’t hide behind its style, exactly. But it did swaddle its weirdness in a comforting blanket of fuzz and neon. A film-school thesis so promising it was picked up for distribution abroad, Luz is the kind of movie that serves as a teaser...

Cuckoo filmmaker Tilman Singer knows what he wants. That confidence was apparent when his film school thesis project, Luz, received distribution in 2018, kicking off the German writer-director’s promising future. The 70-minute supernatural horror film was made with the most modest of resources, but Singer’s talent was so evident that you couldn’t help but imagine what he’d be able to do with a healthy budget. It may have taken six years, but the answer is now here in the form of Cuckoo, which may or may not be connected to Luz. Hunter Schafer’s main character in Singer’s genre-bending horror film is named Gretchen Vanderkurt, while Luz’s Julia Riedler played a character named Nora Vanderkurt.

As of this moment, Singer is choosing to remain tight-lipped about the potential relationship between his first two features.

“I don’t want to answer that too concretely, but it’s a good last name.

Strange and fascinating sequences in Cuckoo sets the tone for an atmospheric horror experience. Strong character work brings unsettling relationships to life, especially with a standout performance from Hunter Schafer. The climax is intense and engrossing, leaving audiences with questions but eager for Singer's next project.

Writer-director Tilman Singer's sophomore effort Cuckoo opens with a strange and fascinating sequence that already justifies its title before cutting to its Hunter Schafer's Gretchen, following her family to their new home in the Bavarian Alps from the vantage point of the moving van. If that sounds like something of a non-sequitir, that's because Cuckoo relies on keeping us on our toes and asking questions. The movie's atmospheric approach to horror sometimes works against it, but stellar performances from Dan Stevens and Schafer ultimately make it a home run.

Cuckoo (2024)

Director Tilman SingerRelease Date August 9, 2024Writers Tilman SingerCast Mila Lieu, Kalin Morrow, Greta Fernndez,...

Writer/Director Tilman Singer continues his streak of experimental high-concept horror with his sophomore effort, Cuckoo. The filmmaker boldly marches to the beat of his own drum, examining heady themes of grief, reproduction, and gendered expectations through inventive, playful horror. That Cuckoo plays it fast and loose with details and plotting means that this body horror entry will likely polarize, but lovers of weird cinema will find a lot of charm in Singer’s latest.

After a peculiar cold open that won’t make sense until much later in the film, Cuckoo introduces seventeen-year-old Gretchen (Hunter Schafer). The moody teen wears her disdain plainly as she’s dragged by her father, Luis (Marton Csókás), stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick), and her mute 7-year-old stepsister Alma (Mila Lieu) to the Bavarian Alps resort where Alma was conceived. Gretchen’s deep in the throes of grief over the loss of her mother, whose...

With temps climbing and the sun frankly being just too bright, there’s no better time to hide away in a dark, air conditioned movie theater. And luckily, August has delivered on giving us all some exciting films for us to see as we shelter-in-place (at the theater). This month we have everything from alpine horror to a couple of music led pics, and some home viewing including a vertigo-inducing romance. Check them out below.

Dandelion

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Theaters

Director: Nicole Riegel

Cast: Thomas Doherty, Kiki Layne, Melanie Nicholls-King

Why We’re Excited: Film Independent Spirit Awards alum for Best First Feature for her coming-of-age drama Holler, writer-director Riegel’s sophomore film premiered at SXSW. Part of the Film Independent Presents screening series, the drama follows the titular Dandelion (Layne), a struggling singer-songwriter from Cincinnati who takes a gig in South Dakota because...

Cuckoo is one of the most Wtf movies you will see this year. And it’s astounding. Not just because of the wild moments, but because of how we get there. As the saying goes, it’s not always about the destination, it’s about the journey. The way Tilman Singer weaves this tale is incredible. It is intentionally paced and reserved, until it’s not. And then it goes completely nuts in a matter of moments.

But let’s back up. As the story starts, Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) has just arrived in Germany to live with her father (Marton Csokas), her stepmother Beth (Jessica Henwick) and her mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu). Her mother has recently passed away and Gretchen is feeling untethered. She has lost the person closest to her, left everything she knows behind, and is now in another country with a family that she feels tenuously connected to,...

La estrella de ‘Euphoria’ en la nueva película de Neon. © Neon

Neon ha publicado el nuevo tráiler y póster de “Cuckoo”, una película de terror psicológico que se proyectará en la 57ª edición del Festival de Sitges.

Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), de 17 años, abandona a regañadientes su hogar americano para vivir con su padre, que acaba de mudarse a un complejo turístico en los Alpes alemanes con su nueva familia. Al llegar a su futura residencia, son recibidos por el Sr. König (Dan Stevens), el jefe de su padre, que se interesa inexplicablemente por Alma (Mila Lieu), la hermanastra muda de Gretchen. Algo no cuadra en este tranquilo paraíso vacacional. Gretchen se ve acosada por ruidos extraños y visiones sangrientas hasta que descubre un espeluznante secreto que también afecta a su propia familia.

La película, una coproducción estadounidense y alemana, está protagonizada por Hunter Schafer, conocida por interpretar a Jules Vaughn...

Having already played a blinder with their cryptic marketing for one noodle-twisting psychological horror this year, Osgood Perkins' Nic Cage x Maika Monroe joint Longlegs, American indie label Neon look set to make it two for two in 2024 with Tilman Singer's Cuckoo. Following a curiosity grabbing, The Shining evocative first trailer back in April, the latest look at the Luz filmmaker's Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens starring scarer continues to only hint at the horrors that Singer has in store here — but those hints have us hooked. Check it out:

Stevens' Mr. König menacingly playing woodwind. An investigator looking into a mysterious, not-entirely-human-looking woman. An increasingly bloodied and broken Gretchen (Schafer) screaming, shouting, and getting their final girl on amidst the eerily tranquil climes of the German Alps. What could it all mean? Frankly, at this stage, we haven't the foggiest. And yet, as with that first tantalising teaser,...

The Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off its 28th edition this week, running from July 18 through August 4, 2024, at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. That means multiple weeks of dense genre programming, buzzy premieres, and more.

The festival is set to debut Chuck Russell’s Witchboard remake, the Mike Flanagan-presented found footage Shelby Oaks, the latest from La Llorona filmmaker Jayro Bustamante, Steven Kostanski’s Frankie Freako, and more, but there’s a wealth of titles beyond the high profile titles worth seeking out.

Here are five horror movies to keep an eye out for at this year’s fest, from festival darlings to fresh debuts.

The Beast Within

The narrative debut of filmmaker Alexander J. Farrell explores the duality of werewolves with a Grimm fairy tale-like twist. Stopmotion’s Caoilinn Springall stars as Willow,...

Picture the scene — an idyllic rural resort in the German Alps, with trees as far as the eye can see and a bespectacled Dan Stevens in tow. Sounds like the stuff of dreams, right? Well, if the first trailer for Hunter Schafer-starring horror Cuckoo – from Luz director Tilman Singer – is anything to go by, it's more like the stuff of nightmares. Check it out below:

Anybody else's heart pounding after that? Sheesh! Right from the all-too-Shining opening shots of a car wending its way through the countryside, it's abundantly clear that this is no cosy travelogue about sweet birds and European natural wonder. And the shrieks among the trees, ominous shots of taxidermy bears, and Dan Stevens' accented, low-key menacing "How would you like to come work for me at the resort?" here certainly don't suggest a five-star TripAdvisor review is on its way any time soon. In fact,...

La película ‘Cuckoo’, encabezada por la estrella de ‘Euphoria’, revela su primer tráiler y póster. © Neon

La distribuidora Neon ha publicado el primer tráiler y póster de “Cuckoo”, una nueva película de terror psicológico.

Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), de 17 años, abandona a regañadientes su hogar americano para vivir con su padre, que acaba de mudarse a un complejo turístico en los Alpes alemanes con su nueva familia. Al llegar a su futura residencia, son recibidos por el Sr. König (Dan Stevens), el jefe de su padre, que se interesa inexplicablemente por Alma (Mila Lieu), la hermanastra muda de Gretchen. Algo no cuadra en este tranquilo paraíso vacacional. Gretchen se ve acosada por ruidos extraños y visiones sangrientas hasta que descubre un espeluznante secreto que también afecta a su propia familia.

La película está protagonizada por Hunter Schafer, conocida por interpretar a Jules Vaughn en la serie dramática de HBO, “Euphoria”. En...

In most teen dramas, when a moody 17-year-old is forced to relocate because of divorce or new step-parents, their only real tasks are to slam bedroom doors and worry about building their new social life from scratch. But in the first trailer for Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo, the relocation of Hunter Schafer’s Gretchen is marked by a more sinister mission: outrunning the terrifying beings haunting and hunting her.

“They think I’m crazy,” Gretchen says in the trailer, having been gaslit and dismissed when she told police that she...

Neon’s official trailer for Cuckoo features Hunter Schafer (Euphoria) as a teenager whose job at a resort is…possibly literally…pure hell. Dan Stevens (Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire) continues to dive into weird characters as the man who runs the resort.

“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,” reads Neon’s synopsis. “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.”

The horror film’s cast also includes Jessica Henwick, Marton Csokas, and Mila Lieu. German filmmaker Tilman Singer...

2024 is shaping up to be a good year for horror, and that's exciting. Horror remains one of the most dependable genres — if there's a new horror movie, audiences will likely turn out to see it. Hell, these days a horror movie doesn't even need to have good reviews to bolster its box office returns: people just want to go see a scary movie. Which brings us to "Cuckoo," a new horror film written and directed by Tilman Singer, who helmed the very strange 2018 German horror pic "Luz."

"Cuckoo" features "Euphoria" star Hunter Schafer as Gretchen, a teen sent to live with her father in the German Alps. Sounds fun and picturesque, right? Wrong! There are scary things afoot. The film premiered at the Berlin film festival Berlinale this year, where it garnered mixed-to-positive reviews, many of which point out how weird the movie is. It currently sits at 76% on Rotten Tomatoes.

“Euphoria” breakout Hunter Schafer is playing yet another teen trying to outrun her familial drama, except this time, it’s a surreal matter of life or death. Schafer leads “Cuckoo,” written and directed by “Luz” filmmaker Tilman Singer.

Six years after Singer’s 2018 feature debut, “Cuckoo” centers on 17-year-old Gretchen (Schafer) who is forced to leave her American home to live with her father (Márton Csókás) in a resort in the German Alps with his new wife (Jessica Henwick) and family. Yet it’s her father’s boss Mr. Konig (Dan Stevens) and his obsession with Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma (Mila Lieu) that unlocks a larger, more sinister presence at the resort. Gretchen becomes haunted by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family. Jan Bluthardt and Greta Fernandez also star in the horror film.

“Cuckoo” was shot on 35mm...

The Berlin Film Festival kicked off its 74th edition February 15 with the opening-night world premiere screening of Small Things Like These, the Irish drama starring Oscar-nominated Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy. It started 10 days of debuts including for movies starring Rooney Mara, Isabelle Huppert, Gael García Bernal, Kristen Stewart and more.

This year’s Competition lineup features films from a swath of international filmmakers including Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Hong Sangsoo, Bruno Dumont and Abderrahmane Sissako.

The Berlinale runs through February 25.

Keep checking back below as Deadline reviews the best and buzziest movies of the festival. Click on the titles to read the full reviews.

Another End ‘Another End’

Section: Competition

Director: Piero Messina

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Renate Reinsve, Bérénice Bejo, Olivia Williams, Pal Aron

Deadline’s takeaway: The script, while ambitious, is laden with philosophical musings that often feel detached from the emotional core of the story. Another End...

Hunter Schafer is a very good actress. This probably won’t be news to anyone who watched even the first episode of Euphoria, where her aching vulnerability seemed to swallow the scenery whole. Fresh from appearing in the latest Hunger Games, the actress takes her first leading role in Cuckoo, a supernatural horror that doesn’t feel pushed to explain itself, offering a fun mashup of older, less-well-heeled filmmaking tropes. There is a nicely hammy turn from Dan Stevens and one finely tuned homage, but in Schafer it holds an ace: nailing the physical comedy and stretching her emotive face to the limit, the film is all hers.

In Cuckoo, Schafer stars as Gretchen, a teenager who is joining her father Luis (Marton Csokas) as he moves to a resort in the German Alps with his new wife Trixie (Greta Fernández) and daughter Alma (Mila Lieu). Upon arrival they meet Luis’ boss Mr König,...

The first shot after the opening titles of Tilman Singer’s savvily conceived but undercooked Cuckoo is like a reverse angle of the opening shot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Here, a family drives through beautiful but implicitly foreboding mountainous terrain. And we’re located in the cab of the car with Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), an angsty teen who’s been forced to relocate from her home in the U.S. to a relatively remote corner of the Bavarian Alps.

Steep, imposingly snow-capped, and dotted with romantic castles and high-end ski lodges, the Bavarian Alps are tourist magnets, and justifiably so. But this part of Germany was also a favorite of Hitler’s, and today it’s the heart of traditional conservativism in the country. Like Appalachia in the U.S., it’s a place a horror movie might take us to in search of scary people—except here...

With “Cuckoo,” German director Tilman Singer expands on the scope of his impressive 2018 debut (the demonic-possession-meets-therapeutic-improv exercise “Luz”) while retaining that film’s bird-flipping attitude toward unnecessary niceties like coherent plotting or narrative logic. Singer makes what ought to be his breakthrough with “Cuckoo,” an energetically outlandish fusion of stylish atmospherics, old-school reproductive horror and pro-switchblade advertorial. The profile of this highly enjoyable, unashamedly convoluted creepfest will be further raised by “Euphoria” star Hunter Schafer’s terrific Final Girl performance and by Dan Stevens’ hilariously eccentric villain, the second recent showcase for Stevens’ excellent spoken German after Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man.” Few are the films and fewer are the actors who can get such sinister mileage out of a character’s insistently Teutonic, semi-sibilant mispronunciation of the name “Gretchen.”

Gretchen (Schafer), appears, initially, to be the cuckoo. She is sent to live with her estranged father Luis (Marton Csokas...

Everyone knows that hotels — preferably isolated, ideally with very few guests — make the best settings for horror films. All that sad anonymity, all that provisional space ready to be filled with something really nasty. In Cuckoo, Alpenplatz, run by the excessively friendly Mr. Konig (Dan Stevens) totally fits the bill.

You never get a clear idea of its geography, apart from an enormous foyer fronted by a sort of supermarket where the odd, disoriented guest wanders in to vomit into the freezer unit. “Oh yes, that happens sometimes,” says the flirty receptionist Trixie (Greta Fernandez), who apparently has just stepped out of one of Brigitte Bardot’s lesser movies. There also are some bungalows — how close to the main building is not clear either — including one painted pink that Konig calls “the love nest.” In horror, that has to be a bad sign.

So a hotel is a good start.

What is “Cuckoo” about? What actually happens in it? How important is it for a movie to make sense? We can’t answer any of these questions. And nor can “Cuckoo,” an undoubtedly well-made and almost-interesting psychological thriller about a strange Alpine resort where — and we can’t stress this enough — it’s not clear what actually happens.

Some basic bits are, however, clear: Hunter Schafer is definitely in it, as Gretchen, a 17-year-old girl and general tortured soul forced to move in with her dad Luis (Marton Csokas), step-mom Beth (Jessica Henwick), and young step-sister Alma (Mila Lieu) after the death of her mother. Gretchen insists on having nothing to do with Alma, an arbitrarily cruel stance seemingly for the sake of a redemption arc later in the film.

The premise of “Cuckoo” is that something odd involving impregnation and murder is going on at the resort, which Gretchen...

“Dodger,” the high-octane family drama based on Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” is set to return to the BBC for three specials.

Production has just wrapped in Bristol on the three one-off episodes, which include a Christmas-themed offering, with Christopher Eccleston (“Doctor Who”) returning as Fagin and Billy Jenkins (“Peaky Blinders”) returning as the eponymous child pickpocket.

Also returning for high jinks in Victorian London are Ellie-May Sheridan (“Call The Midwife”), Aabay Ali, Connor Curren, Mila Lieu, David Threlfall (“Shameless”), Alex Kingston (“Doctor Who”), Rhys Thomas (“The Fast Show”), Javone Prince (“No Time To Die”), Lucy Montgomery (“Disenchantment”), Saira Choudhry (“Life”), James Fleet (“Vicar of Dibley”), Lenny Rush (“A Christmas Carol”) and Sam C Wilson (“Hanna”).

They are joined by newcomers to the series Anita Dobson (“EastEnders”), Robert Lindsay (“My Family”), Mark Benton (“Waterloo Road”), Rufus Jones (“Home”), Matthew Holness (“Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace”) and Jane Horrocks (“Absolutely Fabulous”).

“Dodger” will air...