All through October, I’ll be posting reviews of the best of the best films in the horror genre released since October 1, 2023, through September 30, 2024. As an added bonus, I’ll be adding a secondary review that may be somewhat related to the main review or slightly missed the countdown by inches. Follow along the countdown every day in October. Feel free to agree, disagree, or better yet, give me your own picks for your favorite horror movies of the year. Happy Halloween!

#16 – CUCKOO (2024)
Released on August 9, 2024, and is available On Demand and digital download from NEON and Universal Pictures!
Directed/Written by Tilman Singer.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/sBoPoKL0EQY
Teenager Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves from America with her family to a resort in the German Alps. Gretchen’s father (Marton Csokas) and step-mother (Jessica Henwick) designed the resort and decide to make a new start in the well-to-do community. They’ve brought Gretchen and her step-sister Alma (Mila Lieu) with them, even though Gretchen resents having to leave her home and friends behind. The resort owner and manager Herr Konig (Dan Stevens) greets Gretchen and her family with open arms, giving Gretchen a job as a receptionist at the front desk of the hotel to combat the boredom. But Konig has some strict rules that must be followed, mainly, do not go outside of the resort at night. Being a rebellious teen, Gretchen disobeys these rules and runs directly into a monstrosity that has been haunting the area for years.

CUCKOO is an odd little film that introduces a fascinating and fresh monster that is absolutely terrifying. While I had my issues with the film, I do feel that the monster, a hybrid of science and the supernatural, is something unique and truly uncanny. Much like the name of the film, the creature resembles a cuckoo which invades a nest, gets rid of the eggs and replaces them with their own offspring, leaving other parents to raise them. As the story goes on, these despicable acts of nature repeat themselves with Gretchen, Alma, and their family. But beyond the strange behaviors of this monster, the look of the creature is horrifying as the creature sports a wide mouth, circular eyes, and has a shriek that causes hypnosis, hallucinations, vertigo, blackouts, time loops and other discomforts. Kind of like a banshee, I guess. But definitely a monster that has not often been used in many horror movies. And in a genre where vampires, werewolves, zombies, and slashers are a dime a dozen, it’s refreshing to see a creative and original monster for a change. I give CUCKOO credit for the original monster alone.

But it also sports an unconventional plot. There is a detail about Grethcen’s mother that is held back from the beginning and is revealed late in the game that I think is supposed to be a surprise, but anyone having seen a movie in the last twenty to thirty years can see this reveal coming, so it really doesn’t add to the story and instead cheapens it a bit as if the filmmakers would think audiences would be that naïve not to spot it.

Aside from all of that, I did like the story which really feels more like a fever dream than anything else. CUCKOO doesn’t follow any kind of conventional path. Scenes repeat themselves due to the cuckoo monster’s powers, allowing Gretchen to sort of choose her own adventure over and over again. The story is seen through Gretchen’s eyes and she doesn’t know what any of this is all about, so we find unravel the mystery along with her. Gretchen is not without her own flaws, as she is quite selfish and reckless, putting the audience in a position of following this impulsive character that darts headfirst into danger. Because Gretchen is like she is and we are basically experiencing this story like little birds on her shoulder, it makes for a quite uncomfortable experience. So sitting through this film in a theater is going to be downright maddening for most mainstream audiences.

That said, I liked the feeling of unstable ground that permeates pretty much every minute of CUCKOO. The action starts pretty much from the get go and while it is difficult to understand exactly what is going on most of the time, the film is quite fascinating to watch. I especially loved the way the film simply unhinges and goes scattershot during the climax with the cuckoo monster, Gretchen, a local police detective, and a gun-toting Dan Stevens crisscross through the hospital trying to kill each another. It’s chaotic and I don’t know if I understood it all, but dammit if it wasn’t a hell of a lot of fun to watch unfold.

I hesitate to mention this, as the subject often causes all kinds of controversy, but I do think the fact that lead actress Hunter Schafer is a trans person has a lot to do with the ethereal and complex plot going on. Again, the cuckoo’s egg hatches in a nest that is not its own, which is not unlike a trans person feeling as if the sex they were born with isn’t their own. If you squint, this is a pretty obvious allegory they are playing with here and I liked the complex way they broached the subject without the film becoming preachy or in your face with it.

If you want to see CUCKOO through a trans lens, then you can. If not, then it’s simply a weird little monster movie. And that’s what I like about this strange little film. It is entertaining enough to keep the pace moving and story filled with action. It introduces a monster that is truly unique in a genre that is often so repetitive with its antagonist creatures. And it has some strong performances from Dan Stevens, who is always a delight to see whatever role he plays, and Hunter Schafer, who still manages to be likable despite the fact that she can be a selfish shit from time to time. All in all, CUCKOO ends up being a strange bird of a movie, but one I liked quite a bit once it was all over with.

Plus – AMELIA’S CHILDREN (aka A SEMENTA DO MAL, 2023)
Released on March 1, 2024 and is streaming on Hulu!
Directed/Written by Gabriel Abrantes.
Trailer: https://youtu.be/of3jtEnlyS8
Ed (played by Carloto Cotta) has always felt a hole in his life not knowing who his birth parents were. But after his girlfriend Riley (I SAW THE TV GLOW’s Brigette Lundy-Paine) gets him an ancestry test, Ed discovers that he was abducted as a child and has a long-lost family in Portugal. So, Ed and Riley head to a small villa in the middle of a forest in Portugal to meet his twin brother Manuel (also played by Cotta) and his mother Amelia (Anabela Moreira). But the longer Ed and Riley stays with the family, the more Ed becomes enamored with them and the more Riley becomes freaked out by their strange ways, like how Manuel and Amelia sleep in the same bed. It comes to be that their sleeping habits are not the strangest secrets the family hold.

AMELIA’S CHILDREN is a wonderfully perverse little movie. Sporting a modest budget and some truly horrifyingly uncomfortable moments of familial creepiness. While I won’t reveal them here, there are some moments in this movie that will truly make your toes curl and this family is close…very close, and desperately want Ed to join in the fun. This is definitely going to be too much for some to take, but I found it refreshing to see that there still are perverse places for horror to go after all of these years.
Adding to the creep factor is the way the aged matriarch Amelia looks. Seems she is very fond of plastic surgeries and has undergone quite a few of them through the years to stay young, leaving her with a face that is stretched in some places, puffy in others. This is a truly horrifying prosthetic Anabela Moreira wears, making Amelia look iconic and otherworldly. The sad thing is, there really are actresses out there who have done this to their faces—many of them gorgeous women who could have aged gracefully, but instead to go the Frankenstein route. Moreira is a true standout in this all-important and all-together ooky title role, giving the character much depth past the bad plastic surgery, slow and stiff movements, and unblinking eyes.

Brigette Lundy-Paine as Riley is another great performance as she seems to be the only one who is looking at this bizarre situation realistically. While the role of the hysterical woman who isn’t taken seriously by anyone is a cliché in modern horror, AMELIA’S CHILDREN at least places the horror onto Ed and has Riley simply trying to slap some reality into him, rather than suffering all of the horror herself. As Manuel, Carloto Cotta does a top-drawer job of making him seem overly friendly at first and truly taboo-breaking and wretched by the end. The way he dances in a late scene in the movie is reminiscent of that Jean Claude Van Damme dancing meme, but Cotta pulls it off making it even more creepy than JCVD. Unfortunately, Cotta as Ed is less effective, more of a pushover, and easily manipulated, making him a character you can’t help but disrespect and not care for. Ed’s oblivious nature to the strangeness going on is the chink in this film’s acting armor. The actor Cotta is fine and has an Oscar Isaac feel to his look and cool delivery. But the Ed character feels underdeveloped.

There is a plot hole that is never addressed where Ed is encouraged to sign a document written in Portuguese that he has no idea of its contents. This story beat is brought up once and forgotten later on down the line, but AMELIA’S CHILDREN does culminate in a truly strange, bloody, and icky little ending that makes up for this fumble. While it isn’t perfect, I found AMELIA’S CHILDREN to be a nightmarishly fun and wickedly wrong little horror. If you look to horror for unease and discomfort, reminiscent of the creepy old vibe conveyed in Ti West’s X, then this weird little movie is going to be just your kind of sickness.

The Best in Horror Countdown 2023-2024
#31 – HERE FOR BLOOD (DESTROY ALL NEIGHBORS)
#30 – THANKSGIVING (THE SACRIFICE GAME)
#29 – MILK & SERIAL (LOWLIFES)
#28 – PROJECT SILENCE (FROGMAN)
#27 – THE SEEDING (DARK HARVEST)
#26 – BEEZEL (THE FRESH HELL TRILOGY)
#25 – ABERRANCE (COLD MEAT)
#24 – OUT OF DARKNESS (ALL YOU NEED IS DEATH)
#23 – ARCADIAN (A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE)
#22 – YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME (GHOSTS OF THE VOID)
#21 – NEVER LET GO (LOVELY, DARK, & DEEP)
#20 – ABIGAIL (BLACKOUT)
#19 – SPEAK NO EVIL (EIGHT EYES)
#18 – BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE (LISA FRANKENSTEIN)
#17 – MAXXXINE (SHERYL)
#16 – CUCKOO (AMELIA’S CHILDREN)

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Music & Arrangement by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy https://youtu.be/PDySbxQgZMg
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