Be Warned That Hunter Schafer’s Cuckoo Trailer Has a Terrifying Jump Scare

Creepy noises. A distorted voice booming from speakers. A solitary girl walking into the night.

These sorts of things are a dime a dozen in horror trailers, and can be used in even the most inconsequential straight-to-Tubi fare. But when those same elements come in a teaser for an upcoming Neon release, we have to take notice.

Neon just dropped the first teaser for Cuckoo, directed by Tilman Singer and starring Euphoria‘s Hunter Schafer. As you can see in the video below, the trailer truly does tease the viewer, giving us little go on. Schafer’s character slowly makes her way out of what appears to be a school and towards the night, while a male voice crackles on blaring speakers, declaring, “The adolescent needs to be trained.” The character snaps open a knife as the scene cuts to black, punctuated with a scream, suggesting that this particular adolescent does not want training, at least not from whatever that spectacled creature is, which reaches out at the camera in a final, terrifying jump scare. Just what the hell is that masked thing at the end there?

Cuckoo is the second feature film from Singer, a German filmmaker whose 2018 debut Luz garnered praise from genre fans. According to Neon’s description, Cuckoo follows American girl Gretchen, who goes to live with her father in the German Alps. Gretchen senses something wrong when her father’s boss Mr. König devotes too much attention to mute half-sister Alma.

Again, that doesn’t give viewers much to go on. But horror movies work better when dealing with the unknown. And frankly, the cast of Cuckoo is enough to generate interest. In addition to Schafer, the movie also stars Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, and Marton Csókás. Like Sydney Sweeney and Jacob Elordi before her, Schafer is making the jump from Euphoria fame to the big screen and we love to see it.

Cuckoo comes to theaters on May 3, 2024.