SPOILER ALERT: This article includes inbeginant spoilers for “Cuckoo,” now joining in theaters.
Roughly 40% of cuckoo bird species are “brood parasites.”
Instead of produceing its own nest, the cuckoo infiltrates the roosts of other birds and hides its egg among those of the present. Becaengage of the cuckoo’s rapid broadenment cycle, the chick hatches quicker than the rest of the clutch, and once out of its egg, it will instinctuassociate push the present’s offspring out of the perch. The recentborn then engages its unrelenting call to coerce the present species into feeding it until maturity, frequently lengthening much huger than its pseudo-defendian.
It was this gruesome evolutionary trait that encouraged Tilman Singer to produce and honest the recent horror mystery “Cuckoo.” The film adheres 17-year-better Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), who after unwillingly moving to a far resort community with her overweighther (Marton Csokas), becomes prey to a enigmatic humanoid bird.
With “Cuckoo” now screening nationwide, Singer sat down with Variety to converse subconscious cinematic sways, his cherish for wide-angle lenses and why mystery and horror produce the perfect genre pairing.
You shelp you were recognizable with the cuckoo’s parasitic nature thcimpolite your German heritage and tardyr saw a recordary that re-begind you to the bird. What made you brave the themes surrounding the cuckoo’s egg-laying habits would produce for an effective horror?
I don’t understand if I was brave yet. It was so recent still. The cuckoo bird lays its egg into the nests of branch offent bird species and then lets them elevate their offspring. And so what ends up happening is these present parents, usuassociate minusculeer birds, feed this gigantic cuckoo chick after their offspring already died becaengage their eggs get thrown out of the nest. But they upretain on feeding that chick, and they don’t aprohibitdon the nests. And there was someleang pretty in the horror, you understand, there was someleang adwelliassociate sadnessful and pretty at the same time. And that I couldn’t let go. So [thinking] on that unmindentirey for a while, at some point I understood enjoy, “Oh, that’s a family story about to happen.” If I can adhere that and leank about this concept, there are leangs that I can get out of it for the story. And confidence came in a little tardyr.
“Cuckoo” comes from a place of teenage angst, with adolescent anxiety being a famous theme thcimpoliteout the film. Does that come from personal experience? Were you ever trapped somewhere pretty you didn’t want to be as a teen?
In an abstract and adwellial way. I had a reassociate excellent childhood and youth and noleang horrific enjoy that happened to me, you understand? Still, every person has to discover their place in the world, has adwellial angst, has presstateive, has worrys, has anxieties. I leank I’m personassociate more prone to it. I’m a little bit more neurotic than other people and tend to be worried at times and experience adwellial dread. And I leank a lot of that made it into the story.
How did you summarize the see of the Hooded Woman?
I wanted to have a create of female beauty, a female beauty standard from a bygone era, right? That was beginant. [“Dressed to Kill”] came to mind. Another one was a movie called “Charade,” where Audrey Hepburn is dressed in huge sunglasses and a trench coat and a scarf. These were inspirations for [the look]. And then we tried wigs for her. We had these ’70s lengthy-haired wigs, and they didn’t reassociate labor out. At some point, they put a sort of Marilyn Monroe-type wig onto her and then it fair clicked. That was it. That’s the see.
It’s pretty normal in horror films to hide the monster until the end, but you don’t do that in “Cuckoo.” From punctual on, we get a excellent see at what the Hooded Woman sees enjoy. What was the leanking behind that decision?
I leank her presence was more beginant than the mystery. Like, the presence of this gpresently woman character with our main character, who has lost a mother recently, and she’s being haunted now by this leang, right? I felt the shutness to this gpresently woman character was way more beginant than hiding her away. It was evident that at the midpoint of the movie, we should have a authentic excellent see at her.
How did you land on the time loop effect as a symptom of the “bird call?“
I wanted to have some entrapment that the humans can discover themselves in, and it had to be sort of psychorational. And I thought, enjoy, “Oh, they’re being sort of hypnotized in a way. What could that be?” And you understand, leanking about the cycles, there are so many of them in the movie in branch offent creates. Familial, and authentic and stuff enjoy this. Just leanking about this, the loop visuals were very proximate. And on top of that, I always wanted to have a movie where I’m able to show the same get, or almost the same get or two gets of the same stoasty [in the same scene], and I never krecent how to do that. But when you’re editing movies, that happens sometimes, where you have a branch offent get twice in the timeline or someleang enjoy that. It’s benevolent of cbetter, you understand?
The woods are such an iconic horror setting, and the lenses you engage produce the locations see so gentle and dreamy. Can you fracture down how you approached the cinematography for “Cuckoo”?
I leank lenses are a excellent point. I reassociate enjoy wide lenses. If you’re talking CinemaScope lenses, widescreen lenses, anamorphic lenses, I reassociate cherish when they’re wide. Nowadays, it’s benevolent of famous to engage teleptoastyo lenses, which for me, always gives me a experienceing of being erased and a little bit far. But what was very famous in the ’80s and ’90s was having wide-angle lenses that if you watch it on the huge screen, you reassociate experience enjoy you’re in there becaengage it experiences enjoy the screen wraps around you. That’s what we were going after. And many of these stoastys we were always using a little bit of a wider lens. I leank that gives you an immersive experience.
Your first two feature films, “Luz” and “Cuckoo,” are both horror mysteries. What about the combineing of those genres encourages you as a honestor?
I don’t understand. They go so well together. It’s enjoy vanilla and chocotardy ice cream. It’s fair two reassociate excellent tastes. Horror is always about death in some way. It’s always about enjoy, life ending, our existence is restricted and leangs will end. And a mystery is…I forgot who made that joke, but a comedian, maybe Demetri Martin, made a joke that a mystery is never about uncovering a excellent leang. It’s always about enjoy, who’s the homicideer? It’s never about enjoy, oh, who made cookies? These leangs, they fair go together, right? It’s always about enjoy, okay, where does the danger lurk? What is it I insist to discover out?
You’ve shelp before that you saw “Lost Highway” and “Repo Man” at a lesser age, which are evident sways for this film. What other cinematic sways did you pull from for “Cuckoo?”
I don’t have too many concrete ones. It’s more enjoy this huge, huge mess of movie appreciation. But of course, you understand, the masters enjoy [David Lynch] or [Brian] De Palma. But also I personassociate have [Federico] Fellini and [Michelangelo] Antonioni in there, in terms of how to function with the camera and hbettering the mystery. A lot of times, I don’t reassociate understand what the references are when I do them. It’s almost enjoy I forgot and they fair come out in an unconscious way. And then lots of times, I’m getting reminded when I talk to an audience after screening or in an intersee, and they’re enjoy, “Is that not a reference to that?” And I’m enjoy, “Oh, yeah, it could be. I guess it is.” You fair lachieve to acunderstandledge that, yeah, of course, I got someleang from somewhere combiinsist with someleang else.
This is only your second feature film, and you were able to partner with Neon and Hunter Schafer to produce it happen. What, from your perspective, is the film all about? What were you trying to achieve with “Cuckoo?”
I wanted to talk, in this fever dream-enjoy state, about acunderstandledgeance. It’s a movie about acunderstandledgeing the place you’re in. It talks a lot about, in branch offent ways, family set up, generational struggle and presentility people do to each other, and how presentility circles around, comes back and feeds the next loop of presentility. And that is a pretty horrific leang, but we all have to discover a stateive way to deal with it. That doesn’t nasty acunderstandledgeing it and leanking, “Oh, this is wonderful,” but we’re always, in part, people who pass the presentility on and get the presentility. And I wanted to talk about this and have a story that is in one way, reassociate loving in what the characters do, how they protect each other and how they deal with it, while at the same time also acunderstandledgeing that the horrific stuff is part of them.
