‘Cuckoo’ Director Tilman Singer on His Love of Mystery and Wide Lenses

SPOILER ALERT: This article grasps insignificant spoilers for “Cuckoo,” now carry outing in theaters.

Roughly 40% of cuckoo bird species are “brood parasites.”

Instead of originateing its own nest, the cuckoo infiltrates the roosts of other birds and hides its egg among those of the present. Becaemploy of the cuckoo’s rapid enbigment cycle, the chick hatches quicker than the rest of the clutch, and once out of its egg, it will instinctupartner push the present’s offspring out of the perch. The novelborn then employs its unrelenting call to coerce the present species into feeding it until maturity, normally grotriumphg much bigr than its pseudo-protectian.

It was this gruesome evolutionary trait that aidd Tilman Singer to originate and straightforward the novel horror mystery “Cuckoo.” The film chases 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 nationexpansive, Singer sat down with Variety to converse subconscious cinematic impacts, his adore for expansive-angle lenses and why mystery and horror originate the perfect genre pairing.

You shelp you were recognizable with the cuckoo’s parasitic nature thraw your German heritage and postponeedr saw a recordary that re-presentd you to the bird. What made you brave the themes surrounding the cuckoo’s egg-laying habits would originate for an effective horror?

I don’t comprehend if I was brave yet. It was so new still. The cuckoo bird lays its egg into the nests of branch offent bird species and then lets them lift their offspring. And so what finishs up happening is these present parents, usupartner minusculeer birds, feed this gigantic cuckoo chick after their offspring already died becaemploy their eggs get thrown out of the nest. But they get on feeding that chick, and they don’t abandon the nests. And there was someskinnyg pretty in the horror, you comprehend, there was someskinnyg adwellipartner griefful 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 appreciate, “Oh, that’s a family story about to happen.” If I can chase that and skinnyk about this concept, there are skinnygs that I can get out of it for the story. And confidence came in a little postponeedr.

“Cuckoo” comes from a place of teenage angst, with adolescent anxiety being a famous theme thrawout 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 repartner excellent childhood and youth and noskinnyg horrific appreciate that happened to me, you comprehend? Still, every person has to discover their place in the world, has adwellial angst, has prescertain, has dreads, has anxieties. I skinnyk I’m personpartner more prone to it. I’m a little bit more neurotic than other people and tfinish to be worried at times and sense adwellial dread. And I skinnyk a lot of that made it into the story.

How did you set up the see of the Hooded Woman?

I wanted to have a establish of female beauty, a female beauty standard from a bygone era, right? That was vital. [“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 repartner toil out. At some point, they put a sort of Marilyn Monroe-type wig onto her and then it equitable clicked. That was it. That’s the see.

It’s pretty normal in horror films to hide the monster until the finish, but you don’t do that in “Cuckoo.” From punctual on, we get a excellent see at what the Hooded Woman sees appreciate. What was the skinnyking behind that decision?

I skinnyk her presence was more vital 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 skinnyg, right? I felt the sealness to this gpresently woman character was way more vital than hiding her away. It was evident that at the midpoint of the movie, we should have a genuine 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, appreciate, “Oh, they’re being sort of hypnotized in a way. What could that be?” And you comprehend, skinnyking about the cycles, there are so many of them in the movie in branch offent establishs. Familial, and authentic and stuff appreciate this. Just skinnyking 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 obtain, or almost the same obtain or two obtains of the same sboiling [in the same scene], and I never knovel how to do that. But when you’re editing movies, that happens sometimes, where you have a branch offent obtain twice in the timeline or someskinnyg appreciate that. It’s benevolent of cbetter, you comprehend?

The woods are such an iconic horror setting, and the lenses you employ originate the locations see so soft and dreamy. Can you shatter down how you approached the cinematography for “Cuckoo”?

I skinnyk lenses are a excellent point. I repartner appreciate expansive lenses. If you’re talking CinemaScope lenses, expansivescreen lenses, anamorphic lenses, I repartner adore when they’re expansive. Nowadays, it’s benevolent of well-comprehendn to employ telepboilingo lenses, which for me, always gives me a senseing of being erased and a little bit far. But what was very well-comprehendn in the ’80s and ’90s was having expansive-angle lenses that if you watch it on the huge screen, you repartner sense appreciate you’re in there becaemploy it senses appreciate the screen wraps around you. That’s what we were going after. And many of these sboilings we were always using a little bit of a expansiver lens. I skinnyk that gives you an immersive experience.

Your first two feature films, “Luz” and “Cuckoo,” are both horror mysteries. What about the blfinishing of those genres aids you as a straightforwardor?

I don’t comprehend. They go so well together. It’s appreciate vanilla and chocopostponeed ice cream. It’s equitable two repartner excellent tastes. Horror is always about death in some way. It’s always about appreciate, life finishing, our existence is restricted and skinnygs will finish. 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 skinnyg. It’s always about appreciate, who’s the killinger? It’s never about appreciate, oh, who made cookies? These skinnygs, they equitable go together, right? It’s always about appreciate, okay, where does the danger lurk? What is it I need to discover out?

You’ve shelp before that you saw “Lost Highway” and “Repo Man” at a lesser age, which are evident impacts for this film. What other cinematic impacts did you pull from for “Cuckoo?”

I don’t have too many concrete ones. It’s more appreciate this huge, huge mess of movie appreciation. But of course, you comprehend, the masters appreciate [David Lynch] or [Brian] De Palma. But also I personpartner 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 repartner comprehend what the references are when I do them. It’s almost appreciate I forgot and they equitable 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 appreciate, “Is that not a reference to that?” And I’m appreciate, “Oh, yeah, it could be. I guess it is.” You equitable lobtain to accomprehendledge that, yeah, of course, I got someskinnyg from somewhere uniteed with someskinnyg else.

This is only your second feature film, and you were able to partner with Neon and Hunter Schafer to originate it happen. What, from your perspective, is the film all about? What were you trying to accomplish with “Cuckoo?”

I wanted to talk, in this fever dream-appreciate state, about accomprehendledgeance. It’s a movie about accomprehendledgeing the place you’re in. It talks a lot about, in branch offent ways, family arrange, generational struggle and aggression people do to each other, and how aggression circles around, comes back and feeds the next loop of aggression. And that is a pretty horrific skinnyg, but we all have to discover a certain way to deal with it. That doesn’t unbenevolent accomprehendledgeing it and skinnyking, “Oh, this is wonderful,” but we’re always, in part, people who pass the aggression on and obtain the aggression. And I wanted to talk about this and have a story that is in one way, repartner loving in what the characters do, how they get each other and how they deal with it, while at the same time also accomprehendledgeing that the horrific stuff is part of them.