SPOILER ALERT: This article contains minor spoilers for “ Cuckoo ,” now playing in theaters. Roughly 40% of cuckoo bird species are “brood parasites.” Instead of building its own nest, the cuckoo infiltrates the roosts of other birds and hides its egg among those of the host.
Because of the cuckoo’s rapid development cycle, the chick hatches faster than the rest of the clutch, and once out of its egg, it will instinctually push the host’s offspring out of the perch. The newborn then uses its unrelenting call to coerce the host species into feeding it until maturity, often growing much larger than its pseudo-guardian. It was this gruesome evolutionary trait that inspired Tilman Singer to write and direct the new horror mystery “Cuckoo.
” The film follows 17-year-old Gretchen ( Hunter Schafer ), who after reluctantly moving to a remote resort community with her father (Marton Csokas), becomes prey to a mysterious humanoid bird. With “Cuckoo” now screening nationwide, Singer sat down with Variety to discuss subconscious cinematic influences, his love for wide-angle lenses and why mystery and horror make the perfect genre pairing. You said you were familiar with the cuckoo’s parasitic nature through your German heritage and later saw a documentary that re-introduced you to the bird.
What made you confident the themes surrounding the cuckoo’s egg-laying habits would make for an effective horror? I don’t know if I was confident yet. It was so fresh still. T.