Upamanyu Biswas
‘Cuckoo’ is a horror thriller film that follows a 17-year-old named Gretchen who is made to move from her home in America to live with her father and his new family in a resort in the German Alps. The young girl acquaints herself with her half-sister, Alma, who is a source of great interest for Herr König, her father’s boss and the owner of the resort. Consequently, the strange resort that is purported to be a vacation home starts manifesting bizarre and inexplicable events. In its confines, Gretchen is plagued by noises and hallucinations, keeping her up at night. Soon, her life is uprooted when she discovers a disturbing family secret that completely shatters her existence.
Director Tilman Singer taps into an almost fable-like story set in a secluded resort isolated from the rest of the world. During her stay with her new family, Gretchen starts to lose her sanity, growing increasingly paranoid at the strange occurrences gripping the household and its inhabitants. Aside from the captivating performances by Dan Stevens and Hunter Schafer, its gripping storyline compels one to delve into the roots of ‘Cuckoo’ and flesh out the inspiration behind its chilling narrative.
Cuckoo Draws from the Nesting Practices of the Real-Life Birds
‘Cuckoo’ is a fictional story created by Tilman Singer, who wrote and directed the film from an idea that came to him while he was wrapping up work on his debut feature film, ‘Luz.’ Talking to Screenrant, Singer revealed that during the finishing process, he was frustrated and unwell because he thought “nobody (would) watch (Luz).” Subsequently, the idea for his second feature “literally grew out of a mood (he) was in at the time.” After alighting upon a documentary about the cuckoo bird, the writer-director was intrigued by the habits of the cuckoo and its specific nesting practices.
He said, “I watched a documentary about the cuckoo bird and how they breed and that they put their eggs into the nests of other bird species. And then I had this shot of host parents feeding a cuckoo chick that is not theirs. And they don’t abandon nests, they just keep on doing that. And that was kind of beautiful — beautiful in a horrific way. I couldn’t let go of this image. So after a while, I thought like, how am I projecting this on humans?” The BBC documentary stayed on his mind throughout the creation process of ‘Cuckoo,’ helping him develop the central horror conceit of the narrative.
A Blend of Various Tones and Genres Reminiscent of a Pair of Iconic Auteurs
According to director Tilman Singer, while ‘Cuckoo’ primarily operates in the horror domain, its interests are more widely appealing. He was interested in portraying a collection of merging tones that don’t necessarily blend together, but their clashing frequencies allow something new to spring forth. The director was tied to the idea of personifying something contradictory – both scary and funny at the same time. “I love scenes that are funny and tragic at the same time, or scary and funny,” Singer said. “There’s the story on the surface. But there’s more to [it], however you want to look at it — if it’s above or below or it’s in the ether or whatever it is.”
He also took great pleasure in mixing genres as it helped redefine the approach to the narrative in places where it might have seemed predictable. It was his way of telling the audience to embrace the story as something that could take different routes while still being coherently the same. “You can feel the movie in all kinds of different ways, right? And disrupting that straight sort of storyline on the surface with different tones and different genres. That sort of hint at like, hey, yeah, you can also feel a different way about this, or think about it a different way,” the director added.
In an interview with Collider, Dan Stevens — who plays the German hotelier Herr König — touched upon the film’s surrealistic elements that bear a resemblance to the works of veteran filmmakers David Lynch and David Cronenberg. He said, “But if you’ve seen Luz, which is Tilman Singer’s first film, you’re aware of his Lynchian and Cronenbergian tone. That helps to make some sense of what’s happening on the page in Cuckoo. If I hadn’t seen Luz, I wouldn’t have gotten on board with Cuckoo as quickly as I did. I was like, ‘Oh, this guy knows how to make this work, and it’s gonna be weird, but it’s gonna look and sound very cool and very strange.'”
The Story Dives Into Themes of Family and Sisterhood
Family plays a pivotal part in the narration of ‘Cuckoo.’ At its heart, the film illustrates a secret lurking beneath Gretchen’s family and the impact of that secret on her identity and life. Additionally, her bond with her half-sister, Alma, is another integral aspect of the film’s heartbeat. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Tilman Singer said, “I don’t think we make any extremely concrete points. To me, it’s about sisterhood, family and the circles of family, whether they’re good or bad. It’s about repeating patterns and generational conflict and love.”
Hunter Schafer, who plays Gretchen, added to the conversation about her character’s connection with her sister, saying, “I think it really boils down to grief for Gretchen and trying to outrun it and maybe finding a way out, which I think is sisterhood and Alma at the end of the day.” Therefore, the central character’s primary motivations are rooted in her devotion towards her sister, adding a sense of believability to their interactions despite the strange, pervasive atmosphere surrounding them in the German woods. ‘Cuckoo’ may be a fictional tale of horror that is too far-fetched to believe, but its inspirations provide specificity and granular details that help it feel authentic.
Read More: Where was Cuckoo Filmed?
