Upamanyu Biswas
Directed by Tilman Singer, ‘Cuckoo’ follows a young girl named Gretchen, who has to move in with her estranged father, Luis, after the death of her mother. Gretchen’s life is uprooted upon arriving at the resort town in the Bavarian Alps in Germany, where her father is staying with his new family. The town’s main attraction is the Alpschatten Resort, run by an eccentric German man named Herr König. However, not everything is as it seems with the idyllic locale, as Gretchen starts witnessing peculiar events inside the place. As such, the inn plays a pivotal role in layering the horror atmosphere of the movie’s disturbing premise! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Alpschatten Resort is a Scenic Retreat With No Attachments to Reality
The Alpschatten Resort in ‘Cuckoo’ is a fictional place crafted by writer and director Tilman Singer. It is a scenic guesthouse surrounded by the alpine beauty of the Bavarian Alps mountain range on all sides. It is owned and operated by Herr König, the enigmatic and slightly dubious caretaker who is a close friend of Gretchen’s father, Luis. According to the movie’s lore, Alpschatten is where Luis and his new wife, Beth, spent their honeymoon, naturally growing closer to Herr König during the period. However, underneath the establishment’s bells and whistles, a deeper mystery lurks that threatens to upheave the resort town’s picturesque and quiet existence.
Resorts in the Bavarian Alps are not an uncommon thing, as the mountain range is famed for its ethereal beauty. As such, Edelweiss Lodge and Resort, Bayern Resort, and Das Kranzbach are real-life establishments in the stunning region, where lush mountainside escapades provide the opportunity to disconnect from urban life. While Alpschatten Resort may be of a similar mold, it is ultimately a made-up place that does not exist in reality, thereby separating it from the aforementioned locations. Filming for ‘Cuckoo’ took place in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hessen, where the scenes featuring the Alpschatten Resort were likely recorded in a remodeled establishment.
Ultimately, the place becomes the epicenter of the mysteries surrounding the resort town and the nefarious activities of Herr König. Right from the outset, Alpschatten is haunted by inexplicable occurrences like guests vomiting in the lobby to a strange 10 pm curfew set by the facility’s owner. The more Gretchen digs into the strangeness with aid from a local police investigator, the more she learns about the chilling purpose of the resort. It is a front operation run by the owner to continue the propagation of the half-human, half-cuckoo creatures that König wants to preserve. Despite its narrative prominence, Alpschatten Resort continues to be a fictional guesthouse in the Bavarian Alps that does not exist in reality.
Read More: Cuckoo: Is the Movie Based on a True Story?
