Naman Shrestha
Featuring the talented Hunter Schafer in the lead, the horror–thriller film ‘Cuckoo’ stays true to its title and spins a wacky, sinister, and highly engrossing tale. The Tilman Singer directorial revolves around a 17-year-old named Gretchen whose life takes a 360-degree turn when she is pushed to upend her life in America and relocate to a resort all the way in the German countryside. She doesn’t really have a great relationship with her father, Luis, post his divorce from her mother, who passed away later. In the German Alps, the young teen is residing with her father and his new family, comprising a stepmother, Beth, as well as a younger sister, Alma, who is mute. Still reeling from the loss of her mother, Gretchen keeps sending voice notes on her mother’s phone — expressing her displeasure with the move — and also develops a rebellious attitude towards Luis.
Gretchen then learns that the move into the picturesque establishment, Resort Alpschatten, is the result of the owner, Herr Konig, offering her father a job. Soon, she bags a job as a receptionist at the resort. Everything seems fine until Konig’s interest in Alma begins to creep her elder sister out. All hell breaks loose when the teenager begins to witness strange occurrences, one after another. Before she could realize it, Gretchen’s stay in the seemingly idyllic Alpine resort turns into a living nightmare. Apart from the gripping storyline and compelling performances by Hunter Schafer, Jan Bluthardt, Marton Csokas, Jessica Henwick, and the prolific Dan Stevens, the interesting visual aesthetic — mostly centered upon the resort town — lends a sense of eeriness and mystery ensuring a thrilling cinematic experience.
Cuckoo Filming Locations
Set in the German Alps, ‘Cuckoo’ was actually filmed in the western and central part of Germany, especially in parts of North Rhine-Westphalia and Hessen. However, it is likely that a few scenes — depicting Gretchen’s life before the move — were taped in the US. Principal photography was carried out over the course of 35 days in mid-2022. In particular, filming commenced on May 11 and concluded on July 1, 2022. The chilling atmosphere, produced with a brilliant blend of stylish yet haunting visuals, is a result of the creative vision and artistic abilities of writer-director Tilman Singer and cinematographer Paul Faltz and reflects the vibe of the creations of David Lynch and David Cronenberg.
North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
The state of North Rhine-Westphalia AKA NRW in Western Germany is where a major portion of ‘Cuckoo’ was taped. For the purpose of shooting, the cast and crew reportedly traveled to Central Europe from the United States for several weeks until filming wrapped up. A portion of the filming took place in various spots in and around the cities of Wuppertal, Krefeld, Düsseldorf, and Mönchengladbach. Hunter Schafer labeled the experience she garnered over the seven weeks the team resided in the picturesque destination as being in a “summer camp.” The production was marred by a few hindrances, which caused some last-moment location shuffles, leading to a slice of the filming ultimately taking place in a deserted British Army base not far from the Belgian border.
Tilman Singer highlighted the aforementioned issue in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “For example, we lost a couple of our main locations that we had. It was mainly this hospital or treatment center complex that you see in the end. We lost the locations because the buildings that we had were turned into refugee camps from the Ukraine War, which is, of course, a good thing. But it left us with the problem of, ‘Where do we shoot now?’ We then had to relocate a big chunk of that to the shooting grounds of this huge village that the British Air Force (RAF) abandoned 15 years ago at the Belgium border in Germany.”
However, the crew’s trouble didn’t end there. The director continued that while they secured a spot and set up camp there, they still underwent some trouble that affected the process. “These buildings were falling apart. They were dilapidated, and sometimes, it was good patina that we could use. But, most of the time, we really had to arrange our filming around the parts of the buildings that weren’t too in ruins or unsafe to go into and shoot.” Despite the ups and downs involved in bringing the project to life, everyone in the team gave their best and was happy with the final product. “When you come up with an idea, it has to fight reality, and then the movie is what that fight leaves,” Tilman concluded.
Hesse, Germany
To film a few sequences of ‘Cuckoo,’ the cast and crew also visited the state of Hesse, originally called Hessen, in the heart of the country. The region is known for its scenic landscape, embellished with multiple sites with awe-inspiring architecture that displays a fascinating merger of old-world charm with modern amenities. Thus, it proved to be an ideal shooting spot for the horror mystery film. From what we can tell, everything went smoothly and the team garnered the desired outcome. In conversation with Moviefone, Tilman shed light on how the time-looping effect was employed in the film. He said, “…we shot scenes basically a couple of times with different levels of distress for the characters. So, we basically shot things repeatedly, but with a higher stress level and with more sweat on them and stuff like this.”
The filmmaker added, “Then of course it’s an edit thing. Along with that came an idea for an effect that our cinematographer, Paul Faltz, said he wanted to shoot through a mirror and have that mirror shake on two axes, so you get a parallax view. So, the camera can look behind the actor so it’s not only shaking the screen.” He explained that since they were short on time, it couldn’t be done for each scene and an effect artist was roped in to execute that. Then Paul “took a mirror, one of those lighting mirrors, put two or three electrical drills on it that were sort of vibrating the mirror like this. Then when he drew them a sketch of this, they were like, ‘Oh, okay. We get it. We know what you did.’ Then they could recreate it and we could use it for the scenes where we didn’t have it.”
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