A new horror movie aimed at the Luxembourgish market tells the story of the supermarket chain Cactus going out of business, forcing Luxembourgers to shop at other, non-Luxembourgish stores.
Director and screenwriter Thierry Reckinger says that the idea for “Cactus Huet Faillite Gemaat” (“Cactus Has Fallen,” as it will be billed in English) came to him while watching a so-called horror movie in which everyone turns into evil zombies and begins consume each other and there’s almost no chance of survival.
“I remember being bored and thinking, this movie is not scary,” he says. “Even if the world is overrun by monsters who eat brains, at least we’ll have the comfort of knowing that Cactus is there to provide quality food from beloved Luxembourgish brands and producers.”
In Reckinger’s nightmare scenario, Cactus goes out of business for reasons that aren’t clear, which allows larger, non-Luxembourgish chains like Delhaize, Cora, Auchan, and Aldi to dominate.
An innocent Luxembourgish family that had been on vacation in the Èislek for the summer returns to their home in Bereldange. When the mother goes to the neighborhood Cactus to get food for dinner, she’s horrified to learn it’s been replaced by a Monoprix.
“She screams and loses consciousness,” Reckinger explains. “She only wakes up after her husband waves a gromperekichelcher under her nose.”
In one shocking scene that Reckinger says could be too disturbing for some viewers, a grandmother from Mersch is forced to go to Lidl to buy pork for a meal of Judd mat Gaardebounen she’s preparing for a Sunday family gathering.
When the grandmother enters the store, she finds no butcher, and no employee responds when she speaks Luxembourgish. The poor elderly woman, now panicking, turns to other shoppers for help – but discovers that no one understands her because she is the only Luxembourger.
The movie is already being called “the scariest of the decade,” with many native-born residents recalling childhood nightmares about such a scenario.
