Starring: Michael Emery, David J. Cork, Cody Sloan, Jes Davis
Director: Nate Dushku
Country: USA
UK Distributor: TLA Releasing
Kristian (Emery) is an itinerant birdwatcher living in the wild forests of New Hampshire. On the shores of a remote lake, he comes across a nude queer campground, where its guests pitch tents, relax naked on the shore and pendulum between hookups with each other. Kristian strips off and joins the group, but as he engages in their sexual recreation, they fulfil his need too; the need to kill. One by one the anonymous campers start to disappear, lured into seclusion by this lustful drifter.
A decade ago, French masterpiece Stranger By The Lake covered very similar territory in a tense and dark murder mystery set in a lakeside cruising ground. That film captured the tense foreboding of intimate encounters with dangerous strangers, especially when the audience knew that people were dying.
Birder tries to do the same, but undermines itself with its tone. Taking away the murder sequences, the film feels light and humorous, with its characters bantering through wise-crack campery and an anti-hero whose dark side feels askew from the rest of his character.
Its supporting cast of potential victims feel like an ensemble comedy rather than a horror film. It’s all gossip and sass, oblivious to the psycho living in their midst. But while this isn’t beyond the realm of possibility, as a film it fails in creating atmosphere or suspense. As an erotic thriller it focuses more on the erotic, but even that is somewhat undermined by the silliness of romping about in the buff.
The idea for Birder was as sound as the idea for Stranger By The Lake, but its execution lets it down. In portraying this cruising ground as “sex-positive” over fetishism, it stifles the real dramatic potential of the concept; because -if you think about it - isn’t anonymity the most risky thing in the world?
UK Release: 24th June 2024 on VOD, released by TLA Releasing