What to watch: Birder
An erotic thriller set at a queer naturist campground.
Written by Amnon Lourie and directed by Nate Dushku, Birder is an erotic thriller that leans into the polyamorous vibe of a queer camping spot at a remote lake in New Hampshire.
The protagonist is Kristian - a sexed-up birdwatcher with a dark side.
Given its setting, tone, and narrative, this is a film that has clear echoes of L'inconnu du lac (Stranger by the Lake) by Alain Guiraudie.
In Birder, Kristian is an irresistible agent of chaos - he is Shiva, somehow maintaining cosmic balance by destroying everything he touches.
We also get a lot of nudity, prosthetics, and simulated sex - putting the "erotic" front-and-centre in the erotic-thriller genre.
While we don't get a lot of depth from the characters that we're observing in this parable, and there's no attempt to understand Kristian's motivations as the serial-killer sociopath, this is a watchable film. It's fun to see queer characters being sexy and messy and murderous.
The cast includes Michael Emery, David J. Cork, Cody Sloan, Jes Davis, Uki Pavlovic, Ryan Czerwonko, Miles Crawford, Justin Gerhard, and Bobby Applebaum.
Birder is distributed by TLA Releasing
