Erotic thrillers are such a specific brand of genre picture, and few modern iterations come close to the gold standard established in the 90s. Birder, written by Amnon Lourie and directed by Nate Dushku, is perhaps the first of its kind, filtering through a queer lens of dark comedy and graphic sexual content. I have no doubt this will sadly be underseen by the very virtue of its release format, and lost amongst all the incessant discourse over the necessity of sex scenes. With low expectations, Birder manages to both surprise and titillate. Walking a careful line between excessively indulgent and campy entertainment, flirt with strangulation in this unique low budget offering from TLA Releasing.
Kristian (Michael Emery), a manipulative birdwatcher with a taste for smothering those he comes across, finds a perfect in with a wide variety of potential victims. Nicely situated on a remote lake in New Hampshire is a “clothing optional” campground called Lotus Cove bustling with life, and various gay community stereotypes. Kristian wants them all. Kristian plays up his naivete, building up a solid reputation as a particularly voracious lovemaker. He seems rather proud to be called the community’s “daddy,” or at least the “roughest fuck” many of them have ever had. As each of the movie’s plentiful explicit sequences plays out, I was surprised at both their varied nature, and the artful way a couple of them are portrayed. In one standout, Kristian makes another man gag on him inside of a tent, and the entire scene plays out through shadows we glimpse from the exterior.
Kristian spends the majority of Birder in various states of undress, which would not work even halfway as well as it does without the natural charisma of Michael Emery. This makes the character’s encounters and appeal feel more earned in a way, or at least we can buy that the others want to get with him on an intimate level. It takes a lot to sell dialogue such as “I wanna see your lights go out” or “I want you inside me while I fucking murder him,” but Emery comes out on top in a showy role. The other actors aside from Emery are something of a mixed bag, ranging from porn-level to surprisingly decent. One of the good ones is Delilah (Delilah DuBois), a park ranger that Kristian befriends and plays like a fiddle.
When all is said and done, Birder leans more fetishistic character study than steamy erotic thriller. The character motivations do not make a whole lot of sense, and the introduction of another “daddy” in the queer community, Mr. Leatherwoodchuck, seems misguided. If this was more of a full-on slasher movie, it could have risen to even greater heights; one moment appears to suggest this angle, then backpedals significantly. Erect penises aplenty are everywhere, but one does wish there was a bit more metaphorical meat to chew on. Still, the strength of the ironic twist ending and the central performance of Emery does much heavy lifting in the back half. Queer stories being told in unique ways are always worthy of celebrating. Love it or hate it, Birder is sure to elicit strong reactions off the back of its graphic content.
Cast a spell of seduction over Birder, coming to DVD on Tuesday, June 25th.
