do other things amongst the beauty of Mother Nature.Sounds like paradise, no?But all it takes is one bad apple to run the bunch. Enter “bird watcher” Kristian Brooks (Shameless and Station 19‘s Michael Emery), an enigmatic newcomer who knows all the right things to say to charm the other gays at camp.With each hookup, it becomes more and more clear that Kristian isn’t necessarily just the happy and horny guy he purports to be—there’s something calculated about him, and the longer his stay at the campground goes on, the more he reveals his dark fetishes.He’s one strange bird.Whether taut thrillers or steamy romances, queer lakeside cinema is a subgenre all its own.From actor/filmmaker Nate Dushku (brother of Eliza Dushku, of Bring It On and Buffy fame) comes Birder, an erotic thriller in the vein of new queer classic Stranger By The Lake, straddling the line between sex and danger.What really sets Birder apart, however, is that we watch its events unfold through Kristian’s eyes—acting as both protagonist and antagonist—forcing its audience to question our sympathies as the film interrogates ideas around sexuality and consent.In other words, it’ll have you thinking twice the next time you beg a sexual partner to, “destroy me, daddy!”In an exclusive statement shared with Screen Rant, Dushku discusses the themes he set out to explore with this sun-soaked nightmare:“Queer horror is often lived, and in Birder we dip our toes into the darkest truths.
