WATCH: A mysterious visitor brings chaos to a nude gay campground in this wild erotic thriller

Somewhere in rural New Hampshire, there’s a secluded campground on a lake where queer folks come from all over to shed their clothes to freely frolic, fraternize and fu—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.

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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. The film is a sardonic and disturbing look at what a monster sees when they look in the mirror; an exploration of the consent dynamics of dom/sub space and a metaphor for the traumas the queer community endures at the hands of social entities lacking empathy. Birder brings us to the edge of the abyss as our protagonist’s odyssey takes him through a joyful sex-positive community.”

Dushku’s narrative film debut also co-stars David J. Cork (P-Valley), Cody Sloan (Selah And The Spades), Jes Davis (Orange is the New Black), Uki Pavlovic (The Highlands Inn), Ryan Czerwonko (The Endgame), and burlesque star Delilah Dubois.

After making its world premiere at the Outsouth Queer Film Festival in North Carolina last month, Birder is now playing the queer festival circuit, with dates at Atlanta’s Out On Film, DC’s Reel Affirmations, and as part of the just-announced lineup for the Seattle Queer Film Festival where it’ll make its West Coast premiere and have a virtual streaming option beginning October 22—so you can watch it from anywhere!

Check out the NSFW trailer for Birder below:

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