When Louie invites his bride-to-be, Irene, to his buck’s party (translation: stag do) in the remote Australian wilderness, she’s ecstatic to meet the friends of the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with — and even more importantly, dodge the crippling anxiety she feels whenever Louie leaves her side. But as the darkest secrets of their relationship are revealed, Louie’s send-off rapidly spirals into a drug- and alcohol-warped nightmare.
This is the essence of Birdeater, the debut feature from writer-director duo Jack Clark and Jim Weir. And this heady descent into the everyday horrors of coercion and control doesn’t just spotlight how abuse goes unseen — but often, how it’s completely ignored.
Martyrs, Run and Don’t Move all explore these themes with varying degrees of extremity, using antagonists that need physical restraint or violence to break and manipulate their victims (and just as crucially, unsettle their audience). In contrast, Birdeater relies on its brooding cinematography, jarring audio and oddball cast to build a sense of tension and paranoia that looms above the narrative and its characters like a black cloud, more akin to thrillers like Heretic or Blue Velvet where a constant threat hangs over our shoulder and in the shadows, but rarely manifests as tangible brutality. In parallel, Clark and Weir debase the rituals of male bonding and masculinity to childish games that, powered by drugs and alcohol, appear comically similar to pagan ceremonies more commonly found in folklore horrors like Midsommar or Lord of Misrule. The result? A uniquely trippy juxtaposition of dread and surrealism that feels both dreamlike and disturbing.
In short, Birdeater is one of those rare pictures that doesn’t need pyrotechnics or Gonzo-esque hallucinations to uncloak its monsters, despite its psychological and psychedelic tropes. And even when its subtleties can sometimes feel like a flaw more than a strength, what’s unsaid and out-of-sight only adds to its bizarre lacquer. Repeat watching may be necessary. It’ll be exciting to see where Clark and Weir veer next.
CAST
Mackenzie Fearnley
Shabana Azeez
Ben Hunter
DIRECTOR
Jack Clark
Jim Weir
SCREENPLAY
Jack Clark
Jim Weir
US CINEMA & DIGITAL
10 January 2025
