Birdeater ★★

AN hour into the Australian film Birdeater I started to get that feeling.

You know the one. When you’re not sure this film is for you.

Normally, a film alternately billed as horror, drama, thriller or black comedy, would be in my wheelhouse.

But Birdeater just wasn’t succeeding as any of those.

Technically it’s fine, but the script is the problem; not a lot happens and none of the characters are particularly likable or even identifiable.

Co-directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir are obviously fans of the classic 1971 Australian film Wake in Fright and kudos to them for attempting something along a similar style and tackling one or two of the same themes.

But what is promoted as a ‘nightmarish buck’s party in the bush’ falls a little flat in terms of drama. For a start, it’s a very constructed set-up for a buck’s party when the groom’s fiancé is attending and, even then, her presence doesn’t create the type of tension you would expect from such a narrative decision.

Shabana Azeez and Mackenzie Fearnley are actually reasonable as that couple, but most of the acting is variable and, as a consequence, the required tension is stilted in execution.

It’s not a bad effort, just lacking the required level of character identification and conflict.

Watched at the cinema.