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THE BIRDWATCHER

Director:

Ryan Mackfall

Runtime:

00:13:40

Country:

Genre:

Horror

FILM SYNOPSIS

Investigators visit the site of a strange disappearance – a solitary birdwatching hut, deep in the forest. This story is about the dangers of cutting ourselves off from ‘the other’; that which we choose not to engage with or understand. It’s a look at the insipid repetition that creeps into our lives when we shun diversity and connection. This is a tale of someone so lost in another time that they can never make it back to reality, and those who seek to help but are only dragged down with them.

Fear of the unknown can become so ingrained and insidious that it becomes an inherent need that begs to be replenished – as we cut ourselves off from other cultures and make our world smaller, we only pivot to find new evils within our communities, locked in a futile cycle of creating fresh monsters as a distraction from our own shortcomings and responsibilities. A gripping, cinematic expedition into that darkness, the film serves as a warning about isolating ourselves from a greater world that requires us to learn and listen on a regular basis.

DIRECTOR SYNOPSIS

Ryan has worked in music video, live performance capture, and documentary for over a decade. He has filmed Slayer, Green Day, Train, Defeater, Caspian, Deftones, Mastodon and Robert Plant, shooting in venues including the Royal Albert Hall and Wembley stadium, in addition to major cities from Melbourne to Santiago to Los Angeles. His long-form music videos include collaborations with some of the world’s biggest artists and record labels through his company Crashburn. These productions have a total of over 100 million views through streaming platforms. and include music videos for Bruce Dickinson, Trivium, and The Amity Affliction.

Backwoods, an adaptation of a short story by H.P. Lovecraft saw Ryan shift to narrative drama. The film premiered in the USA at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, winning the H.P. Lovecraft Award in 2019, before making its UK premiere at the BIFA and BAFTA qualifying London Short Film Festival in 2020. The film was subsequently licensed for release on BluRay by the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival, and was included both in the film and as an extra on the BluRay release of Kier-La Janisse’s definitive folk horror documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched in 2021.

Backwoods made its online premiere through the independent cinema platform Director’s Notes in 2022.

Ryan is focused on narrative-driven stories with elements of cosmic or folk horror, bringing his dark fever dream unease into stories designed to stay with an audience long after they leave their seats. He is developing the screenplay of his first feature film, C-H-A-I-N, combining themes of time travel, folk horror, climate change, and biodiversity decline.

The landscape of his native Cornwall, in the far south west of the UK, has informed and inspired his work, bringing forth primal energies and birthing stories that speak to growing modern fears of forced displacement and moral betrayal. He cites Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, David Fincher and Jonathan Glazer as influences.

CAST & CREW

Director: Ryan Mackfall (known for Backwoods, South of Here)

Writer: Lachlan Marks (known for Tales for Uncertain Times, Keep Rolling, Transfer)

Producer: Kingsley Marshall (known for Rose of Nevada, Atlas Pool, Enys Men, Long Way Back, Backwoods)

Composer: Neil Halstead (known for Election, Jazzy, Aloha)

Key Cast:

"The Watcher": Craig Russell (known for Edge of Summer, Protein, The Last Kingdom)

"The Veteran": Mary Woodvine (known for Rose of Nevada, Enys Men, Bait, Breathtaking)

"The Rising Star": Rimca Karmakar (known for Nowhere, Pendulum, Nation Down)

"Oystercatcher": Kevin Horsham (known for The Northman, Backwoods)