Irene (Shabana Azeez) and Louie (Mackenzie Fearnley) are engaged to be married, and when the time comes for Louie’s traditional bucks night the nervous and clingy Irene – who appears to suffer from pretty serious separation anxiety – is along for the ride. While Louie’s friends subject him to a growing number of drunken humiliations, his and Irene’s tenuous relationship is progressive put to the test.

Australian drama Birdeater premiered in 2023 but received a broader release in 2024. Co-directors Jack Clark and Jim Weir have certainly nailed a particularly noxious blend of Australian culture for their debut feature. Thanks to friends Dylan (Ben Hunter), Charlie (Jack Bannister), Murph (Alfie Gledhill) and Sam (Harley Wilson), Louie’s bucks night is pushed into unpleasant extremes. Comparisons have been made to Ted Kotcheff’s 1971 film Wake in Fright, and it is easy to see why. This is not a party that any sensible viewer would wish to attend.

At the same time, the film’s critical response has somehow exaggerated the horrific nature of the story Clark and Weir unfold. It has not been uncommon to see Birdeater described as a horror film – it isn’t – or as something somehow viscerally challenging. In practice the film feels less shocking and more deeply unlikeable. It aims for provocation but instead inspires a weary sort of misery. Some terrible people make poor life choices. Toxic masculinity once again is revealed to cause women to suffer. There is a sense that the viewer is expected to be surprised. Instead, I was simply depressed. The characters are not simply bad people; they are actually rather boring.

The screenplay attempts to generate suspense by withholding information critical to the characters and their relationships. It is a common technique, and oftentimes a very effective one. In this case it frustrates more than intrigues, despite the best efforts of a broadly very talented cast. Azeez and Fearnley in particular manage to build somewhat complex characters with what they have been given, as does Clementine Anderson as Grace – a reluctant attendee persuaded to give Irene some female company over the weekend.

Generally speaking the film plays better once the audience is granted at least some background information to make sense of what is going on. Even then it struggles. The film’s critical final scene hits the perfect moment to exit and still manages to run an extra few minutes. The ingredients for a successful film are all present, but each is either under-utilised or misconceived. Birdeater partly disappoints because it fails to live up to the reputation it gathered during early festival screenings, but had it not been hyped in advance I find it doubtful it would have found an audience at all.