Michael Emery in Birder (TLA Releasing)

Though it’s in the tradition of erotic, queer serial killer movies such as Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake and William Friedkin’s Cruising, director Nate Dushku and writer Amnon Lourie’s film is an odd bird.

It’s set in a remote cove in New Hampshire, where a small gathering of attractive nudist and sex positive queers congregate for a weekend of some fun and action. A peculiar drifter, Kristian (Michael Emery), a self-described bird enthusiast from old Texas oil money, integrates himself in the group. Most find his mysterious air, moments of charm, and taut body alluring. He can also be quietly manipulative, making them feel comfortable with him, including female park ranger (Delilah DuBois). Eventually he begins hooking up with and then knocking off men one by one by suffocation (a method, portrayed here, that seems shockingly quick, almost painless).

The script takes on an atypical structure, featuring a concluding scene at the beginning of its timeline: A man (Miles Crawford) on a boat in the water fishing with Kristian, with no one else around. The movie takes other surprising, though rarely gimmicky, swerves. Playing against the grain of an over-the-top killer, or a visibly creepy one, Emery’s performance unsettles because the emotions are so hemmed-in. Throughout, one wonders where he is going and where has he been, how much of what he is revealing is fiction (just how interested is he in the loons he mentions he’s there for?).

The movie appears to be shot on a miniscule budget, but there’s a patient rhythm to Ian Holden’s editing; Culley Johnson’s score of intermittent quiet, electronic gnarls; and the placid sounds and sights of the idyllic setting. Overall, there are mostly amateurish performances, but the campers’ genial mood is an inviting one.

It is unclear if Birder is making a larger statement on internalized homophobia or the dangers queer people may risk through kink or in hooking up in secrecy with strangers. It might be just an uncomplicated horror film of a serial killer, with a little coyness and sexiness thrown in. Birder isn’t really scary, but it weirdly got under my skin, perhaps because it feels like a plausible scenario, and Kristian’s ambiguity keeps gnawing at me.