UK Premiere

Short Synopsis:

A young man very much in love with his girlfriend, attends her father's birthday party, held in a hotel where a sect happens to be preparing for the birth of the god it worships.

Review:

It’s 1987 and Norman Forrester (Corey Feldman) is about to meet his girlfriend’s parents for the first time at her father’s birthday party. As he drifts through the hotel where the party is happening he runs into a number of strange people and odd happenings. In a kind of lynchian skew-eyed view of society someone has cancer. We’d think this is a human drama until Norman runs into strange goings on in the hotel cellars.

Defying genre, The Birthday’s primary conceit is that we view the story unfolding purely from Norman’s perspective, and (with a couple of narratively necessary exceptions) in real time. Incidents that will have great relevance later in the film occur over Norman’s shoulder, or in his peripheral vision; we focus only on what is important to him at that point. This leads ultimately to a truly astonishing visual and audio climax, with the ultimate designs of the mysterious cult behind this whole set-up happening out-of-focus in the background as we concentrate on Norman’s struggle to come to terms with what is really occurring.

If David Lynch were to make a movie based on H.P.Lovecraft, it might look something like this. If at times The Birthday is slightly odd, at others it merges the sense of fantasy, humour and imagery. Cleverly knit together the film starts as a romantic comedy whilst transgressing through horror and other genres.

RO