‘The Birdwatcher’ premieres at UK’s leading horror film festival 

Students from across Falmouth’s School of Film & Television, Fashion & Textiles Institute, and Games Academy have been involved in the making of The Birdwatcher, a short film developed by Cornish production company Myskatonic together with Falmouth’s Sound/Image Cinema Lab. The film offered around 40 students and staff the opportunity to collaborate and help bring the film to life from concept to screen.

They worked together in a variety of roles, covering everything from costume and prosthetics, to the shoot itself, through to postproduction, visual effects and marketing. Directed by Falmouth Film BA(Hons) lecturer Ryan Mackfall, and produced by Kingsley Marshall, Head of the School of Film & Television, The Birdwatcher recently made its world premiere at the UK’s largest international thriller, fantasy, and horror film festival, FrightFest. Aired in Glasgow, the sold-out screening had 600 people in the audience for its first showing earlier this month.  

Starring a cast that includes Craig Russell (Queen Cleopatra), Mary Woodvine (Bait, Enys Men), Rimca Karmakar and Kevin Horsham (The Northman), The Birdwatcher takes place in Cornwall. The cosmic horror draws on the county’s natural environment and language, its seafaring tradition, and Celtic history – whilst following the story of a group of investigators visiting the site of a strange disappearance at a solitary birdwatching hut deep in the forest.