Dan Castle | The Visitor / 2002

surfing god

by Douglas Messerli

 

Dan Castle (screenwriter and director) The Visitor / 2002 [30 minutes]

 

This Australian short film is a highly evocative work that combines an older gay man’s life and a young surfer whom he has been watching for his pure beauty, and perhaps his memories of his long-ago former lover, Chris.

     Michael (Barry Otto), living at his beachside home in Australia is interrupted in his attempt to write by a noisy gang of young surfers, come to pick up their friend C.K. (Nick Carpenter) for a day of partying. The loud, macho, group quite irritates the solitary elderly man, who finally demands they shut up, whom they then proceed to taunt.

      C.K., however, is planning on surfing, and will have no part of their planned activities, and they finally drive off. But the fact that the beautiful young surfer is heading to the beach changes Michael’s plans and he, and his fellow friend, Angus (Grant Dodwell) head to the beach, Michael with a watchful eye of his neighbor surfing boy, who is a bit like a golden god.

     Angus teases him about his fascination with the young man, even somewhat flirting with him to draw attention. But his major present is a new book, inside of which he has pictures of him and Michael in a pool when they were young, as well as a picture of his former lover Chris, whom we know from a previous phone call, lies tying back in Boston. Michael, however, refuses his female friend’s call about his condition, arguing that they broke up long ago for a number of reasons and have some sort of agreement about not again entering each other’s life, although it also seems clear that Michael is still very much in love with his former lover.

     Angus leaves, and Michael watches C.K. take the waves, time and again wiping out, only to pull up and take the next wave. He is a true beauty to watch.

      At one point, however, the young man wipes out nearer the rocks and does not immediately rise up. But finally reappears. He goes to the open beach shower, undresses and bathes.

   Michael picks up his beach chair and gradually makes his way back to his home. But there, amazingly, finds the young man lying almost naked, on his couch.

      He is, at first, both confused and incensed. Why has he entered his house? Has Angus put him up to it? And what does the sudden appearance of this Greek god mean by intruding into his life, even if it was apparent that he served as voyeur most of the morning.

      The boy is vague, simply lounging enticingly on the couch, knowing that he is the focus of the older man’s obsession. He meanwhile picks ups some of his photos and asks about them, Michael finally explaining who they are. And suddenly they seem to have found some magical rapport, C.K. telling him he’s hungry, and Michael going off to prepare a meal.

     But soon after, when he returns with some fresh parsley he has cut from his garden, he sees that C.K. is no longer on the couch and seeks him out, almost as if he has been a ghost of his former lover who as visited him. He finally finds him asleep on his bed.

      Still a bit nonplussed by the “visitor’s” sudden appearance, he calls up Angus attempting to explain his strange predicament, where the object of his obsession has suddenly become someone with who he might actually have sexual contact. But he recognizes as an older man the impropriety of the situation, and cannot bring himself to take advantage of the situation. Besides, he’s still certain of what this beautiful surfer is seeking.

   There is almost a moment when Michael feels it is all a hallucination, as he enters his bathroom, where the boy has recently been, only to find blood on his towel. He enters the bedroom finally to confront the situation or perhaps even embrace the beauty, but when he attempts to awake him, he finds him lifeless, realizing suddenly that perhaps he has hit himself seriously on the rocks in that long wipe-out.

       Again, he tries to arouse the sleeper only to quickly realize, to his horror, that the boy is dead. Suddenly his own past with his once suffering lover and C.K. comes horribly together, as he crawls into bed to embrace in tears the young man whom he had found so beautiful to watch. Past and present have melded together and his has been forced to face the end of his fabled life, reiterating perhaps all of his failures.

      Castle’s beautiful fable-like work is a truly remarkable short film given the wonderful acting of Otto and the pure silent beauty of Carpenter. This work appeared, when it was first released, in many gay festivals, including the Telluride Film Festival, the Australian Film Institute Awards, the Seattle Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, and the Honolulu Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.

      Once again, I can only remark that some of the best short gay films were made in the first decade of the 21st century.  

 

Los Angeles, August 4, 2026

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (August 2026).