Spree (2020)
Director: Eugene Kotlyarenko
Writers: Eugene Kotlyarenko, Gene McHugh
SPREE certainly isn't the first horror film to warn us about the consumption of social media. We've seen Charlie Brooker's series DEAD SET and his follow up BLACK MIRROR, horror / thrillers like HARD CANDY and many more. Even George Romero's DIARY OF THE DEAD speaks to the topic. It's a well worn path after a couple of decades. SPREE brings a freshness to the potentially tired topic.
Slacker Kurt Kunkle has been at the social media game for ten years but it never went anywhere. He sees others hitting it big on different platforms; even the kid he use to babysit has made an Internet name for himself. Weary of the day to day struggle Kurt has come up with a brilliant idea to ramp up the viewers to Kurts World. Install multiple cameras in his Spree ride-hailing car and then kill his passengers. Simple and no nonsense.
We follow Kurt into the night as he cruises L.A. and kills with the aplomb of an amateur. Along for the ride we learn a bit more about Kurt and his upbringing that may have been responsible for the social media attention that he so craves. He's not about making money, he wants the Internet people to watch him.
SPREE is smartly written black comedy. Joe (STRANGER THINGS) Keery's performance draws us in to his plight. What could have been yet another low budget horror film created not for the sake of art but to be content, rises above the pack. The world of social media is over the top but the film doesn't play that game. It uses subtlety to ask if we really should be adoring of a personality on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube. Kurt is a high spirited, energetic, likeable character and we see his degeneration as his obsession to chase the dragon that is Internet stardom grows. It's a sad world many Internet influencers live in but is it better to be adored by a million social media users or scorned by them.
David Arquette plays Kurt's dad who is just as lost in the land of ones and zeroes as Kurt is. Sasheer Zamata is an up and coming comic who hails a ride. Internet personality Frankie Grande puts in an appearance and kudos to him for showing up in a film that knocks one aspect of his career.
SPREE is well worth a watch. Close the browser tab with YouTube and watch this instead.
*** out of ****
No comments:
Post a Comment