"Spree" Was a Killer...of Entertainment

Streaming Platform: Hoopla

Release Date: August 14, 2020

The synopsis for this movie screamed “stupidly fun”. A rideshare driver who is yearning to be a social media influencer hatches a plan to boost his following by live-streaming his drives and murdering his passengers. With just a handful of unknown films under his belt, director Eugene Kotlyarenko was the driving force behind this found footage social commentary that had Joe Keery (popularly known for playing Steve Harrington in Stranger Things) in the lead role as social media obsessed Kurt Kunkle.

I love the character of Steve in Stranger Things, but Kurt Kunkle is a very different story. Relying on a found footage format leaves the movie to completely rest on the laurels of the character controlling the camera(s). I am not sure whether it was the writing of the character or Keery's performance, but the Kunkle character was too bland and lame to be in front of the camera for 98% of the movie. He is very unlikeable, as he probably should be based on his actions, but in a way that leaves you indifferent in all the wrong ways. Rather than being interested in seeing how this murdering endeavor goes or wanting to see him fail, I felt like I just did not want to see any of it at all. The movie starts with a long drag into the action, which is really all relegated to the third and final act of the movie. The first few kills have little/no action and there are virtually no stakes to what he is doing, thus not a lot of tension of which to play off. In many ways, the first half of the movie plays out like a crappy rideshare reality show.

The social commentary on the dark side of social media and the cost of fame is played out across three characters, Keery's Kunkle, his father who is played by David Arquette, and Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata), a recurring comedian character. Arquette's character, Kris Kunkle, plays an aspiring DJ who is still living the lifestyle of a teenager looking for his big break. Embedded within this dark comedy is the small plot thread of a father trying to reconnect with his son. This is ultimately story fodder to be fed to Kurt's obsession in the end. The only character other than Kurt that got any fleshing out was Zamata's Jessie Adams, a near victim of Kurt's rideshare experience who ends up the second most occurring character. She serves the “teacher role” in this commentary, providing the ultimate enlightenment about the pitfalls of social media in a stand-up routine. Kurt becomes slightly preoccupied with her and her success, which brings him to revisit her and bring her into the third act as the makeshift hero. Both Arquette and Zamata do a decent job in their roles, though Arquette's was quite limited, and for all intents and purposes, Zamata stole the show with her entertaining rants.

There were a few bright spots in all the bland, and even moments when I “oh shit”ted out loud. I think that was more indicative of how little was happening otherwise, rather than the actual shock of those moments. There was little creativity when it came to the violence, continuing the track record of blandness throughout the movie. Maybe had the movie pushed the limits of Kurt's murdering tendencies earlier on in the movie and built more on the “comedy” portion of the dark comedy, it would have allowed for a more entertaining depth to the character. Even so, there is another aspect of the movie that proved a handicap, and that is the lack of reaction to the killings. Outside of one specific instance involving a fellow social media acquaintance, Kurt maintained restricted emotional reactions. Since there was rarely anyone else around to react to the killings, with the witnesses being the livestream audience, there was little emotional expression overall.

I am behind the message and the context continues to remain relevant with the continued exposure of fame across a multitude of social media platforms, but I do not think the movie was relevant enough to carry the message to justice. It is not a complete pass, but I would not put too much weight on it being a great pick for movie night. I am completely against stealing others' ideas, but I kind of hope someone else more proficient in thrillers grabs this concept and improves on it (it would not be hard).

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RATING: 🚙 🚙 / 5