Spree
Year: 2020
Director: Eugene Koltyarenko
Starring: Joe Keery & Sasheer Zamata
Runtime: 93 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 06/02/23
Director: Eugene Koltyarenko
Starring: Joe Keery & Sasheer Zamata
Runtime: 93 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 06/02/23
When I was a teenager I desperately wanted to get into online content creation, specifically gaming Youtube videos. It never took off and I rarely got more than a couple of dozen views per video, but there was one which managed to get a few thousand views. It gave me such a rush to know that people out there liked the content and wanted more of it, despite the fact that they never did actually come back. But that’s the fickle nature of being a content creator, one day you can have thousands of adoring fans and the next you wont for no reason other than they moved on to something else. I primarily write these reviews to help me process films I watch better, it allows me to think about them more critically, and really work out what I liked and didn’t like. But I won’t lie, I definitely get a kick out of seeing those metrics rise, I get a little rush when people leave a comment or share my reviews on social media. But thankfully I’m not so dependant on it that it dictates how I live my life, or what kind of content I want to cover.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for everyone, and people will be chasing whatever trend they can in the hopes of going viral and getting their five minutes of fame. That’s what makes Eugene Kotlyarenko’s 2020 black comedy, Spree, so unnerving.
Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) is a wannabe influencer and content creator. He has been posting videos online for almost a decade and rarely even reached a double-digit viewership on anything he has put out. But Kurt has a plan that will guarantee him going viral and attain him the viewership he feels he deserves. As a driver for the rideshare app Spree, Kurt begins a livestream of him killing as many passengers as he can in a single shift.
Unfortunately, that’s not the case for everyone, and people will be chasing whatever trend they can in the hopes of going viral and getting their five minutes of fame. That’s what makes Eugene Kotlyarenko’s 2020 black comedy, Spree, so unnerving.
Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) is a wannabe influencer and content creator. He has been posting videos online for almost a decade and rarely even reached a double-digit viewership on anything he has put out. But Kurt has a plan that will guarantee him going viral and attain him the viewership he feels he deserves. As a driver for the rideshare app Spree, Kurt begins a livestream of him killing as many passengers as he can in a single shift.
Whilst Spree can certainly be categorised as a horror film, it doesn’t have anything that’s explicitly designed to scare viewers. The premise itself is the most terrifying thing, an Uber driver that kills his passengers for likes and shares on a livestream. But thanks to Kotlyarenko’s darkly comedic framing of the narrative, and Keery’s unhinged yet hilarious performance, Spree puts humour and outrageous situations above scares.
Keery’s performance in particular is what makes the film go down so smoothly. It’s difficult to make a character like Kurt sympathetic and engaging, but Keery manages it with his natural charisma and a scathing accuracy to real live-streamers and their often-total obliviousness to the real world beyond their phone screen.
Spree feels like some crazy rollercoaster, once it starts it’s on a continuous path of escalation until it reaches levels of near absurdity. The killings themselves, particularly late in the film, are thrilling to watch and will have you on the edge of your seat.
However, Spree does suffer from being a bit too long, and loses sight of what makes it good in the final act. Jessie (Sasheer Zamata) takes centre stage in the finale, but she feels like a last-minute addition to the story to attain a feature length runtime rather than a character that actually belongs in that story. She appears towards the end of the first act as a near-miss victim of Kurt’s, but then resurfaces towards the end of the second act as Kurt seems to change his modus operandi from just killing people on a livestream to go viral into wanting to collaborate with this D-list celebrity because she has a few thousand followers. Obviously, Jessie sees Kurt for the monster he is and the rest of the film spirals into a cat and mouse chase between the two of them, and its considerably less entertaining or effective as what Spree had been doing up to that point.
Whilst not officially a part of the ‘screenlife’ genre alongside films like Unfriended, Searching, and Host; Spree shares many stylistic elements with those films, namely that the entire film takes place on a screen...or several really. The vast majority of the film is seen from the perspective of Kurt’s livestream; however, this is not the only perspective as other livestreams and even Youtube videos pop up to illustrate the wider narrative. There are up to three livestreams on screen at any one time, and the way that these are shuffled around and prioritised is a lot of fun to look at. It gives the visuals this kinetic energy that is often sorely lacking from other screenlife films, the result feels more organic and engaging than just being sat staring at a single video feed for ninety minutes.
Spree was fun, and it was unique. It may have a wobbly finale, and it most certainly lacks depth, but it makes up for this with an innovative and exciting editing style, and a great leading performance from Keery. Yes, it should have been shorter, and yes there are better dark comedies out there, but Spree stands apart from the crowd and you certainly won’t forget it anytime soon.
Keery’s performance in particular is what makes the film go down so smoothly. It’s difficult to make a character like Kurt sympathetic and engaging, but Keery manages it with his natural charisma and a scathing accuracy to real live-streamers and their often-total obliviousness to the real world beyond their phone screen.
Spree feels like some crazy rollercoaster, once it starts it’s on a continuous path of escalation until it reaches levels of near absurdity. The killings themselves, particularly late in the film, are thrilling to watch and will have you on the edge of your seat.
However, Spree does suffer from being a bit too long, and loses sight of what makes it good in the final act. Jessie (Sasheer Zamata) takes centre stage in the finale, but she feels like a last-minute addition to the story to attain a feature length runtime rather than a character that actually belongs in that story. She appears towards the end of the first act as a near-miss victim of Kurt’s, but then resurfaces towards the end of the second act as Kurt seems to change his modus operandi from just killing people on a livestream to go viral into wanting to collaborate with this D-list celebrity because she has a few thousand followers. Obviously, Jessie sees Kurt for the monster he is and the rest of the film spirals into a cat and mouse chase between the two of them, and its considerably less entertaining or effective as what Spree had been doing up to that point.
Whilst not officially a part of the ‘screenlife’ genre alongside films like Unfriended, Searching, and Host; Spree shares many stylistic elements with those films, namely that the entire film takes place on a screen...or several really. The vast majority of the film is seen from the perspective of Kurt’s livestream; however, this is not the only perspective as other livestreams and even Youtube videos pop up to illustrate the wider narrative. There are up to three livestreams on screen at any one time, and the way that these are shuffled around and prioritised is a lot of fun to look at. It gives the visuals this kinetic energy that is often sorely lacking from other screenlife films, the result feels more organic and engaging than just being sat staring at a single video feed for ninety minutes.
Spree was fun, and it was unique. It may have a wobbly finale, and it most certainly lacks depth, but it makes up for this with an innovative and exciting editing style, and a great leading performance from Keery. Yes, it should have been shorter, and yes there are better dark comedies out there, but Spree stands apart from the crowd and you certainly won’t forget it anytime soon.