Spree was released in 2020 and features Joe Keery, who’s mostly known for his role as Steve Harrington in Stranger Things. Spree follows an individual named Kurt, who’s obsessed with becoming the next big thing on social media. When it proves that gaining a large following isn’t working out for him with random vlogs and just by being himself, Kurt decides to take it several steps forward and starts to kill people on live stream. He figures it’ll gain a large audience, and it turns out to be a hit to strangers online that like the dark side of the internet, without actually having to go on the dark-web. Kurt is a Spree driver, similar to the apps we have in real life, where you can call a driver. Kurt has cameras all over his car to document every second of the ride. It’s a horror-comedy film that really makes the audience laugh, and then a second later, sit there in shock as Kurt kills yet another person. Here’s why Spree is the perfect addition to your Halloween horror lineup.
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One of Joe Keery’s Best Performances
Forest Hill Entertainment
Joe Keery is no doubt best known for his iconic role as Steve, the beloved babysitter in Stranger Things, who can’t seem to ever win a fight. However, Keery stuns as Kurt Kunkle in Spree, as a maniac driver who turns out to be a mass murderer, and never stops streaming his day for his fans. Joe Keery seamlessly turned himself into Kurt throughout the film, and even outside of it, posting Tiktoks in character as Kurt, as well as an Instagram page. The marketing team for this movie did everything right; Kurt even having his own website with merchandise for his fans, as well as an unboxing video filmed by Kurt, in order to show his fans what it’ll be like when they get their package.
Kurt is awkward, creepy, and funny at the same time, picking people up and killing them one-by-one. The way he interacts with the people on his live stream will have audiences laughing and shaking their heads; his dryness paired with the bluntness a perfect balance for his character. When Kurt picks up his first victim, it’s surprising when it’s revealed that the man is racist and a white supremacist, so viewers are almost rooting for Kurt to kill him once it’s proven that this guy isn’t a great person. Keery will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time, confusing you with who you want the victor to be in the end.
Fresh Take on Found Footage
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Throughout the entire movie, we’re watching Kurt as if we’re one of his fans. Kurt streams through his phone and most of the film is through that point of view, but there are a few times when it’s switched up, and the audience is watching a different live stream. Such as Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata), who’s a comedian and influencer, going live a few times throughout the film, and it’s a good change of pace. Kurt picks Jessie up in the beginning of the movie and quickly becomes obsessed with her when he finds out that she has a large following online. She’s creeped out by him and then goes on to publicly humiliate him at her comedy show later on in the night, not knowing that Kurt was in the audience the entire time.
It’s a more real experience to watch this film through the eyes of Kurt’s “fans”, unable to look away as he murders his customers. To experience Kurt getting in a massive car crash and surviving it will send shivers down your spine, as you realize how insane he really is, going after Jessie after her show. Getting to read the comments of the live stream, especially seeing the number of viewers grow as Kurt becomes more unhinged, is fascinating, and adds to the plot as a whole. Fandom states that Kurt ends up killing ten people by the end of the film, and the more he kills, the more gruesome the murders are.
Plight of Social Media
Forest Hill Entertainment
Spree does a great job of showcasing what’s wrong with the internet. There are several great things that attribute to the internet as a whole, but Spree exposes individuals who strive in other people’s pain. Kurt is desperate for his five minutes of fame, and when he starts to film videos of himself getting ready for that fateful night of killing people, he begins to gather more interest. The fact that this movie is filmed as found footage and takes you through the different live streams is proof that people could be interested in a thing like this. Watching the viewer count rise to thousands of people and the comments rolling in is so realistic.
It’s not hard to imagine that in real life, if people stumbled upon this live-stream they would stay and watch as Kurt was a maniac on camera. Realistically, many people would stay and watch, sharing it with their friends as Kurt’s night is streamed to thousands of people. Also, the need for Kurt to be liked, especially online and on social media, adds to the realness of it all. If there wasn’t such an expectation for certain people to perform well on the internet and the draw of it all, Kurt most likely wouldn’t have killed so many people.
