Spree Review: An Internet Horror Story

Running Time: 1h 33mins

Release Date (UK): 14th August 2020

Directed by: Eugene Kotlyarenko

Genre: Horror/Comedy

Stars

Joe Keery

Sasheer Zamata

David Arquette

Kyle Mooney

Joshua Ovalle

Mischa Barton

Frustrated with his online content never going viral, rideshare driver Kurt (Keery) resorts to deadly measures to reach online popularity.

Joe Keery, mainly known for his role as Steve Harrington in the Netflix hit ‘Stranger Things,’ plays a very different character as Kurt Kunkle in Spree. Kurt has been creating content online under the username ‘KurtsWorld96’ for over 10 years, with no luck of any popularity. In his annoyance, he thinks of a plan to finally go viral, killing his rideshare passengers on livestream.

Keery does very well in this role, steering in a completely different direction to his hero character in ‘Stranger Things.’ He managed to convey his character well as being quite awkward and funny, but also creepy. I believe he played this role very effectively, making you feel uneasy yet amused at the same time.

Kotlyarenko’s directing in this film is unique, capturing the style of the online world perfectly. Each camera angle in every scene is contrasting, some viewpoints are from Kurt’s phone as he is livestreaming, some are from cameras around the inside of his car, and in other scenes there are views from street cameras, to make it look like security footage. I found this technique to be interesting, as there are no professional camera angles, it’s all very natural and realistic, especially as the film revolves around internet culture. I did really like this creative way of filming, but I also felt that it took away from the more dramatic scenes, making it feel less scary.

There’s one particular scene I found quite dramatic near the end of the film where Kurt encounters some trouble with the police, resulting in chaos, in quite an unexpected way. I felt very off-guard at what happened and excited to see what was going to come from it.

In my opinion, the scarier scenes didn’t really give the right effect to me, I did feel creeped out, but I didn’t feel on-edge like I was supposed to. As a whole, this film is quite good as it has a unique feel, considering the delicate balance of the comedy and horror, and also due to the directing style. If you like satire comedy combined with horror elements, you’ll enjoy this film.

For a good mix of comedy and creepiness, follow Kurt’s story.