User Reviews

The killer was interesting and provided a at least fun take on a murderer. The first half of the movie was ok the writing could have been better. The second half introduced a lot of unlikeable characters you want to see murdered and are mostly disappointed. The Heroin of the movie me and the girlfriend hated the most of all the characters and kept hoping she would die. A tip to the writers if you make a comedian character have them at least tell a joke at some point if they are supposed to be funny and likeable. No one goes to a comedy show to be lectured.

Worth a look, but the last half hour really takes a turn. The movie is talk heavy which isnt really my cuppa tea. It's a concept that you can almost imagine becoming true, how desperate people are for likes and follows on social media, that they would do almost anything. It was kinda dark funny, but the ending was not and really put me off.

Interesting movie, and well played by Joe Kerry. But feels like it's made for someone with A.D.D. and or excellent eye sight if watching on a smaller TV screen. There's somewhat a empathy and understanding for the Kurt character, coming from a broken home, looking for attention and acceptance, and discovering the 'online world' at a early age. But then his psychotic angst seems to be right there and unveils itself quickly. At first one kinda roots for Kurt, as his riders are rude, racist, and totally disrespectful to Kurt as their driver. Kurt is initially somewhat concerned of police proximity during his first kills. But as he intensifies, all seems to luck out for him no matter how close the cops get. Kurt gets obsessed with a young aspiring female comedian he had given a ride to earlier and has a large internet following. And by the time he confronts her, he is truly psychotic and beyond the pale. The movie straddles the parameters of mental instability, nature vs. nurture, the dangers of fame and maintaining it as a personal addiction in a individuals hand today. But doesn't really take a stand on any of it. Not that it has to either, but in the end - it just seems lost without much redemption for anyone. Like taking a peek into Dante's Inferno and not understanding all the insanity going on. Crazy from the get go, and remains so for anyone that dares to enter the trusting trappings of technology today.

Based on the so-so reviews I've seen, know a lot of you probably saw this film for what it was intended to be... a cheesy, cringe-filled hour and a half long "social media is bad for you" PSA written by old men who don't even know how to use phones around a conference table.

I've seen Unfriended. I've seen Cam. I've seen Nerve. None of these even came close to Spree - and I'm placing this movie up there with my other all-time favorites like Uncut Gems and Parasite. This movie isn't a masterpiece, nor does it have the incredible shots and soundtracks of other majorly loved movies. And honestly? It was not supposed to be one of the best. I mean, they literally played the GUMMY BEAR song while some kid kills people to get noticed.

This movie was so out-of-touch that it was perfect. Nothing felt fake - this character was actually totally believable. Maybe not the length of his crime spree, but people have done exactly this before. There have been tons of murders uploaded to or even filmed live on various social media platforms - and why else would someone do that other than to get attention?

I think people tie a rope of hate around any content made about social media with the assumption that it's going to be some cheesy garbage that makes social media look like it's inherently evil. This filmed showed that it isn't the platform itself, but rather the person who uses it. Even Bobby, despite being grandiose and annoying as h***, felt realistic to me (think: Ricegum or Jake Paul).

If you pay attention to the chat as well... it is totally on point. It included the people advertising their own channels, people trolling Kurt, even people who egged him on. If something like The Lesson really happened, I guarantee it would have a chat exactly like that.

Overall? I loved this movie. It is an accurate representation of social media without feeling like it was written by someone who's never used it.

I'm a fan of quirky films. I've seen a lot of them. The thing is many aren't all that good. It's as if they are trying too hard to be quirky so they fail miserably. The rare ones that succeed are wonderful and worth revisiting. Then there are those that fall in between, not quite great but not quite terrible either. SPREE is one of those.

Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) is a young man obsessed with being a social influencer, one of those people who posts videos of himself online and gets tons of people called followers to watch him non-stop. The problem is no one is watching. One of the few to watch his feed is Bobby (Joshua Ovalle), a young teen that Kurt used to babysit who actually has a fairly decent following, causing Kurt to become jealous.

Then Kurt gets an idea of how to increase the number of followers to his feed. Working for a ride share service called Spree (like Uber), he rigs his care up with multiple cameras to capture every view possible in the car. All of his viewers can opt which one to watch. And then he puts into place what he calls "the Lesson". This is his plan to inform others how to become huge influencers online and go viral, something he has yet to do.

"The Lesson" that he uses is to poison bottles of water that he hands out to rides he picks up and kill them. By so doing he hopes to gain viewers watching to see what happens next. Bobby thinks it's all fake but the fact is it isn't. His first victim is a racists on his way to make a speech. Another is a chauvinist jerk who just wants to get to his girl's place to have sex.

As this passenger is in the car, Kurt gets another request he responds to. The call comes from Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata), a stand-up comedian with a huge social media following. Kurt hopes that by giving her a ride she'll help boost his own viewership. When the jerk hits on her, Kurt comes to her defense but she leaves the car and Kurt is left to deal with the jerk. Add up another body to the count.

Along the way we also get to meet Kurt's worthless father (David Arquette), a failing DJ and music producer. Picking up a number of girls at the club he drops him off at Kurt continues to run up the body count. Still hurting from Jessie's rejection he goes to talk to Bobby and the two argue. This results in a situation between the two and Kurt on his way with a gun to take out Jessie, something sure to gain him followers.

The movie is presented as a dark comedy with a subtle yet overpowering performance by Keery in the lead role. He comes off as a lovable dork who becomes a mass murderer with ease, smiling after each kill and never troubled by what he has done. For him his sole focus it gaining more viewers to his social media account. That's it. No deep dark desire to change the world, to rid the world of bad people, just killing people to get people to watch him.

The film is a criticism of the social media culture, a group that worships select accounts and listens to their every word for confirmation of their own existence. Teens who give make-up tips, style promoters and more are out there attempting to influence children in the world and succeeding far more than they should. Other than a narcissistic belief in themselves as being the center of the world they have no true skills and zero background to make their claims. And yet here we are with a movie skewering that lifestyle.

The movie is well made using a point of view style and cell phone video footage to bring us into the world of Kurt. It's as if we have truly tuned in to his online presence and are watching as things unfold before our eyes. In a world where people are streaming crimes, murders, suicides and more this is a real thing. The movie looks at that and might just make you wonder, who is influencing your children?

Kurt has reached young adulthood. He has had 3 parents - a shiftless failure absentee Dad, a hardworking and distracted mother, and the internet. He drives for the Uber-like organisation Spree, but he desperately wants to be an influencer/streamer with a host of followers subscribing 24/7 to his stream, so he has set up his car with multiple cameras and he goes nowhere withing talking to his followers via his phone. Unfortunately, he only has one follower,a young obnoxious youth who followed him quid-pro-quo. Kurt thinks they are friends, but they're not.

So Kurt has the bright idea of poisoning people in his cab live on stream and, it they have their own followers, so much the better: maybe they will switch.

This satirical black comedy horror, is a good idea, executed well, with a decent script, and helped along by good performances. I'm not sure if it makes as much sense as it wants to, but I'm also not sure if that matters. The screen displays the streams of all involved, and comments from subscribers flood the margins. Unfortunately this happens so fast that you can't read most of them, which is a shame because those you can read definitely make a contribution.

This doesn't work as fully as it would like to, perhaps because the characters are, without exception, unpleasantly flawed.

Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery ) has an unpopular digital presence. In order to up his game he decides to record his Spree (Uber/Lyft) fares. He offers them poisoned bottles of water. As he kills his fares, he still struggles to get a double digit following, so he must up his game some more.

The film had a few amusing moments as a critique on social media and followers. Had more potential than game.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

I wasn't expecting much from SPREE (2020) but ended up really enjoying it. A different kind of 'found footage' horror film including an Uber-style driver who goes on a killing spree in order to gather followers and gain likes on social media. Almost the whole film is told via inter-car and smart phone cameras. Grounded very much in the 21st century and done in an extremely realistic and focused way that I found totally believable, I particularly loved the scrolling comments which are instantly recognisable if you've used any of these platforms. The main actor is Joe Keery from STRANGER THINGS and he does a bang-up job convincing as the awkward loner and geek who'll do anything for his fifteen minutes. A gruesome story filled with black comedy and action, I had a ball with this on Netflix.

Joe Keery plays our main guy - an uninteresting social media wannabe - so well, that it makes the movie worse than it could've been, coz he bored the hell out of me (and I know he's a good actor, so I really think he did it by mistake by being that good at acting that he nailed boring throughout).

That aside, it's a good idea and pretty interesting with some unique angles, but could've been better if Joe had been worse.