Spree is a found footage movie starring Joe Keery (aka Steve from Stranger Things) as a social media influencer / ride-share driver. He’s not a successful influencer as he’s been live streaming his life for a few years and has only double digit followers. He has decked his car out with a half dozen cameras in an attempt to go viral with something he calls The Message. His goal is to teach other people how to get likes, subscribers, and viewers on social media… in particular by murdering his passengers.

This is a clear and obvious satire of social media stardom… and it makes the media-drenched psychos of Natural Born Killers look subtle in comparison. Not that this flick is as violent as that older movie, but it’s message that living our lives at the beck and call of media is not healthy is pretty on-the-nose. I feel like I just got a stern lecture from Dad after watching this flick.

And that’s the big problem here… it’s not saying anything particularly profound but it’s certainly saying it over and over again. And, based on reviews, I suspect its target audience – people who hustle for views on social media/YouTube/etc. might get something out of a movie that’s speaking their language. Though also lecturing them so I find that a bit confusing.

Joe Keery is doing a bang up job in the film and that saves the movie slightly. Only problem is, he’s too good at playing a clueless, vacuous, social media whore. He nails the character but it’s not a lot of fun wallowing in his repetitive narcissisms for 90 minutes.

I didn’t care for this flick at all. I was often bored and its message is too blunt and keeps getting repeated endlessly. The movie needed more than an endless repetition of a shallow message. Something more – something deeper – was needed to save this script.

Score: 64