Spree is a popular American Satirical Horror film. This movie premiered in 2020 and since then its fanbase has been very curious about the back story of this movie. The theme of the movie may not be appropriate for many people as it follows a rideshare driver who is obsessed to get viral on social media. This physio driver kills his passengers on live camera. The driver Kurt Kunkle was jealous of a kid he used to babysit as the kid rose to fame using social media. Kurt is a content creator who is struggling to get good viewership. To get to fame he tries to copy other content creators and recreates what they do but for 10 whole years, nothing works out for him until he decides to do something unthinkable.
Kurt finds a job as a driver in a rideshare app, he used the cameras in his car to Livestream him picking up passengers and killing them live on camera. He didn’t gain any followers except one named Bobby. Kurt then asked bobby to share his live streams and when bobby refused Kurt kills bobby and takes his gun away.
Kurt then asked uNo to tag him and which there were out getting food. uNo finds bobby’s gun and drinks the poisoned water. Kurt had gone giver by this time and was called The Rideshare Killer. Jessie an internet star who was left by Kurt earlier calls out to the court in a comedy show. Kurt was being followed by police and he escaped using another rideshare app he picked up Jessie. He had a large number of people watching him at that time and were eagerly waiting for him to kill her. They both get into a fight outside his house and there they discover that he had killed his mother at the start of the stream. Kurt then shoots his dad and tried to kill jess but she manages to turn things around and kills Kurt with a small mobile phone. He is killed by the thing that he loves the most his live stream.
The whole plot of the movie sounds crazy and this movie is what it claims to be. The question that was in the minds of every single person that watched this movie was whether the movie was based on a true story or not. The answer to that is quite complicated though it is mentioned that Spree is a work of friction and not based on real events, there are some cases that are quite similar to this. Many events show such ego-obsessed killers who went around killing people.
The story could be taken from one of many uber drivers killing cases. Though there is no exact case that resembles the plot of the movie. Every Passenger that Kurt picks represents a stereotype from the society he meets a racist and then a homophobic. The movie ends in a very unexpected way with Kurt getting killed by Jessica with his own smartphone. The final sequence that is shown after Kurt is death. It showed people who are inspired by Kurt and he has gone viral on Reddit.
Is Spree Based On A True Story?
The movie was very controversial as it holds up a mirror of the shallowness of society. This movie is a commentary which means it must draw inspiration from some real-life cases. Joe Keery does an amazing role and understanding the uber drivers he took uber every day to work. So, what are these cases like where serial killers who lack emotional intelligence go about killing people? Doing anything possible to achieve the influencer lifestyle, hurting anyone, and having a lack of emotions and empathy. What could be the most horrific scenario for someone who is trying to reach stardom?
The director Cleary mentions that this movie is a case of friction but he has seen through some leaks and their interviews that there is such a case that combines Murder and Attention. People think that this might be the case of Jason Dalton who was a serial killer and used to drive uber. He killed six people in 2016 and was sent to jail.
This was a similar case but the next case from 2014 is almost identical to Spree. Killer Elliot Roger was a YouTuber and belonged to the incel community. He killed 6 people and injured 14 others. He recorded many videos which could be found online even now. Elliot was frustrated by society as he was not fitting in just like Kurt. Elliot got rejected by the girls and decides to punish all of them. Elliot has jotted down 140 pages with what had happened to him and what he was about to do now. He first stabbed his three roommates and then went under mass shooting.
Watching people who do not have any sort of viewership at all then tend to share their secrets. Desperation for fame is nothing new and in the current world if you are not documenting yourself you don’t exist. The movie is much deeper than people realize.
READ MORE: Is Orgasm Inc: The Story Of OneTaste Based On A True Story?
Similarities To Other YouTubers And Uber Drivers Convicted Of Murder
When Spree has first released the fans couldn’t help but relate the movie to past events which held some similarities with the movie. Elliot’s case was the closest to Kurt’s. There was one more guy who wanted to become famous but instead became infamous. Randi was a YouTuber and made simple videos in the earlier days. He was obsessed with the Danny phantom cartoon and he liked Ember McLane from the same show.
He records a video and decided the place of his mass killing with a coin flip. In his last YouTube video, he says he wanted to influence people and change someone’s life. In his last upload, he is taking action on his plan to go on mass murder. He has been seen loading two shotguns and his desire to gain attention takes him to the supermarket. Randy closed all the doors and then goes back in with two guns and kills 3 of his co-workers and records the whole event.
Jason Dalton was another man who was very similar to Kurt. He had a gun collection and around 25 guns. Jason takes some of these guns and went on a rampage. He shot a lady 4 times who called for an uber, He killed 6 people and total and severely injured 2 others. Another man who went by the name of Mr. Anime was a YouTube who made videos on anime. This man had a thing for guns and ammunition.
In 2012 he killed his mother and all other family members. He also killed all the pets in his house. There are many other cases related to these which have somewhat similarities with Kurt. All these mentioned cases are fully covered on YouTube showing to what extent these people can go.
The movie spree is overall frictional but has many similarities to real-life incidents. The plot may seem frictional but it is definitely inspired by IRL incidents.
READ MORE: Is Bruised Based On A True Story?
Spree Cast
The main protagonist of the movie Kurt is played by Joe Keery who did a splendid job playing this character you can clearly see his character change from a sad sympathetic man to a deranged psychopath. The comedian Jessi Adam is played by Sasheer Zamata, Kris Kunkle is played by David Arquette. Bobby is played by Joshua Ovalle. uNo is played by Sunny Kim and Kendra by Lala Kent. Jessalyn Gilsig is seen playing Andrea Archer. Frankie Grande is playing Richard Venti. Kyle Mooney is playing Miles Mandeville. The director of the movie is Eugene ktlyarenko. The movie was filmed in Los Angeles California.
READ MORE: Is Till Based On A True Story? Demonstrates The White Atrocity!
Where To Watch The Movie Spree Online?
The movie Spree premiered on 24 January 2020 at the sundance festival. The movie was then distributed by RLJE Films. In the United States, the movie was released in theatres and via video on demand. The movie took some time to get to the Ott platforms and by late October the movie was on Hulu and apple tv. You can buy the movie at Walmart, Target, and Amazon. The movie is also available on Netflix in some parts of the world. The movie has a 5.9 rating on IMDb and 69% approval on Rotten Tomatoes and has a run time of 93 minutes.
The trailer of the movie is available on YouTube and IMDb. The movie is labeled as a horror comedy and we have to give them credit for this as this is not a total psychotic horror movie it does feature times when the events are comical.
It features dark humor and is full of twisted thrillers throughout. It Cleary shows what goes inside the mind of a man who wants to become famous and does live killing to achieve that. Watch the movie Spree and find out for yourself and is totally up to the audience to believe if they feel that the movie and the other cases hold similarities.
Ratings
The movie has 5.9 ratings out of 10 on IMDb, which is very low.
Frequently asked questions
No, it is not based on a true story.
It was released back on 14 August 2020.
There is only one part of this movie.
Spree is an American movie.
We cannot say anything for sure regarding the second part.
You can watch it on Netflix.
READ MORE: Is Deepwater Horizon Based On A True Story?