228: Spree (2020)

SPEAKER_00 0:04

It just to me it was like, okay, this would be stereotypical right here.

SPEAKER_04 0:07

I'm glad you're smart.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Greetings and salutations, and welcome to Hack or Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. I told you the Reaper was close. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack. A total joke, a waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Totally killer, pun intended.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're rating these movies with the perspectives we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slash enthusiast, and this week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac, Hola Muchachos, the gore lover Alexis, ABC, always be charging, and the cowardly creeper Ryan. Hiya. The people have spoken and our patrons have decided which movie we're covering this week. Before we get down to business, though, we have some follow-up.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Let's follow up on a movie. Recently, we watched A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Now, we at Hacker Slash gave it a universal slash. We loved it, so we wanted to know what our listeners thought. So we had a poll. 23% of you gave it a hack, but 77% gave it a slash.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

Of course. It's a good movie. I think that feels balanced because I wouldn't say this movie's like a crowd pleaser if you don't, like I said, if you don't know what you're going in for.

SPEAKER_00 1:22

I think some of our patrons did, some of our listeners did, let's find out though. Nathan said, I had no idea this movie existed, and now I'm really glad I just watched it. Rob said, This is one of my favorites. I love the way it looks. The black and white is just so beautiful. It's so damn gorgeous. Rob, you're absolutely right. But then Rob added a story, and I love this. He says, Funny story. I picked a girl who walks home alone at night for one of my shows, and a co-host somehow ended up watching a copy without subtitles. He watched the entire film and had no idea what anyone was saying.

SPEAKER_04 1:52

Which does sound insane, but I would like to know. I think if you could ever watch a movie without knowing any of the words, it might be this one. There's only like five words anyway.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

I mean, I want to know how their experience as a co-host was impacted by not having the subtitles.

SPEAKER_00 2:06

You gotta wonder, did it actually make it better for them or worse? Now, October is just around the corner, and in just a few days, we're kicking off a month-long community challenge for our listeners. We want you to help us pregame for October by joining our free Discord server and mingling with the family. At the end of the month, we'll announce the winners of our special giveaway. Stay tuned to next week's episode, our Discord server, and social media profiles on August 31st for the full details. You can also learn more by following the link in our show notes or by going directly to go.hackerslash.

SPEAKER_01 2:39

Well, this month's patron nominations were comprised of four films spanning from 1997 to 2020. One nominee gained wide traction, however, once the nominating patron made an incredibly creative campaign video to help sway voters. This week's film follows the journey of a rideshare driver who's desperate to build a following after ten years of posting in obscurity. His methods, however, lead to a night of bloodshed. This week, after winning 50% of the overall patron vote, we're talking about the 2020 film Spree.

SPEAKER_00 3:08

Now Spree was nominated and campaigned for by Ashley. Her nomination reads This movie is something. Objectively, that something is not good. However, I literally just finished it and I loved it. Admittedly, this movie is chaotic and Kurt is super cringe, but much credit must be given to Joe Carey for embodying Kurt in a way I didn't think I would be able to believe before watching. And the creators put a lot of work into this behind the scenes, handwriting all the comments, etc., that really add to it. This movie is trying to say something, and while it may be a bit on the nose a lot of the time, there are some interesting perspectives here. I was not scared, but I was for sure uncomfortable and sketched out, while some things seem way too wild, others seemed way too real. While I feel this movie would undoubtedly receive some, if not all, hacks, it's worth a watch and gets a slash from me.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Well, Ashley, we'll see how the scoring pans out for us tonight. But first, who's seen this one before?

SPEAKER_02 4:00

I've never heard of this in my entire life, which is surprising because there's like a lot of people that are, you know, hype right now. David Arquette, Joe Keary, like surprising. It's also from 2020, which we were all famously stuck in the house.

SPEAKER_04 4:14

I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of it. Um actually, I'm not surprised. I haven't heard of it, but I'm surprised that you hadn't. So obviously, I didn't see it before this and didn't know it existed.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yeah, this was news to me as well. Uh during 2020, I think I watched a lot of TV, not that many movies, except for you know the ones we watched for the pod. So uh it kind of fell through the cracks for me.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah, I watched a lot of uh Teen Mom and Catfish, not a lot of movies.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

I feel like also this is a movie that I would normally expect to see on like Netflix, and it's not. It's on Hulu, and I know that's like a minimal distinction, but no one goes to Hulu for movies. That's just not what you do. Hulu does have some movies, but it's just not their main draw, I feel like. This seems like a Netflix vibe.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

I actually heard of this movie when around the time that it was coming out, but I never got around to watching it mainly because I enjoy Joe Curie, but I was so sold on him as Steve Harrington that I couldn't really see him as anything else. And to his credit, I think he does you know well enough in his performances to be distinct in what he does, but I think I just wasn't ready in my heart to let go of Steve Harrington. This is a movie that I was always interested in seeing, but never got around to. And I think it's also because looking at some of the current events, looking at all the notoriety that we find uh that perpetrators of mass violence seek in our country. You always hear about this person who's like has this claim to fame or they want to be remembered or they want to have this notoriety. And I didn't know a lot about this movie beyond like the initial premise, but it gave me that energy. And I didn't know if it would just bum me out as I watched it. I've got to agree with you about the whole Steve thing.

SPEAKER_04 5:54

I just I just when I looked at the cover of this, I felt like there's no way I could not see him. And you know, fortunately it really wasn't that way, but I felt like my expectations were pretty straightforward. When you see the cover of this movie and maybe glance at like the synopsis for a second, I feel like you really understand what's gonna happen. It's it's pretty much all on the table. There's not a ton of surprises.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

And I I guess I just expected it to be straightforward. I could see that. I mean, I didn't read the synopsis nor see anything, just clicked on the movie and started playing it. But I did obviously had some sort of expectation with the title of Spree. So I'm like, obviously it's gonna be a murder spree. So I was hoping to see lots of murders in this.

SPEAKER_04 6:35

You know, the word Spree did not occur to me until the movie finished, and I was like, oh, it's killing Spree.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

But Ryan, they did the thing within three minutes where they said the movie title. I even have that in my notes.

SPEAKER_04 6:46

I I I don't know how it it got past me, but at the end of the movie, I was like, oh, I get the name now. So you're thinking of shopping spree? I wasn't thinking of anything. I was like, oh, Spree's the name of the app in the movie.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Just thinking of Candy. Maybe that's what it was.

SPEAKER_04 7:01

I think I'm just dumb sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

So I watched the trailer, and so I mostly expected shaky cam, uh, car cams, bad angles, just kind of like awkwardness in in capturing the subject. Honestly, though, when we actually got into it, it's like a hundred percent cringe worthy, but captivating at the same time. And that whole like gorilla style cinematography I expected to see was actually kind of replaced by some smart choices to led to this movie feeling more authentic than something like the Blair Witch rideshare that I expected.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

You know, Mac, going into this, I was wondering how you were gonna feel about it, and just knowing that so much of this is filmed seemingly from like GoPros in a car. You think there's a lot of stability there, but I wondered how your vertigo would handle this. I think looking at the runtime of this movie, you you think it's gonna be told in a linear fashion, and then I was surprised to see that some of it does not take place chronologically. And I think even beyond that surprise, I felt so many moments of tension. And there's one moment in particular that ended up being one of my favorite scenes where I just found myself thinking, no, no, no, Kurt, no. That kind of tension mixed with a lot of the laughter that I found in some of its more comedic moments really made for like a unique viewing experience.

SPEAKER_04 8:20

That's interesting because captivated is definitely not the word that I would say I felt during this. I I can't really say it was predictable because you're correct, a lot of it is kind of nonlinear, especially maybe based based on what you're expecting. But I just felt like there was just a movie on, you know, like it didn't give me enough tension and enough fear to feel that much. And then sometimes the fact that it was like so on the nose made me care less about it.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

That's interesting. I wouldn't put it as high as captivating, but it was definitely attention-grabbing for me. It was a mix of all of the different avenues that they used to tell the story, whether it was a dash cam, whether it was someone's cell phone, whether it was texting. And I saw this movie with um Harold from Harold and Kumar where they literally just use phone, like technology, and I was like, this is so cool. So I think that's what really surprised me is how real this felt with all the technology intertwined into all of this.

SPEAKER_04 9:20

See, I felt like it was really authentic in what I did with the filming styles, but also it's weird to watch a movie that way. So it was a mixed, a mixed bag for me that yes, it felt authentic and it, you know, felt like it was an Instagram live or whatever, but that's weird to see in a movie, you know? Weird on a movie screen.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

It can be a little bit weird. I think I have gotten used to it based on Modern Family famously had an episode that takes place exclusively like through FaceTime or iMessage on someone's MacBook Pro. It's like a whole episode that's recorded that way. And then throughout the pandemic, we got so many movies that were, you know, leveraging this kind of technology to kind of compensate for the fact that you couldn't have standard productions. And obviously, this is a movie that wasn't held back by that, but I think 2022 Chris is in a better place to experience this movie. Whereas if we watched this movie for the podcast, like right when it came out, I may not have felt the same way. I expected to be a little bit disappointed in some of the more serious notes in this film because I wondered how could you really pull this off. But you know, Kurt really was cringy, and I was surprised by how authentic that felt versus you know being like the the charming Steve Harrington. And again, he that's a whole separate character, it's a whole different identity for what he does. But I I feel like he disappeared into this role, and that was a really pleasant surprise for me.

SPEAKER_04 10:47

It was almost creepy how much he disappeared into this role, and I think for me that was the most surprising is that he the acting felt very authentic. The acting specifically, not necessarily the writing, but I felt like these were these people. I think the disappointment for me was how on the nose it was at times. Like it just was so heavy-handed and like cool, we get it, we get what he's trying to do. But every second they could remind us they took that chance.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

It's hard for me because when watching this, the he says some lines that, you know, we all think of like wannabe influencers. This is the things they say, right? You and I both know somebody that says lines, or at least used to say things like very similar to this character, and just like heavy on the social media influencer wannabe status. And so it was surprising to me that like a lot of the interactions we got actually felt very real, very true to life. But it was disappointing that some of like the other dialogue wasn't quite as good. The dialogue outside of that whole like persona, not our main characters, but like some supporting characters had some dialogue that was just a little bit too scripted feeling. It was just a little bit too much, like this is what we think they people might say in these moments. And and it wasn't realistic because a lot of a lot of what we're getting from our main character legit feels like I could hear it out of somebody I know's mouth.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, there's like a big disparity between, I think, almost even the quality of performance between our main character and some of the supporting ones. And I think there's also the reality that our main character goes to show us that uh we usually think of serial killers or monsters as the big bad boogeyman in the rest of these horror movies. Whereas this is a kid who draws the story of his life early on in the film, and you hear some of his opinions on things when he's confronted with a white supremacist, and you hear how he kind of sticks up for other people, and you think, okay, these are some sentiments that seem like a perfectly normal human being, and then you see this darker side of them. So I think the the depth of that character just really created like a wide gap between him and the rest of the cast that had to, you know, they had a lot to live up to.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

But I think I think it was effective though, because this movie, I don't really find it scary, but what I do find scary is reality, and it reminds me so much of real life. And I think we probably should be more scared of reality, especially when it comes to like social media and the effect it's having on the human psyche right now. Because yeah, I wasn't scared when watching the movie, but like immediately afterwards it was like I don't even want to look at Instagram for at least an hour.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

I'm taking the total opposite of this because it was frightening the idea of being in a car, a ride share app, whichever one you use, and the things that might happen at the worst of times. And I'm like, you know, do I need I do need the ride because I'm drunk, but um maybe I'll call my parents instead. Maybe I'll go back to OG parents and calling them.

SPEAKER_04 13:49

I think this movie for me is the kind of movie that makes me confident in my own sanity. Like, you know, Mac, this movie stresses you out about the fact that people exist and may or may not think this way. This movie makes me feel thankful that I don't feel like I succumb to things uh like internet stuff. And maybe that's a dumb thing for me to think, right? We I we all have things that we're susceptible to that we don't realize, but this movie isn't scary for me, aside from like, yeah, the getting in a car with strangers and they can attack you.

SPEAKER_02 14:21

And I'm not gonna spoil stuff, but like certain things that happen, I'm like, oh, I so quickly could have been in that kind of situation.

SPEAKER_04 14:30

Yes, but see, here's the thing everybody won't agree with this, but people are mostly good, and that's why we can get in Ubers. I thought that, and I think that's why I'm naive. So um I don't think it is naive because there's so much that we do in the world that if most people were bad, we would, I mean, a gr going to the grocery store would be an issue, you know.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

I would yeah, I'd agree. I don't know, I'm just scared about everything.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

But here's the thing, going to the grocery store is an issue. Like I think the the what this movie did for me in terms of fear, it's pointing out okay, Ryan, you just called me an outlier, the outliers in our society who on a whim can wake up one day and just cause so much havoc. And yes, the number of them is far outweighed or or outnumbered, they are outnumbered by the rest of society, but the potential for impact is frightening. And you kind of just go about your day ignoring that, right? Like, you know, we have these things at work where we talk about what to do in an active shooter situation, and not that that comes up in this movie, but you kind of just live with this as the reality and think, hope it doesn't happen to me. And this movie shows, I think, the whimsy of someone, or just like the okay, on one hand, careful planning, on the other hand, just wake up one day and decide to do this. I think if that this movie pointing out that level of thought is a bit frightening to me. But I will also say that I think this movie and the way it conveys that feels so much different than any of the other serial killer movies we've seen.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm a huge fan of The Bone Collector. Fantastic film.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Good one.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Makes you think twice about getting in a cab, maybe. I don't know. But this film does something so specific with its execution of capturing everything in social media, streaming, compiling streams, even adding in like plentiful live chat constantly throughout the film. I mean, I was impressed. This was like so much work, and I think for whatever reason, in my mind, that just gave it so much, just so many originality points.

SPEAKER_04 16:36

I think originality with this one is interesting because it does feel original in some ways, like in the methods and things like that. But at the same time, it does also feel familiar to like Cam and Host and just you know, the internet. You know, there's been a lot of like internet-based horror stuff.

SPEAKER_02 16:57

Ryan, I completely agree because I had in my notes this reminds me of Cam. This reminds me of the one where they're streaming some kills online. Like I've seen this before, and I've seen where technology like getting on a phone or FaceTime or instant messaging has been a part of a movie called searching. So I've seen it, but the way that all of this is encompassing, it's not too shaky cam. It's not too too much texting, it's just like a very specific thing, and I think they did it very well. And I think that carries over to the ending as well, because I wasn't expecting what happened in the end, and I was quite surprised. I mean, I know the chaos had to end at some point of this movie, but I wasn't expecting it to turn the way it did.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

I think I think the ending worked. You know, I think there was more that I thought they they could have said with it if they wanted to, uh, but it was a lot better of an ending than I than I imagined it would be.

SPEAKER_04 17:55

Yeah, the end for me, I would say is is generally pretty good. There was a bit of uh chaos, I'd say, that maybe wasn't necessary or maybe was a little too much again. But generally, I I think it kind of ended in a in a good way for the storyline.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

I think it ended in a satisfying way. I think it also reached a little bit further than I expected an ending to this movie to reach. But I am interested in seeing how our thoughts on the ending impact our actual ratings now. Before we score this film, Alexis, how would you describe the gore score for this movie?

SPEAKER_02 18:27

We got a lot going on, obviously with the movie called Spree. There's a lot of killing, but surprisingly the gore is kind of low. And what about the animal report?

SPEAKER_04 18:36

Once again, we have a clean animal report this week, which is very nice.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Well, let's go ahead and get into the ratings then. Spree from 2020, as nominated by our patron Ashley. Was it a hacker or a slash?

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Ashley, this movie is disturbing. Mostly because, well, it feels so close to reality. And I think you you mentioned this in your nomination as well. But um, at some points it's like almost completely unfunny how close it is to reality. I don't know that it says anything too deep about social media and like the toxic, ego-feeding culture it creates, but it sure shows us a lot. You should definitely leave this film by putting down your phone and speaking to another human being. It's just as wild a ride as the rides in the film. And even though the destination was evident, I think, from the start, I did find myself both captivated uh and sickened by the journey. It's a slash that you probably wouldn't want to smash the like button or smash the subscribe buttons on, but hey, this is the reality that we've created for ourselves and we have to deal with it.

SPEAKER_02 19:34

So I struggled with this movie because I was like, oh, okay, what is this gonna be? Okay, he's just going to be doing some killing. It's gonna be the same thing. And once this movie really started to ramp up and more things were introduced, I was like, oh wow, this is interesting. And every time like I went to go write a note, I looked up, I was missing something. And I like a movie that keeps my attention like that. And this movie was not what I expected. And I was like, Atheon, do I love this movie? I don't love it per se, but you know, I thought it was super entertaining. And Ashley mentioned Kiri's performance was top-notch, and it was so crazy because there was a very hella distinction between stranger things and this. And I think that if a character can carry that, it can carry a movie. And I'm giving it a slash mostly on that, but also because of the use of the technology in the movie. I found it very riveting throughout the entire watch. So, yes, it's getting a slash for me.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

I find this movie to be difficult. I feel like I didn't feel that much. Honestly, in a way, I think I don't allow myself to feel certain things in the world, right? And this doesn't feel good. What happens here feels too realistic because there are people that just have a couple screws loose, and you could easily go down this route with the way the world is these days. And for me, this movie just didn't do enough to make me be able to tell you it's a slash. I think I can understand why you guys would slash it, and I can understand why Ashley would say, like, objectively, maybe it's bad, but it's a slash for me. I get that. I do. I can understand why somebody would enjoy it, even just from a perspective of like seeing something that you don't necessarily want to see. But for me, I don't enjoy it. I didn't like it on the way through. I felt like some things were a little bit odd. Again, I've said it so many times, but a little heavy-handed. It's a hack for me. I also have like a particular distaste for like phone aspect ratios on a widescreen. I don't know. Like if there's a commercial that's supposed to look like a TikTok, I've never hated anything more in my life than that. So unfortunately, this movie is a lot of that. They do it creatively. I'm not mad at it from an objective standpoint. I just don't like it. So it's a hack for me. And I do feel like you guys needed me to balance this.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Probably because I'm definitely gonna slash it. This movie does try to say a lot with social media, but I think what's compelling about this movie is like. Less about the social media elements of it and more about how people who are seeking validation or seeking to be seen and heard in the world, and when they struggle with their mental health and they're not in an environment or getting the support that they need, how all of these factors compound on and top of each other to help someone create in their mind the opportunity to do something like this. This feels like a manifesto. This feels like the chilling elements of what you see when you are reading the latest article about the perpetrator of our latest act of mass violence. That is really, really dark to me. I think this movie, it feels like it's more about that and less about the we are all obsessed with social media, we all want to be seen, we all want to be validated. And we certainly have that in this movie. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but I think where this movie is most successful is taking us into Kurt's mind and showing how we got there and showing how fragile of a place he's in and really looking at all the factors that lead to it. So with that, Spree from 2020 has earned three slashes and one hack. Now you can find this movie streaming on Hulu, so check it out. Then join us in the second half so we can dive into the details of Kurt Spree together. See you in a bit.

SPEAKER_03 23:55

Exotic and beautiful women. Surely strip a standard where we surely have someone that's in a cup of tea in any.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Now we have a lot to unpack here, but before we get into the specifics of our ratings, Alexis, take us through the kills.

SPEAKER_02 24:26

Y'all, there were 12 deaths in this movie, and I was like, holy crap, when I saw this list. It's like this is very interesting because I don't recall 12 people being in this movie per se, but I guess there was a lot of passengers. But there was no blood. Well, okay, there were uh three at three points, there were blood there was blood. But for 12 deaths, I guess you need it to be real. So I was like, all right, blood spurting on the camera, on the back of the glass.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

I mean, there were a few kills that had I would say, I would say 50%. We get some we get some blood. We just don't get like blood, we don't get to see the kills on screen very much.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Yeah, I guess I'd say there was blood, not a lot of gore. Right, agreed. So my favorite death is definitely gonna be the first one because I think you're just not expecting it till you see him start putting the shit in the water. And let me tell you, I think it's so effective because now I think I'm terrified to drink water from an Uber driver. Even if they have 5,000, you know, rides, I'm like, you never know. This might be the day where something happened to them and they're like, I'm gonna go kill my mom, and then I'm gonna start killing people all day.

SPEAKER_04 25:32

I like to live my life in a way where some people would call it naive, but I I think it's important not to think about these things because you may never leave your house again. And listen, if someone's gonna kill me in the back of their Uber, they're gonna kill me in the back of the Uber, and I ain't gonna have nothing to do with it. And if I don't drink the water, they'll just find another way, like they did with Mario. I think Mario has the best death because that guy sucked so much. He was the worst rider, he was uh horrible to Jesse. Everything about him sucked, and then the whole time he's not drinking the water, right? And he keeps trying to say, like, yeah, just sit back and have some water. You know, it never worked out right. Getting hit by the car, that was great. It was the first one that changed, the first one that was different than what we saw before. I loved it and he really deserved it. I don't know why I was at an oil rig, but he he needed that.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

When I when I drove a little bit of Uber for a month or two, I didn't put any kind of water or edible items in my car. It was like band-aids and like wet wipes that I usually kept just in case. But yeah, I think the thing that surprised me, the one kill that surprised me was the police officer. That was the one that caught me off guard. And I think I probably saw Chris's, which is unfortunate. But this death, this was phenomenal because we don't know what's gonna go on with Uno sitting in the car thinking Uno's dead, right? But when Uno starts to wake up, you're like, oh gosh, he's gonna have to kill these cops himself. When she pulls the gun out and shoots a cop square in the face, we got some blood, first of all, but I literally just was like, oh holy crap, out loud, because I I had no expectation that was gonna happen. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

That was such a shocking moment. And you know, it wasn't even my favorite kill Mac, but it was such a big moment of like, what the fuck is going on here? It was a moment where she wakes up and you wonder, is she just doing this out of pure panic? Does she know that she was poisoned? You know, at this point, Kurt has taken her, and basically he tried to leave and she kind of dragged him over to this taco stand. So did she just think that something weird happened? You know, like what was her understanding of her situation when she pulled out that gun and shot that cop? I I would just love to be inside DJ Uno's head for just that moment. I think for a favorite kill for me is actually going to be the joint kill of Richard and Kendra and London. So we have this moment where they're up through the sunroof. Uh, he has shut it enough to where they're kind of like trapped up there, and then he just goes full slumber party massacre with that drill into London in the passenger seat. And then we get that cool shot of him in the car wash trying to clean everything off, and he's wiping the window down, uh, wiping actually the camera down. That was a moment where I was like, fuck yeah, Kurt. All right, let's go. Not that I endorse his violence, but things were escalating.

SPEAKER_04 28:13

Richard and Kendra were definitely my backups. Like when he trapped them in that sunroof and when we thought they were gonna get like their heads chopped off at first, oh, it was so good.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, I love the anticipation of that. It was like, it's coming, it's coming. What I thought was really interesting, and Chris alluded to this in the first half, is this like jump in time, which I'm gonna be honest, I didn't know because who checks the time on the top of their phone, much less in this movie. But when Kurt heads to Bobby Basecamp's house to confront him about Bobby not promoting, you know, his live stream, Kurt mentions that he has seven kills so far. However, he's only killed six passengers in the car that night, which ends up foreshadowing that he killed his mom in the beginning of the movie.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Man, that's a good point. That was something where when he went back into the house and he was kind of kicking things off. Having known that in this movie, this guy is gonna be a rideshare driver who goes on a killing spree, and given the events of what's happened even in t in Texas earlier on, where we know that the violence like starts at home and then carries on to what they plan to do, I assumed that he had killed his mom. So that wasn't like a huge surprise for me.

SPEAKER_00 29:18

They gave it away when he went back in in the first scene. He went back in to he's like, Oh, oops, almost forgot, and he came back with the necklace or pendant, wherever it was and hung it up. I was like, Oh, that's obviously what happened.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

I did not catch that. I really thought he was just gonna be driving.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

Sometimes y'all act like stuff is obvious, and it's not. It seemed like he just went in and got the necklace. We didn't know it was his mom's necklace for like an hour.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

Um, maybe just some major assumptions on my part, but like he sees his mom, oops, I forgot, comes from like this, you know, this background that he's got, and it just to me it was like, okay, this would be stereotypical right here.

SPEAKER_02 29:54

I'm glad you're smart. So being the gore lover I am, my favorite visual would not be on par if it didn't involve blood, right? Was it Joe Curry in the shower? It was. Um honestly almost because we were about to see his penis, but JK, not really, but it was very modern psycho Jason Bateman for me, like him just in the shower, blood all over his face, and literally, I think. I mean, I knew he was crazy beforehand, but that was the ultimate time. I'm like, oh, he's like far gone. There, there ain't no coming back. And then the blood, it was just like really awesome against the white background of the shower, the abs. Just kidding. There, we didn't see an ab.

SPEAKER_00 30:34

My favorite visual was the choice to compile multiple live streams and videos on screen and switch between them, especially in really stressful points. It just looked really like really hard as hell, honestly, to plan out, but worked. Because I know Ryan, you hate seeing things that are supposed to look like social media, especially in portrait mode. And I'm glad that when they did things, they were able to add in other cameras or other streams. So at least we filled the frame. And I think that is what made it effective. That's what made me not hate this movie, is that they looked at it like we need to fill the entire screen up with something going on, and not just to like fill it up. We need to have things going on that make sense together, and that and I found it just so effective.

SPEAKER_04 31:18

They definitely did make some good use of the screen in some points. There are some times where it was just a vertical video, but I uh, you know, I I think this is a personal thing. There was nothing they could do to make me enjoy that. It just is what it is. I like that they did some things and tried to make it better. I think for me, the best part of that is the very, very end where we see uh the idea of someone on 4chan compiling all of it. Because then when you start to think about how this would work out if you were not a part of it and you were watching it on social media, and then you know, you follow this one person and then you're gonna go find the other person to see their side of things. And I feel like that's a extremely realistic perspective of how people would observe this, although I would argue that you shouldn't be, but people would, and it's so cool at the end, the way it kind of like they're like, oh, this is some dude on 4chan looking for these clips and put together this movie. It's a cool perspective.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Yeah, I really love the way they sold that ending bit to make you realize, okay, this is the thing that we're watching. It's very Blair Witch project, it's very Poughkeepsie tapes. This is the modern found footage film, and I really appreciate that. I think my favorite visual element is the motivation for using all the cameras in the car and the way it all makes sense. I think the perspectives that you get from that feel so cool, especially in that moment when, you know, he's driving on the highway and he's driving into oncoming traffic. It felt like Grand Theft's auto. Just gonna throw that out there.

SPEAKER_04 32:45

That's true. That moment was very stressful because at first I didn't realize, and then he looked up again and I was like, dude, hello?

SPEAKER_01 32:52

Yeah. Okay, how are you still eating fries and putting things down? No, sir. I couldn't even. Just so chill. But Mac, you mentioned that your favorite visual was how they compile multiple live streams at once. I gotta say, that's actually my favorite scene in the film when we have him pulling up to a house that we later find out is Bobby's, but we're led to believe it's Jessie's, and there's a knock at her door. It felt like this horrific moment of like, please leave her grandmother alone. Please leave Jessie alone. They don't deserve this. She's already gotten away. You seem like a fan of her, and there's that sigh of relief when you realize, oh, he's just here to fuck up this kid, whatever. Which sounds like such a terrible sentence to say, but that moment, that suspense, that tension was one of the biggest surprises for me.

SPEAKER_04 33:38

So my favorite scene also comes because it's like a big surprise, and it's actually the taco truck scene, the whole thing. First off, how they even get to the point of going on to the taco truck, and she's like, you know, take me to a taco truck and I'll post you, and it's nonsense. Um, but the whole bit of like him standing in line, her drinking the water, and then shooting the cop, of course, and then also everyone running away. Um, so the other cop chasing her, and then he just gets to drive away was an interesting element. And I felt like during that scene I had no idea how it was going to work out altogether. So that was my favorite scene of the whole movie for sure.

SPEAKER_00 34:16

I'll take it back to the start. I think when when Kurt first starts his hashtag the lesson filming, I think that was such a great time to set the stage for his like psyche. We we mean if you've seen the trailers, we know what's gonna happen. If you've read the synopsis, you know kind of which way it's gonna go. But I I don't think how clearly we like he's thinking about this the whole time. And it shows his beginning, he's not like wandering into this and like you know, falling into killing people. There was like a plan and he hoped to like teach people something after all of this. I don't know what, but I think when he's like getting everything together, it's bright and sunny outside, and he's like ready to start driving, and especially where he hops out and you know takes out his his mom and like brings back the thing. But I think it sh it showed they wanted to have some smart choices, like you not realizing the fact that he that he killed her in the beginning of the movie, but the fact that he brought back the little pendant thing and hung it up to me, that was like so obvious that that was what's happening. Later on, when we get to the point of his dad calling him, he keeps declining. To me, that seemed like he didn't want to take his dad out quite yet. And it seemed like a really deliberate choice because everything there's just like careful planning. A lot of it he just like falls into it because he's trying to up the ante and get more, you know, views and stuff like that. But I think the beginning really showed that he had a plan for all of this, he had intent, he had some kind of some kind of vision for for all of this. But I I like that we didn't just like jump into a maniac who's just losing it. We got to see that like this is someone who put serious thought into it and has a plan and hopes to like not only to have this plan but to like spread it into the minds of others because it's just so absolutely disturbing how close to life it really is.

SPEAKER_02 36:05

I appreciate that. I don't know if I necessarily took away that it was that planned. To me, it seemed like utter chaos, which it was, but I was like, man, if he he planned this out, he isn't crazier than I thought he was. It was intentional chaos. My favorite scene is the break-in chaos, surprisingly, and we get these cool snippets of Jesse Adams doing her stand-up, and I was like, this is the comic relief, but not intentional comic relief that I needed because I just realized, oh, he's stalking her, so it's not like the chaos is gone. He's just tamed down and you know, possibly looking for another victim. Who knows? But I I just love that because you kind of get a glimpse of her and like what she stands for and what she's all about, and you get to know at least one more character a little bit more.

SPEAKER_04 36:57

Speaking of characters, everyone felt like real people, but the interactions between a lot of these people felt super overdone. I think, especially like Mario and Jesse in the back of the car. Miles was out there too.

SPEAKER_02 37:09

I was like, what's his what what is he a part of this movie for?

SPEAKER_04 37:13

Yeah. Oh my god. At like after Jesse's show, I was like, Could you shut up? And why is this on screen? I mean, I don't know. And you know, the Bobby Basecamp thing, I guess a lot of this stuff is meant to be kind of caricature-esque. It's all a bit over the top. That's probably the point, but I didn't necessarily care for it.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

The one I struggled with the most, I think, was actually his dad, and the dialogue, a lot of the dialogue we get with his dad, especially directly to him, I just felt like it was a little bit too unrealistic. It was just a little bit too like scripted, a little bit too Hollywood, would have made more sense if we weren't doing this gorilla style, you know. I I think it made sense what he was saying, but like the way that he talked to his son, the way that he talked to DJ Uno, it just like wasn't uh super realistic. I think the relationship that he had that they showed, they were really good at showing stuff. And so when we got to like see it on screen when he came in early and he's got like the hat and he wants them to wear it, and he's like, No, get out of my face, and like all of that I love when they showed it. I think they did a great job. But when they actually had him speak, there was just some lines I think that were just too polished, maybe, or too fake feeling.

SPEAKER_01 38:16

I totally agree. You know, let this be the one time, shout out to our patron Nathan, where David Arquette is in a movie and I'm not dragging him or his character Dewey from Scream because he actually didn't bother me. He felt just out of touch, and I felt like that's exactly who Chris is supposed to be. And I'm not just liking him because he spells his name the same way I do. I get it, it seems a little biased, but I enjoyed the characters in this movie. I know earlier we talked about the huge disparity between how much time we spend with Kurt and how developed Kurt is versus what we see from the other characters. But there's a moment that brought me so much joy, and it was this point where we think that maybe Jesse is already dead. Maybe he I couldn't tell if he like already snapped her neck in the backseat and you find out that she's just incapacitated. He is, you know, going to try to run her over, and he stops the car a couple times because something keeps falling. And she has her Michael Myers moment, her Lori Strode moment. She has the oh shit, that person isn't where I left them. And I love how much she fought back. I think it's a little bit weird that she takes a selfie with him on demand, but I do love as we continue to move past that night, how you see how she used her platform for good and how she wanted to address pay inequities and things like that. So it was like capitalizing on a moment in a movement and then leveraging that for good instead of just pure notoriety. So I enjoyed that about her.

SPEAKER_02 39:45

Yeah, which is what we typically see, and I think all the characters throughout this movie, the supporting cast, especially, it's you see them just having just this need for attention. I mean, everyone in this movie, even Jesse at some points, she's probably our saving grace of this movie, but everyone is like that. I mean, when you get into New Brage Get, you don't talk to that person, but every interaction that he had was just so negative and so negative and so negative. So I was like, oh, is this what's driving him insane? But then I realized at the end it's that he was already insane. But I mean, I like that. I don't think I need to know enough about all of the characters. Like, I knew just enough of the kind of interaction like this girl heading to the airport does could care less, is actually being kind of rude. The character development or necessarily like the demoralization of Kurt is just kind of crazy just to see all of that. Because you're like, oh, he's being funny, he's being this, he's being that, and then you're like, okay, the spiral of him is is is amazing to watch on camera within within an hour and a half.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

He gets into some lines though towards the end that and that's what reminded me of someone I know in real life when he starts talking about his realization after the comedy show of like he's all about love or whatever, and it just the way he speaks reminds me of someone and the way that they speak, especially when it comes to social media stuff.

SPEAKER_01 41:07

You mean this person who also fell for multi-level marketing?

SPEAKER_00 41:10

Yes, indeed. And it is a hundred percent like that is a speech pattern of a real human being, right there, and and they did such a good job with it. Um, the dribble, the only trouble I had with Jesse was that Jesse actually got back in the car. And I'm like, real life though? Is Jesse gonna get back in the car? Especially as being like it's free, don't worry about it. Because Jesse just didn't seem like the type that would actually get back in. That was the only the only trouble I had was like the whole idea.

SPEAKER_02 41:38

I thought she didn't realize it was him because then she goes, Oh, it's you, dude.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

No, the the first drive though, the first ride when when she bounced, she says no. She's she nopes out of there intelligently, and I was like, good choice, but then she gets back in. That was the only the only trouble I had with the character. It's also incredibly hard to show a comedian in a movie. I don't know why that is.

SPEAKER_04 41:59

Oh, because comedy is funny in person. But as far as like her getting back in the car, it really just depends. If you're in that situation, you say no as a gut instinct, and then you kind of like reconsider how bad you need to get somewhere and how long you've been waiting for this Uber and what other options there are. And unfortunately, I do feel like it's quite realistic to get back in with the fact that nothing has gone wrong yet, right? She just has a bad vibe at the beginning. Since nothing's gone wrong, you start to reconsider and you're like, oh, fine, whatever. I would never please don't get in an Uber that's canceled and there's no record of it. But I'm just saying I could see it.

SPEAKER_00 42:34

It's interesting though when you look at a lot of the passengers because I think if if you take them individually, they kind of seem like caricatures, but they're a hundred percent like real human beings that we've all seen videos of or all like interacted with in real life.

SPEAKER_04 42:46

I'm sorry. Real estate people have a really bad tendency. Not all of them, but some of them literally do suck like this. Some of them act like the world is actually revolving around them, and it is disgusting, and I hate it. And if you're a realtor listening to this, I'm sorry. I don't mean it personally, but I bet you know the people I'm talking about. They exist, they're real. Andrea's real. With that being said, we've been talking about Jessie a lot. She is absolutely the best part of this movie. Even the clips that are of her comedy that are hard to put on screen are funny. And there were some times where I felt like her bits were not her joke bits, her parts of this movie were a little bit long-winded and kind of took some of the like attention from Kurt, which I thought was interesting, but I felt like I needed it because I didn't care about Kurt all the time. I don't know. Jessie's the best. I have to say though, the ending where she actually does take the selfie with him is the worst part of the movie. I it she was such a good character all the way through. She was very simple and grounded and like knew who she was and who she wanted to be. And the fact that she did that at the end, it turned me off for sure. But otherwise, she is the best part.

SPEAKER_01 43:58

Yeah, I'm gonna want to take some time. Time to simmer on that one for a while. I want to know why that was the decision. I want to know why that was the choice. For me, the worst part of this movie is how much I related to two sentences that Kurt said. I absolutely hate that. He says, consistency is the first ground rule. Makes me upset when you're not being uniform. And I'm like, fuck you, Kurt. Now I feel seen and I don't want that. I don't want to feel connected to you at all.

SPEAKER_00 44:23

Look, everyone loves a little consistency. That's just a human thing.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

You know? Pleases my Capricorn soul. Like, yeah, Kurt, I get it. Not your like, you know, mass murder, but I get it, wanting consistency.

SPEAKER_00 44:34

I think the worst part for me was just the small details that take me out of it, the things that like stop my suspension of disbelief. I mean, the first thing I caught was what was Kurt using the drill for? Because I think all the cameras were suction cupped, weren't they? So, like, why did we need a drill to put them up? That was weird. Um, his father's interaction with DJ Uno just did not seem real. And I guess DJ Uno is like hopping into the car with Kurt to go get the food. That also kind of took me out for a second, but then I was like, well, she's probably bored and like doesn't know where to go, and Kurt's got a car. I don't know, but it just kind of like seemed a little bit off. But Jesse not noping out of the car the like during that first segment, that really took me out. I just feel like there was no way she would have gotten a back in. But I think after hearing Ryan, maybe I can let that one go.

SPEAKER_02 45:20

Well, the worst part for me was also uh can't happen in real life. And I hate when movies do this unless it's an action movie. Like I know realistically, in a fast and furious movie, they will get away from the cops. But Kurt getting away from the cops and the way he was driving, there was going to be an accident, and then he's like running over homeless people and stuff, and I was like, this is just a little too much. And he got away. I was just like, not my favorite part of this movie. I gotta agree with you.

SPEAKER_01 45:49

I'm not gonna lie, after our bodies, bodies, bodies episode, I thought you were gonna say something about obviously Chris wouldn't have been talking after he got shot. Also true.

SPEAKER_02 46:00

I'm still thinking about your sometimes people get shot and no one notices. And I'm thinking about it. Obviously, I'd watch Bodies, Bodies, Bodies again. But this movie, I don't know what circumstance I would actually need to watch this again, other than like suggesting it to someone. But I feel like there's better movies I would suggest. So it'd have to be like, what kind of mood are you in? Are you in a mood for like something comical off the wall? Also, are you so sad you won't get to see Stranger Things till 2024? Then here, watch this.

SPEAKER_04 46:31

I think this movie to me kind of sits in a realm of like that documentary, The Social Network, something like that, where it was like all about how social media impacts you. And I was like, well, duh. And like this movie's kind of the same thing, like, hey, this crazy kind of person exists because of the internet. And it's like, yeah, well, obviously, like we know this already. I don't see any reason I would re-watch this. And I don't think I would tell anybody to re-watch this because so here's the thing when you recommend a movie to somebody, you only get but like so many tries, right?

SPEAKER_02 47:01

Yeah, you get two wrong ones and no one's ever taking your suggestion, even if you're on a podcast. Agreed.

SPEAKER_04 47:06

And honestly, the first one is usually like a judgment because I remember I recommended his house to somebody and they came back and they're like, What else you got? I was like, That's it, that's the only good one.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

I thought you were gonna reference the time that you recommended 13 ghosts.

SPEAKER_04 47:20

Yeah, unfortunately, I never recommended that to people in life, just us uh in the end. That was uh that was my loss. But I'm not gonna tell somebody like, hey, you've probably never taken one of my movie recommendations, but take this. Like, no, please.

SPEAKER_00 47:34

See, I I gave it a slash, right? This this film, but I also don't think that I would enjoy a rewatch. I think it might be uh it might be a bit too much. I think this is the kind of thing you watch once, and you remember every single time you think about launching someone's stream or Instagram live feed or whatever they have going on. I think it's just I think it's gonna stay with you, and you might just have to like check yourself now and then. Or if you're the type of person that like goes live on these platforms, it might just make you check your ego a little bit and be like, Do I really care about the attention or am I just trying to share something cool? Uh, because it really makes you question like how much do I care about my own ego?

SPEAKER_04 48:12

See, the problem I have with this is I already every time I go to post something, go, what's the point of posting this? And the problem is there isn't one. And so I don't need this movie to tell me that. I already know that. And every day I'm like, I'll take a picture. And I'm like, nah, I'm not, I'm not gonna post that. There's no point.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

You know, Ryan, when you're talking about the documentary about social media, it made me think of that documentary, Don't Fuck with Cats. And that was a really intense watch. It's one that I could probably never watch again, but I would watch this again, no time soon. But I can think of a number of moments where I want to go back and really pause and read all the comments and all the things that were being said in the live streams themselves. But while I wait to do that, let's see what Mac has in store for us with fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_00 48:58

Number one, Jesse comments on Mario's excessive tanning leaking into his brain. In reality, John DeLuca actually got a spray tan for his role as Mario.

SPEAKER_04 49:06

I'm gonna say a fact. I'm going fiction.

SPEAKER_00 49:08

This one's a fact.

SPEAKER_04 49:09

I should have known better.

SPEAKER_00 49:11

Number two, lights out, Gorilla Radio, and Gorilla Filmmaking. No actual film cameras were used to shoot this movie.

SPEAKER_04 49:17

I'm gonna say fiction on that one. I feel like there's some point where it may have been. I'm gonna say fact, because cool.

SPEAKER_00 49:25

This one is a fiction. Two scenes were shot well with film cameras. And number three, to prepare for this film, the director and Joe Curie actually watched videos of people who didn't have large followings.

SPEAKER_04 49:36

I don't know how you would find those, but I want it to be a fact because that sounds like horrific and good work. Fact.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

This one is a fact, and of course they watched plenty of cringe compilations too. Uh the cast also dove into lots of hours of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. They're poor, brave souls.

SPEAKER_04 49:54

Oh, I'm currently doing the research for this movie unintentionally. Ever since I quit one of my jobs.

SPEAKER_00 50:00

Oh, and that's been fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_01 50:02

Well, there you have it, folks. Spree 2020, as nominated and chosen by our patrons, has earned three slashes in one hack. We've certainly had a robust discussion here, but it doesn't end here by any means. We want to know what you think. Let us know. You can join in on the conversation for free by hanging out with us in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 50:19

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons. Visit patreon.com slash hackerslash to enjoy more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

We'll see you next time, and remember, never miss an opportunity for branding.

SPEAKER_00 50:34

Bye.