The one piece of trivia on this movie is that the cast and crew was in high school so they had to film on the weekends. Now, for high schoolers, I suppose it's not bad. But for everyone else, it's painful to get through. The one good thing is that at least it's only just over an hour long-although it feels SO much longer. So very, very much longer.
At the time I saw it, 101 people had rated it at 5.3. One person who gave it a 10 had obviously skewed the system. Only one person had taken the time to actually write a review, so I felt it needed more. The one critic review was spot on and it seems we all pretty much agree. The first issue is that a movie about a serial killer on a year long murder spree should probably actually show a bunch of murders. The stark black and white cinematography doesn't make it look dramatic, it just makes it look as dull and bleak as the rest of the movie. The killer is 19 years old with the personality of a piece of chalk who leaves his handprints and clues everywhere he goes. The placid musical score is inappropriate and unsuspenseful. In one absurd scene, the killer breaks into a nice house where they've conveniently left a ladder outside an unlocked extremely low second floor window, where he wanders the house and finds a safe. He then conveniently finds the keys to the safe while lovingly caressing it with his bare hands. He later disposes of the owner's credit cards by cutting them in half and burying them in the sand. That'll take care of it.
Along the way he makes friends with a drifter who isn't aware of his new pal's secret identity. I'm really not sure why this extra character was included, as he doesn't add anything to the narrative.
And frankly I lost track of how many times we have to watch the guy shave.
The murders are accomplished are so quick and matter of fact with no sense of danger, fear or suspense that they're really easy to miss. There's no mass spilling of blood or gore. No explanation of why he is doing this. It is a dull, boring movie about a SERIAL KILLING SPREE, for gosh sakes!
It was so hard to make it all the way through to the end, and then when it did, it was just...what?! That's IT?? Made no sense. Just...nothing. No explanations or insight, just like they threw up their hands and realized they were out of ideas so let's just stop. Lazy lazy lazy.
Honestly I just can't find any socially redeeming value in "Spree." Whoever gave it a 10? I'm sure they weren't in ANY way associated with the movie.
