Joe Keery played live-streaming mass murderer Kurt Kunkle inSpree,and theStrange Thingsstar was so convincing many believed the 2020 horror comedy must be based on real events. Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko and co-written by Gene McHugh,Spreeis a satire of the modern-day obsession with viral internet stardom and live-streaming. Keery plays an aspiring online celebrity, Kurt Kunkle. After months of uploads without ever seeing success, Kunkle decides to go on a killing spree to attract online attention.
Spreeis a mockumentary-stylefound footage horror movie, with much of the footage and kills taking place in Kurt Kunkle’s car. Kurt inSpreeis a rideshare driver for a service loosely based on Uber or Lyft - and he uses his car and job as the starting point for a night of murders, all of which he live-streams. Both the premise and Joe Keery’s performance as Kurt Kunkle were praised by critics and audiences alike, and Kunkle was so believable that many viewers want to know what the true story behindSpreeactually is.
Kurt Kunkle Isn’t A Real Person
The Killer In Spree Is Fictional
Joe Keery’s performance as Kurt Kunkle inSpreeis both captivating and unnerving. A key reason for this is that the unhinged killer in the dark 2020 horror comedy seems like the could be a real person. He’s made all the more believable as a character due to director Eugene Kotlyarenko’s skills with found-footage-style movies. However,there’s no real Kurt Kunkle fromSpree.
Due to the lengths some people go for viral internet fame, if Kurt Kunkle were a real person it wouldn’t be too surprising.
The fact that Kurt Kunkle seems like he could be real is due to the strength ofStranger Thingsstar Joe Keery, and theSpreescript co-written by Kotlyarenko and Gene McHugh. Keery channels the mannerisms and speech patterns of many video commentators on sites like YouTube incredibly well. This ensures that Kurt Kunkle inSpreegives viewers an almost uncanny valley-like sense of familiarity.While Kurt Kunkle isn’t a real person, the way he’s played by Joe Keery reminds audiences of any number of YouTubers.
The premise ofSpreealso doesn’t seem too implausible, despite how bombastic Kotlyarenko’s found-footage satire can be at points.There’s noSpreetrue story in the direct sense. However, due to the lengths some people go for viral internet fame, if Kurt Kunkle were a real person it wouldn’t be too surprising. Kunkle’s rampage and his motives for it aren’t so extreme that they’re clearly fictional - thankfully, as authentic as the movie seems, nothing that happened inSpreedirectly mirrors real life.
There’s No Specific Spree True Story
A Number Of Modern Cases Could Have Inspired Spree
There’s no single event that stands as theSpreetrue story. However, the central concept behind the found-footage movie is at least partly inspired by general trends in crime in the digital age. As harrowing as it is to contemplate, murders have been live-streamed before.Live-streamed crime is a relatively new 21st-century phenomenon, and many find it incredibly fascinating(which is partly whySpreedrew so much interest when it released).
Crimes have been live-streamed from as early is the mid-2000s.While most crimes uploaded to streaming services aren’t attempted murder or actual killing, actions similar to Kurt Kunkles have found their way to social media in real-time before.For example, in 2017 a man in California live-streamed himself shooting at police officers on Facebook (via13 Eyewitness News). There was also the incredibly senseless and tragic mass shooting at a Mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand (via the New York Times) in which 51 people lost their lives.
Spreeisn’t based on either of these events, but the live-streaming aspects of them definitely helped shape the story of the 2020 movie. When it comes to the incredibly close-up and brutal style of killing that Kurt Kunkle carries out, there thankfully haven’t been any instances of multiple homicides on a single stream like inSpree.Unfortunately, there have still been dozens of individual instances of murder that were streamed live on websites like YouTube and Facebook, though none were directly adapted or specifically inspired the kills inSpree.
Spree Is Partly Inspired By A Real Case (But Loosely)
The Director Of Spree Has Hinted At The Inspiration For The Movie
While there’s no specific true story behindSpree,there was a real crime that stood out to director Eugene Kotlyarenko and screenplay co-writer Gene McHugh when it came to their inspirations for the story. However,Kotlyarenko hasn’t revealed which criminal caseSpreecould be based on.Speaking toColliderin 2020, Koyltyaenko was asked about theSpreetrue story. On the impact of actual events on the creative process, he simply explained there was a crime that helped create the idea forSpree,and that he and McHugh thought they should“take this horrible thing that happened and use it.”
Many have speculated exactly which real-life true crime could have inspiredSpreebased on Kotlyarenko’s comments. While it’s not been confirmed, many have pointed out the similarities between Kurt Kunkle and real-life spree killer Jon Dalton. In 2016, Uber driver Dalton killed six people in Kalamazoo. However, the connections are tenuous, especially since Dalton didn’t live-stream his crimes.
Still, while it may not ever be known what theSpreetrue story could be (or, at least, the real crime that most directly inspired it, Kotlyarenko has also explained that he and McHugh also deeply researched spree killers and found that the need for attention motivated many of them. Speaking toBorrowing Tapein 2020, the director ofSpreeexplained exactly how the character of Kurt Kunkle was conceived:
“Gene came to me with the idea of a claustrophobic, minimalist horror film based on a rideshare driver killing his passengers, which I agreed was truly terrifying. Then we spent a bit figuring out what motivated [Kurt] besides psychosis. And so when we realized almost all of these spree murderers, regardless of ideology, are driven by attention and the desire to be the center of a narrative – it became a glimpse into everyone’s psyche when they’re on social media. So that second piece of the narrative puzzle came from the psychological similarity of the wannabe influencer (which is a cringe version of an average user) and the mass murderer.”
In the same interview, Eugene Kotlyenko was also clear that YouTubers and online celebrities were more closely studied for Kurt Kunkle’s personality than real-life spreekillers.“As we wrote it I was just pulling from my knowledge of these online personalities and spaces,” he explained, then added:
“As Joe [Keery] came on board and we got more into building the “Kurt Kunkle” character we looked at a bunch of videos from the most popular well-known influencers, to people who only had single-digit views to attempt to figure out which scripts they were emulating and how exactly they communicated to the camera, and their imagined audience.”
What Joe Keery Said About Playing Kurt Kunkle In Spree
The Stranger Things Star Did A Lot Of Research For Spree
Eugene Kotlyenko and Gene McHugh’s script are only partly responsible for many viewers thinking Kurt Kunkle fromSpreeis a real person.The rest of the credit goesto actor Joe Keery. Joe Keery made Kurt Kunkle a believable presence, and completely believable as a real-life YouTuber or social media personality. Keery was able to deliver such a solid performance as Kurt Kunkle due to his deep research and approach to the role beforeSpreebegan filming.
When speaking toThe Hollywood Reporterthe year thatSpreereleased, Keery was candid about the specific kind of YouTubers and streaming personalities he watched when researching for Kurt Kunkle:
“What was really most important to me and most helpful was watching the people who really don’t have any sort of viewership at all. People who are in the single digits. A lot of those people share many qualities with Kurt because they’re trying to gain some traction. They’re trying to harvest, if you will, followers. So, it was all part of the job, watching all of these videos. It’s pretty interesting.”
Keery also explained what he wanted to tap into with Kurt Kunkle inSpree,and the deeper motivations and philosophy the actor felt the character had:
“Something we kind of tapped into is this “sharing is inherently good” culture that’s going on right now. Although he is helping himself, maybe Kurt really believes that he’s helping other people.”
Keery’s comments reveal just why it seems like Kurt Kunkle could be a real person.Joe Keery has thought about the characters and understands the complex nature of Kunkles worldview, ambitions, and - most importantly - why he’d make the decision to commit mass-murder.What’s more, his research into aspiring online personalities clearly paid off, as it madeSpreeseem incredibly authentic.
Spree
Cast
Spree follows the story of Kurt Kunkle, a ride-share driver obsessed with gaining social media fame. Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko and starring Joe Keery, the thriller presents a dark take on the pursuit of online validation and the lengths one might go for digital recognition.
