PERPETRATOR – Review

Yes, it’s getting darker a bit earlier and the temps are finally (whew) easing up and cooling off. So many folks are thinking of Fall, and aside from sweaters and pumpkin spice everything, Halloween is on their minds (and in the aisles of several retail chains). And we’re ready for some good scary flicks, and not family-friendly fare like the failed reboot of HAUNTED MANSION. Now we’ve already hit the high seas with Dracula, maybe we could get a modern twist on the classic monster folklore. Is the setting for this flick another rotting ship or a decaying estate or castle? Nope, it’s a locale even more frightening, high school (Carrie White and Buffy Summers would heartily agree). And the villain? For this gory lil’ indie, it’s not clear exactly who or what is the actual PERPETRATOR.

Could it be nearly eighteen-year-old Jonny (Kiah McKirnan)? After all, she’s committing a bit of B&E (breaking and entering) when we first meet her on the dark, cold streets of Chicago. After a trek to the van of her “fence” to sell the “merch” and build up the bucks for a getaway, she’s back in the squalid basement apartment (perhaps they’re “squatters) she shares with her nervous dad. He’s noticed that her weird nosebleeds have become more frequent. And due to his own “plasma issues”, he decides that she needs to travel across town to live with his sister, her aunt Hildie (Alicia Silverstone). Jonny feels an unsettling “vibe” from her as she enters the dark, gothic brownstone. But there’s little time for a reunion as Jonny must get her attire ready as she enrolls in a fancy nearby prep school. Of course, that place is another level of creepy. The manic Principal Burke (Christoper Lowell) delights in staging “massacre drills”. The school nurse’s face is nearly covered with various bandages. And it seems that there’s a new missing female student every other day, as the bulletin board is filled with “Have You Seen…” flyers. This leads to more strange dreams for Jonny complete with eerie blood imagery. Over the next few days, she befriends several of the other young woman and eventually they zero in on a possible suspect in the disappearances. Jonny offers herself as “bait”, but will her bizarre blood behaviors and quirks lead to a capture or another flyer with her face?

Though the role referred to in the title is unclear, the story is carried by the compelling Ms. McKirnan. She’s up for the demands of Jonny, whether being tough (standing up to loads of jerks) or vulnerable, as she begins to open up with a classmate. Through the sneer and eyeliner, McKirnan lets us see the confusion in Jonny’s eyes as she tries to deal with the changes in her mind and body (this is puberty from Hell). She makes us eager to join her on Jonny’s journey. A bonus is her unique “hair accents” since her ‘do changes radically with each new scene. Oh, and her work with Silverstone really “crackles”. The iconic CLUELESS star delivers a quirky, mannered performance as the haughty, aristocratic Hildie (channeling a bit of Dame Judith Anderson from REBECCA or Gale Sondergard is loads of “B” flicks). On the opposite end of the intensity spectrum, there’s Lowell who takes the energy level past 11 as the nutty, frantic overlord of the school (he’s so happy during the “drills”). Kudos also to Melanie Libard as a mystery woman from Jonny’s past.

Certainly, there’s a lot going on in writer/director Jennifer Reeder’s newest fear flick (she’s bounced between indie shockers and shorts). The story moves along well despite several absurd plot conventions (a “grab” in front of the house). Many ideas are in play, but feel like scenes from several different stories, very different in tone. Is it a “coming of age” horror allegory (much like the recent BONES AND ALL)? Is it a variation of the “teen girls in peril” ala SPLIT? Or perhaps a riff on the 80s teen comedies with the cool but not that popular kids versus the uptight adults in charge. Thrown in is also a same-sex romance that feels hastily tossed in and forgotten. We even get a spin on inherited “mutations” though it may also be mystical powers (her blood is very…busy). The mystery elements aren’t too difficult to solve despite the full-head rubber mask and muffled speech of the “grabber”. And the humor falls fairly flat (really, a whole auditorium chanting the same obscenity). The Windy City locales add to the smothering gloom, much like Hildie’s “crib” and the school. We get an attempt to “tie up” and explain things in the last moments, but the denouncement feels hurried. The attempt to create a new “spin” on horror mythology is admirable, but the finished film is much less than the sum of its scenes and visuals for this PERPETRATOR.

2 Out of 4

PERPETRATOR opens in select theatres and screens exclusively on Shudder beginning on Friday, September 1, 2023