Perpetrator
directed by Jennifer Reeder
starring Alicia Silverstone, Kiah McKirnan
Arrow Video
Although teen witches have long been a staple in pop culture, rarely have they been presented with the blood-soaked gusto of Jennifer Reeder’s Perpetrator. Taking familiar tropes and gleefully soaking them in figurative and literal blood, the film achieves a dizzy surrealism and joy of the grotesque. Blending elements of witchcraft, body horror, social satire, and superhero origin stories, Perpetrator is a gory delight.
Just shy of her 18th birthday, Jonny’s father sends her off to live with her Aunt Hildie. The change of scenery doesn’t deter Jonny, who continues in her rebellious ways manifesting in petty larceny and hustling, but moving uptown is weirder than her rough life in the ‘hood. Her school, where far too many girls have gone missing, is run by a deranged principal, her uniform doesn’t fit, and Jonny’s kleptomaniac ways are less appreciated by Hildie than Jonny’s shady dad. On her 18th birthday, Jonny eats a slice of Aunt Hildie’s dubious cake, an old family recipe that triggers the family quirk/curse: the power to physically and psychically change into other people. During a bloody barfing in the bathroom, Jonny’s transformation begins. Her power is fleeting and uncontrolled at first, but she soon is able to wield the new ability to find and rescue the missing girls being harvested in a body-part chop-shop operation.
Blood is omnipresent in Perpetrator. Nose bleeds, menstrual blood, blood-filled cakes, you name it, if there’s blood in it, it’s there somewhere. The symbolism isn’t subtle, but there is a glee in the obviousness that makes it endearing. Same with the satiric humor of the school’s farcical active-shooter drills and self-defense classes, where the girls are instructed not to try to run or fight back because it will only make things worse for themselves. Director and writer Jennifer Reeder knows what she’s doing and manages to balance the camp with strong enough characters that you actually care about what happens to them. Kiah McKirnan is solid as Jonny, and Alicia Silverstone is given the green light to chew the scenery and really put the film over the top.
Perpetrator started life as a film for the Shudder streaming service. With this Blu-ray from Arrow Video, the film gets the respect of a loaded physical media release. Perpetrator comes with an audio commentary by writer-director Jennifer Reeder and director of photography Sevdije Kastrati and a video essay by Jen Handorf, along with music videos (Aitis and Joan of Arc) and three short films directed by Jennifer Reeder.
