PERPETRATOR
Written and Directed by Jennifer Reeder
Starring Kiah McKirnan, Christopher Lowell, Melanie Liburd, Ireon Roach
and Alicia Silverstone
“An energetic piece of conceptual feminist pop art. A generously over-seasoned witches’ brew, Perpetrator features a wild array of ingredients. At once slap-happy and deliriously free-associative.”
– Jonathan Romney, Screen Daily“A Trip Dripping In Blood & Atmosphere. Takes influence from giallo films and teenage classics like Heathers to craft a world that blends the kitsch and the uncanny.”
– Anna Bogutskaya, The Playlist“Transgressive and true to itself. Somewhere between camp and Cronenberg lies Perpetrator.”
– Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter“An ambitious addition to the feminist horror genre with blood and guts to spare. Silverstone is a steely delight.”
– Jude Dry, IndieWire“Reeder has devised a nifty, sometimes gnarly little horror-thriller with Perpetrator. You walk out feeling you’ve had a big, bracing gulp of someone’s home-brewed artistic vision, prowess, singularity.”
– David Katz, The Film Stage
Streaming on Shudder Starting September 1st
Synopsis Jonny Baptiste (Kiah McKirnan) is a reckless teen sent to live with her estranged Aunt Hildie (Alicia Silverstone). On her 18th birthday, she experiences a radical metamorphosis: a family spell that redefines her called Forevering. When several teen girls go missing at her new school, a mythically feral Jonny goes after the Perpetrator.
About the Director
Jennifer Reeder constructs personal fiction films about relationships, trauma and coping. Her award-winning narratives are innovative and borrow from a range of forms including after school specials, amateur music videos and magical realism. These films have shown consistently around the world, including the Sundance Film Festival, The Berlin Film Festival, The Tribeca Film Festival, The Rotterdam Film Festival, The London Film Festival, SXSW, The Venice Biennale and The Whitney Biennial. Her awards include several that have qualified her films for Oscar nomination.
She won a Creative Capital Grant in Moving Image in 2015, short film funding from Rooftop/Adrienne Shelly Foundation in 2016 and short film funding from the Hamburg Film Fund in 2016. She was a USA Artist nominee for 2008, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2020. She was a Herb Alpert Film Award nominee in 2018. She won a 2018/19 scriptwriting award from SFFIM/Rainin Foundation. She is the 2019 recipient of the Alpert Film Award residency at the MacDowell Colony. Her most recent film, KNIVES AND SKIN was theatrically released in France in November 2019 through UFO and in the US in December 2019 through IFC Midnight.
