With an output of three feature films in just four years and several short films in-between, a purveyor in Feminist horror cinema genre, American independent filmmaker Jennifer Reeder tackles womanhood, sisterhood and family in Perpetrator. Delving into our fixation of young bodies and how society is quick to exploit, dismantle and to an extreme destroy them, we have shapeshifter underworlds, siphoning of fluids, and the blood motif here is strong. A film about taking back the power and one’s agency, this is an ode to retro and recent classics such as De Palma’s Carrie to Ducournau’s Raw. Released in the Panorama section at the Berlinale with fest stops at Tribeca, Karlovy Vary and a Shudder release on September 1st, the film is still traveling the fest circuit.
Was fun to catch up again with Jennifer (who I had first met for when she was in post-production for her 2019 film, Knives and Skin). Some of the items we discussed include the challenges of working on a micro-budget film during the pandemic, the protagonist of the film (in Jonny played by Kiah McKirnan) and how she diverges from victimhood and how the character exists within parameters of the horror cinema genre and her enlisting the services of Alicia Silverstone.
