Jennifer Reeder’s ‘Perpetrator’ Opens at the Music Box August 25

The theatrical premiere is here for Chicago filmmaker Jennifer Reeder’s latest feature. Perpetrator had its World Premiere at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival before traversing to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival this Summer. Now, the Chicago-made feature will open exclusively at the historic Music Box Theatre on August 25th.

In Perpetrator, 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.

Here is your first look at Perpetrator…

Reviews have been stellar across the board following the film’s Berlinale premiere. Here are a few highlights…

“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

“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

Get to Know Jennifer Reeder

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.

Here is a look at the superb cast and crew for Perpetrator…

Director and Screenwriter: Jennifer Reeder

Starring: Kiah McKirnan, Alicia Silverstone, Christopher Lowell, Melanie Liburd, Casimere Jollette, Ireon Roach, Sasha Kuznetsov, Greta Stolte

Producers: Derek Bishé, Gregory Chambet

Cinematographer: Sevdije Kastrati

Editor: Justin Krohn

Composer: Nick Zinner

Casting Directors: Alexis Jade Links | Mickie Paskal | Jennifer Rudnicke

Production Designer: Adri Siriwatt

Click here for tickets and times at the Music Box.

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