While there are some creative elements to the script, there are more problems than achievements holding Perpetrator back from being the kind of film that could take this industry by storm.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 26, 2024

Although not as formally adventurous as Knives and Skin, with Perpetrator, just like that film Reeder’s singular voice comes through.

| Feb 13, 2024

Never runs out of energy.

| Original Score: B- | Jan 13, 2024

In addition to its bloodbaths and body horror, Perpetrator is a sharp critique of female-targeted violence and an ode to kinship

| Original Score: 8.1 | Oct 29, 2023

Fans of Reeder’s work will know her schlock-adjacent aesthetic by now, and they won’t feel short-changed by this, but it would be nice to see her move outside that comfort zone sometime and deliver something a little more ambitious but just as raucous.

| Oct 4, 2023

The results add a dash of body horror to the shopworn coming-of-age genre.

| Oct 2, 2023

What it lacks is an assurance and mastery of craft that’s needed to bring all these elements together in a seamless and effective manner. But there’s enough that’s of interest here to make it worth checking out if you have Shudder.

| Sep 15, 2023

Reeder’s extreme indifference towards the basics—sculpting narrative, dialogue, performances, etc.—comes off not so much as a quirky, “surreal” aesthetic as borderline sheer ineptitude, reducing the occasional vivid image to fussy eye candy.

| Sep 14, 2023

Jonny’s refusal to become anyone’s victim makes the themes brought up in this genre-defiant film a cut above the rest.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 7, 2023

Girl power isn’t just a slogan in Perpetrator, it is a ferocious energy that can obliterate those who sought to feed off the fear and perceived vulnerability of young women.

| Original Score: A | Sep 6, 2023

This is the kind of movie where, at any moment, the editor might throw in an insert shot of an oozing orifice, keeping viewers on their toes.

| Sep 5, 2023

Perpetrator feels like solid resonant folklore, populated with idiosyncratic characters, high stakes – and whole realms of blood.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 5, 2023

It all tips a bit over the top, but is such an original that it's likely to develop a cult following.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 5, 2023

We can’t all be nice girls and, as Jennifer Reeder’s latest feminist-horror Perpetrator asserts, we may not want to be either.

| Sep 4, 2023

Although the story barely holds together and the world building leaves a lot to be desired, it’s hard to ignore Jennifer Reeder’s talent in terms of craftsmanship.

| Original Score: B- | Sep 4, 2023

Reeder’s blood-splattered movie raises multiple issues around women’s struggle against male oppression within the context of a giallo-type horror film, but fails to articulate them intelligibly or meld them into a coherent whole.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 2, 2023

It starts off slow, but eventually this grisly thriller offers some pretty strong horror elements.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 1, 2023

An artfully shaped and darkly deadpan experiment. It's like imagining a Salvador Dalí painting filtered through 'The Addams Family,' 'The Craft' and 'The Breakfast Club.'

| Sep 1, 2023

Although full of ideas, “Perpetrator” has little sense of how to make them cohere together.

| Sep 1, 2023

It’s not always clear what the movie is trying to say, but even its misfires are more interesting than most because of what Reeder and her stars bring to their characters.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Sep 1, 2023