Who releases a horror film in November? Run, which had its world premiere at the Nightstream film festival, is missing the Halloween release window on Hulu. That might sound like a missed opportunity, but maybe there's some sense in this release plan. Aneesh Chaganty's sophomore feature (his follow-up to the internet thriller Searching) is maybe too scary for Halloween, or rather, its scares are of the all too realistic variety. The bigger missed opportunity is that it couldn't make its originally planned theatrical release for Mothers Day.
Run is a movie you don't want to know too much about before watching it. The plot is simple and it's easy to predict the direction it's heading in, but it still manages to shock in terms of just how far it ends up going in such directions. It's basically a two-woman show: Kiera Allen as Chloe Sherman, a girl with multiple disabilities waiting on her college acceptance letters, and Sarah Paulson as her overprotective mom Diane. It's obvious from the get-go that the mom is the villain, but how is best experienced on your own.
The material alone is intense enough that any competently-made movie treatment would be disturbing, but Chaganty goes beyond mere competence and expertly twists every screw of suspense. These are some of the 90 tensest minutes you'll stream this year. The screenplay, co-written by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian, paces out the small victories well enough to offer brief moments of relief only for a new situation to ratchet up the sense of helplessness and isolation even further. It never truly lets up until its poetically twisted ending. Anyone who instinctively dismisses PG-13 horror as not scary enough will be proven dead wrong by Run, which frightens with hardly a drop of blood to be seen.
Both lead actresses are great, with the young Kiera Allen holding her own as the empathetic protagonist against Sarah Paulson's increasingly psychotic villain. The balance of both characters' perspectives helps in creating some effective misleads in terms of the mystery. It's definitely a good thing they cast an actual wheelchair user as Chloe, though whether or not the film itself could really be considered good disability representation is something other better-qualified critics will definitely be debating. What's not up for debate is that this is one memorable thriller (even if it's saddled with an unfortunately unmemorable title shared by at least 11 other films and 4 TV series).
Run will be released on Hulu November 20.