Chloe (Kiera Allen) is a super smart teenager who’s hounding the mail carrier every day for some news of her college acceptances. With many medical challenges including diabetes, a heart condition, and paraplegia, Chloe’s been home schooled all her life by devoted mother Diane (Sarah Paulson), but that’s left her incredibly sheltered, with no friends and no other family, she has very little contact with the outside world.
Which makes it extra difficult when she begins to suspect that her mother might be dosing her with medication she doesn’t need…or medication that’s deliberately making her sick. The more Chloe tries to get to the truth, the more her mother tightens the vise. It’s not until Chloe is trying to escape that she realizes her mother has carefully constructed a prison.
Run is an incredibly effective thriller. Diane is inarguably deranged and psychotic but Sarah Paulson underplays her to such perfection that we never truly know what to expect from her, and the ambiguity makes her feel even more threatening because of it. Allen, a newcomer to the big screen, is surprisingly strong playing her opposite. Director Aneesh Chaganty runs a tight ship; Run’s pacing leaves you breathless, it keeps ramping up the stakes and then exceeding your expectations. Chloe is obviously a vulnerable young woman but Allen plays her with such grit and strength she’s got more staying power than you can possibly imagine.
If the film has a flaw it’s that it suffers from the heavy presence of the Munchausen by Proxy subgenre recently. But while the plot may be a little familiar, the suspense is taut and nerve-jangling, to say nothing of the worst terror of all, the one that speaks to our most base fear: that a mother could turn on her child, and hurt her.
Run is available to stream via Hulu on November 20th.
Big ups to Aneesh Chaganty who prioritized casting a disabled actor and found a very strong one in Kiera Allen. Even bigger props for writing a character, not a disability.
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
I would watch this one for Sarah Paulson alone: such an amazing actress. But I have to admit the entire film sounds amazing. Too bad I don’t have access to Hulu here. Hope it will eventually make it’s way to either Netflix or Amazon. Great post! 😊
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Yes I’ll keep my fingers crosses for Netflix/Amazon showing it.
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I love thrillers, but I don’t have Hulu.
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She’s looking to the mail for her college acceptance? Nowadays, those come via email. I’ve been in the room with anxious high school seniors on the day that the acceptances come out. It’s a sight. (Well, not this year, naturally, but in the past.)
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You’re right of course.
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Oh this should be really good then, Searching was a really impressive debut feature. Hugely looking forward to this!
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I want to see this, but Hulu seems like a strange place for it being as they just came off The Act.
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Yes I know!
Thankfully Sarah Paulson would convince me to watch anything.
And the movies (well, The Act was a series) are so different tonally that it doesn’t feel like there’s too much overlap.
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That’s a scary thing. I used to have a dream about my mother rushing into my room in the dead of night with an axe in her hand. The movie feels like that feeling, only slower.
I suppose I could get drunk first….
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Sounds intense!
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