Review: Run

Director: Aneesh Chaganty

Screenplay: Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian

Year: 2020

Hulu has been producing good horror and thriller movies throughout the year, with “Books of Blood” and “Nocturne” as the most recent additions that support this argument. This time they incorporate “Run”, which pretends to keep up with the good streak, and that has been aggressively promoted as the next great horror movie. Can “Run” keep its promise?

After a complicated labor, Diane fulfills her dream of being a mother. Her daughter Chloe is already a teenager who’s getting ready to leave her house to study at a university. However, the difficult pregnancy left its marks on Chloe, who suffers from several diseases, like asthma, diabetes, and paralysis, which come as difficulties to carry an independent life.

Her diseases have not stopped Chloe forge the goal of going on her own to a college to study. While she waits for the answers of the different universities she applied to, her mother’s strange behavior starts raising concerns that something is not right and that she might be obstructing her exit from the house. The more she investigates, the more evidence she finds that her mother keeps a dark secret.

The plot developed by the director Aneesh Chaganty and that he co-writes with Sev Ohanian ("Searching") is not one that we haven’t seen before. Besides its lack of originality, the plot has so many holes and questions that it makes everything feel unrealistic. There are simply too many things that would be impossible to do without triggering a police investigation that would lead to a prompt outcome. However, these problems are made up for with a high dose of tension and excellent work behind cameras to achieve it.

The acting is where “Run” exceeds expectations. We already know the work of Sarah Paulson ("American Horror Story"), and she gives a performance in line with what is expected from her, but it is the debuting Kiera Allen who surprises with her acting skills. The dynamic between both is excellently crafted and makes every scene feel captivating, getting us interested in the characters and their outcomes from the start.

The story in “Run” lacks originality and has many plot holes and questions that rob it of any realism. The movie can outweigh a good deal of its problems with superb acting, great camerawork, and lots of tension, and it manages to be entertaining and captivate the viewer’s attention, mainly through its cast. Besides its problems and predictability, “Run” is a good movie for those who like thrillers and that can ignore its issues and enjoy it for what it is.