An enjoyably scary thriller with two strong lead performances...
As she gets ready for college, Chloe (Kiera Allen) begins to suspect that her mother, Diane (Sarah Paulson) is hiding a dark secret from her and is taking increasingly desperate steps to hide it from her.
Although it riffs on Stephen King's 'Misery' a great deal, 'Run' has enough genre thrills and chills going for it to make itself more than just a simple cover version. Indeed, the lead character Kiera Allen is a lot more resourceful and smarter than James Caan's drug-addicted author. Where 'Misery' dealt with the idea of addiction as a cage, 'Run' is much more concerned with the idea of interdependence and toxic love. Indeed, the story has a disturbing basis in reality. Just look up the baffling real-life story of Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard after you've watched this and you'll note some disturbing similarities.
In her movie debut, Kiera Allen gives a visceral performance and while she may be the victim, she still has a strength and a resilience that makes her arresting. Sarah Paulson has enough range in her arsenal to shift from loving mother to terrifying creature in the blink of an eye, and 'Run' gives her every available opportunity to showcase that range. Yet, in comparison to Kathy Bates' performance in 'Misery' as Annie Wilkes, Sarah Paulson skilfully underplays it in a way that makes it all the more convincing and unsettling. Until she doesn't, and then the whole thing goes off the deep end.
It's a strange choice by director and co-writer Aneesh Chaganty, who also did the excellent 'Searching' back in 2018, to go exactly in the place where you expect it to go with the story. The twists and turns come at a clip, but at 90 minutes, it blasts through them so quickly that none of them have a chance to settle. Still and all, 'Run' is an enjoyably scary thriller with two strong lead performances.
'Run' is available to stream on Netflix now.
