Run (2020 American Film)

''Run'' is a 2020 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Aneesh Chaganty and written by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian. The film stars Kiera Allen as Chloe Sherman, a disabled homeschooled teenager who begins to suspect that her mother Diane (Sarah Paulson) is keeping a dark secret about her upbringing.

The film was announced in June 2018, with Paulson being cast that October and Allen that December. Principal photography also occurred in that time frame, with filming primarily taking place on location in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

''Run'' was released on November 20, 2020, by Hulu, theatrically in other territories by Lionsgate, and was released internationally on April 2, 2021, by Netflix. The film received generally positive reviews. It became Hulu's most successful original film upon its release.

Plot

A woman named Diane Sherman gives birth prematurely to a daughter, whom she later sees lying in an incubator surrounded by hospital staff. The screen reads the definitions of arrhythmia, hemochromatosis, asthma, diabetes, and paralysis. Seventeen years later in Pasco, Washington, Diane lives a quiet life with her now-teenaged daughter, Chloe. Due to the circumstances of her birth, Chloe uses a wheelchair and a stairlift, regularly takes various medications, is homeschooled by her mother, and carries an inhaler for her asthma. She is currently waiting for university acceptance letters, but Diane always collects the mail and tells Chloe no letters have arrived yet.

One morning, Chloe is looking for a tin of chocolates in a bag of groceries and finds a bottle of green pills with Diane's name on the label. When questioned, Diane claims that this was merely the receipt wrapped around the container. However, when Chloe later inspects the bottle, she finds that a label bearing her name has been pasted over the original, which has been partially scraped off but is still legible enough to show Diane as the patient. Chloe tries to look up the name of the drug, Trigoxin, but discovers that the house has no Internet connection. At the end of the scene, a view of the kitchen table through a doorway comes into focus, and Diane is shown sitting at the table next to an unplugged router. The next day, Chloe dials a stranger from her mother's bedroom, which has the only working phone, and asks him to look up the drug. The man tells her it is a heart medication and that all pictures of the medication show a small red pill.

Later, Chloe asks her mother to take her to the movies. During the film, while pretending to go to the bathroom, she rushes to the pharmacy across the street. The pharmacist refuses to tell her what the medication is at first, but Chloe eventually tricks her into revealing that it is a relaxant called Ridocaine, which is only approved for dogs. When Chloe asks what would happen if a human took the medication, the pharmacist informs her that it could numb one's legs. Upon realizing her mother may be administering medication to her to impair her ability to walk, Chloe begins to hyperventilate when Diane suddenly runs in. She discreetly sedates her daughter and takes her home.

Chloe wakes up in bed and finds her door locked and chained while Diane is out running an errand. Realizing that she has the house to herself, Chloe breaks out of her room by dragging herself onto the roof, eventually making her way to her mother's bedroom and breaking the window with a soldering iron and some water. She begins to have an asthma attack and only barely manages to crawl to her room and retrieve her inhaler. She tries to use her automated wheelchair ramp to go downstairs, but finds that Diane has cut the power cord. Chloe is forced to throw her wheelchair down the stairs and accidentally falls, sustaining minor injuries but also discovering that she can move one of her toes due to having not taken the Ridocaine in a few days.

On the road, she sees the mail truck and rushes to stop it. She explains her situation to Tom, the postal worker, who agrees to help. However, Diane then drives past, spotting Chloe's wheelchair and stopping. Tom tells Diane he can't let her take Chloe, and Chloe tells him she wants to go to the police. However, while he is closing up the van to take Chloe to the police station, Diane stabs him with a sedative syringe. Chloe blacks out, and when she awakes, she is in the basement of her house, with her wheelchair chained to a steel pole. In this same scene, there is a shot of a body that is clearly Tom's being pulled into a corner, leaving a trail of blood behind.

In the basement, Chloe discovers all of her college acceptance letters, childhood photos, a death certificate for a girl named Chloe who died two hours after her birth, and an article about a couple who had their baby stolen from the same hospital. She finds a picture of herself as a toddler, walking. When Diane enters, Chloe accuses her of deliberately making her sick and demands the truth. Diane insists everything she ever did was to help and protect Chloe and when Chloe accuses Diane of poisoning her, Diane exclaims that she saved her, while filling a syringe with paint thinner, saying it will make her forget. Chloe crawls away and locks herself in a closet. Afraid, but realizing that Diane won't let her die, Chloe swallows the contents of a bottle of organophosphate, forcing Diane to rush her to a hospital.

Chloe wakes up in a hospital bed, intubated and barely able to move. Diane insists that her “daughter” be discharged, but the doctors refuse until Chloe has been evaluated by a mental health professional. Chloe signals to a nurse, who brings her a crayon and paper. While Chloe is attempting to write "MOM" on the paper, a code blue is called and the nurse rushes out. Diane sneaks in and ties Chloe to a wheelchair to escape; the nurse finds the bed empty and alerts hospital security. A panicking Diane pulls out a gun and tries to find an exit, but Chloe is able to move her foot and hold the chair in place so Diane can't move her. Diane begs her “daughter” to come home with her, but Chloe defiantly replies that she doesn't need her any longer. Diane is shot in the arm by security guards, causing her to fall down the stairs.

Seven years later, an adult Chloe goes to a correctional facility; although she still relies on her wheelchair, she is now able to walk short distances with the use of a cane. She visits someone in the infirmary ward, and begins talking about her wonderful husband, children, and job. The screen pans to Diane, now sick and confined to a bed due to her injuries. Chloe takes out three plastic-wrapped Ridocaine pills she hid under her tongue, and tells Diane that she still loves her before asking her to open her mouth wide.

Cast

* Sarah Paulson as Diane Sherman
* Kiera Allen as Chloe Sherman
* Pat Healy as Mailman Tom
* Sara Sohn as Nurse Kammy
* Sharon Bajer as Kathy Bates, an homage to the actress of the same name.
* Tony Revolori as Brooklyn Boy (voice)

Production

In June 2018, it was announced Lionsgate would produce, distribute, and finance the film, with Aneesh Chaganty directing, from a screenplay he wrote alongside Sev Ohanian. Ohanian and Natalie Qasabian produced the film. In October 2018, Sarah Paulson joined the cast of the film, and in December 2018, Kiera Allen was set to star as well.

Principal photography in Winnipeg, Canada began on October 31, 2018, and wrapped on December 18, 2018.

Torin Borrowdale composed the film's score, as he previously collaborated with Chaganty in ''Searching''. According to Borrowdale, the goal for the film's musical direction was to achieve "the essence of Bernard Herrmann, but for a 2020 cinematic experience."

Release

''Run'' was scheduled to be theatrically released on May 8, 2020, coinciding with Mother's Day weekend. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was pulled, and Lionsgate intended to announce a new release date "once there is more clarity on when movie theaters" will reopen. It had previously been scheduled to be released on January 24, 2020. In August 2020, Hulu acquired American distribution rights to the film, and released it on their service on November 20, 2020. Netflix picked up international rights to ''Run'' and began streaming it outside the United States on April 2, 2021.

Reception

Audience viewership

Following its debut weekend, Hulu reported that ''Run'' was the most-watched original film in the platform's history, as well as the most talked about on Twitter.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads, "Solid acting and expertly ratcheted tension help ''Run'' transcend its familiar trappings to deliver a delightfully suspenseful thriller." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100, based on 20 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

Jessica Gomez of ''AllHorror.com'' wrote, "If you're like me and you were captivated by the story of Gypsy Rose and her mother Dee Dee Blanchard, then I've got a psychological thriller with your name on it." Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire gave the film a "C+" and said, "There's enough go-for-broke and whiplash-inducing shifts in tone on display to suggest this filmmaking duo has a future, even when their characters don't seem to have a past."

Rahul Desai of ''Film Companion'' wrote, "The film doubles up as an allegory and indictment of modern parenting – the control disguised as caregiving, the lack of identity, the incessant smothering, the manipulation, and the blurred line between selflessness and selfishness"

Follow-up

In November 2022, Sev Ohanian announced that the 2023 film ''Missing'', a standalone sequel to ''Searching'', would also be set after ''Run'', serving as an epilogue to the events of that film as well as a continuation of ''Searching''.

See also

* Munchausen syndrome by proxy
* Gypsy Rose case

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 8633478

2020 films
2020 psychological thriller films
2020s teen films
American psychological horror films
American horror thriller films
American psychological thriller films
American teen films
Films about child abduction in the United States
Films about dysfunctional families
Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Films set in Seattle
Films shot in Winnipeg
Hulu original films
Lionsgate films
Films about mother–daughter relationships
Teen thriller films
2020s English-language films
2020s American films