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You’ll be able to figure out where “Run” is headed pretty quickly, but that doesn’t detract from the precise thrills and campy fun along the way.

This is the follow-up from the guys who made 2018’s “ Searching ,” a taut, clever thriller starring John Cho as a frantic dad looking for his missing daughter, which took place (almost) entirely within the confines of laptop and cell phone screens. It was a gimmick, but a brilliantly executed one, and it offered Cho the opportunity to give a tour-de-force performance in a situation where there’s nowhere to hide.

With just their second feature, director Aneesh Chaganty and his co-writer, Sev Ohanian , expand the scenery but maintain the same tight narrative focus. And even as things get a little nutty by the end in a way that deviates from the quiet, slow burn that came before, the performances in what is essentially a two-hander always remain gripping. We’ve seen Sarah Paulson do this sort of simmering-beneath-the-surface insanity for years, but it’s always chilling to watch. Her technique is so specific, and she keeps you on edge with just the slightest facial expression or unexpected line delivery. But the great discovery of “Run” is Kiera Allen , making her feature film debut. As if performing opposite one of the greats working today weren’t daunting enough, “Run” asks a ton of Allen in a physically and emotionally arduous role, and she’s up for every challenge. She’s a real find and a joy to watch.

“Run” begins, though, in a quietly harrowing way. With echoes of the Ryan Murphy series “Ratched,” we see Paulson’s Diane Sherman at a hospital where everything is bathed in a sickly green light. She’s just given birth to a tiny baby who arrived prematurely, and a title card lists a variety of illnesses including arrhythmia, asthma and diabetes. Seventeen years later, we see Diane living an extremely organized but seemingly happy life with her daughter, Chloe (Allen), who runs through her daily routine from her wheelchair. (Casting a disabled actress for this part also makes Allen an excellent choice.) This includes medications and physical therapy but also hours of homeschool, which Diane administers. Mom also cooks healthy meals with the vegetables she grows in her own garden. Everything is carefully controlled. Chloe is clearly an intelligent young woman, as evidenced by the many complex engineering projects she works on in her bedroom, and she would seem to have a bright future ahead of her.

Yeah, that’s the thing. Chloe has dreams of leaving home and her isolated town—and her mom—to study at the University of Washington, four hours away. It’s not that they have a dysfunctional relationship. It’s just that it’s only been the two of them in that remote house for so long, and since Chloe hasn’t been allowed an iPhone or internet access all these years—which is more than a tad suspicious—she’s understandably yearning to explore the outside world. The way Diane insists a little too defensively that she’s totally fine with this possibility during a support group meeting suggests that perhaps she’s … not.

So much of what makes the clockwork of “Run” tick comes from the tiny details and the editing, the work of Nick Johnson and Will Merrick . Following their usual schedule and noticing slight tweaks along the way gives us the creeping sense that there’s a disturbing shift underfoot. Part of the fun of “Run” is that, as in “Searching,” we’re solving the mystery of what's truly happening right alongside the main character. A prime example of this approach occurs at the pharmacy when Diane and Chloe head into town to see a movie (and the title on the marquee is good for a chuckle). We’re putting the pieces together at the same time Chloe is, and we can feel her panic as the tension steadily escalates. Later, in one of the film's more physically demanding scenes, Chloe must MacGyver her way out of a tricky situation, but the fact that Chaganty and Ohanian have laid the groundwork for her smarts and resourcefulness makes it a blast to watch, and not at all ridiculous. So many of Allen’s scenes require her to act alone and pull us along wordlessly, which would be difficult even for a seasoned actor, but there’s a wisdom and a confident stillness about her that’s compelling and grounding.

And that’s crucial, because “Run” gets a little wild as it barrels toward its conclusion—less Hitchcock, more “ Misery .” But there are some unexpected twists and turns within the big reveal as to what’s actually going on here. And during these bizarre times when we’re all stuck at home ourselves, “Run” may just be the escape we needed all along.

Now playing on Hulu.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content, some violence/terror and language.

Kiera Allen as Chloe Sherman

Sarah Paulson as Diane Sherman

Pat Healy as Tom

Aneesh Chaganty
Sev Ohanian

Cinematographer

Hillary Spera
Torin Borrowdale

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Run Reviews

Run is a riveting rollercoaster ride from start to finish, pairing a pulse-pounding plot with powerhouse performances from Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022

“Run” is a sneakily absorbing thriller that pokes at the idea of a mother’s domineering love and a child’s blind trust.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

You pretty much know where “Run” is going to go, but it gets there in the most entertaining way possible.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 13, 2022

Just stylish and thoughtful enough to escape being cheap shlock. Instead, it's classy and enjoyable shlock.

Full Review | Sep 13, 2021

What could have been a throwaway piece of B-grade schlock is elevated to an A-grade armrest-clutcher thanks to a chilling premise, superb direction in the tradition of Alfred Hitchcock and a lead performance from Kiera Allen that is an absolute pearler.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 2, 2021

Chaganty's career remains something worth keeping an eye on, even if this sophomore effort doesn't quite hit the highs of his debut.

Full Review | Original Score: 3 / 5 | Jun 26, 2021

A minor anecdote that Chaganty takes to wild extremes, although always building with a firm hand a suspense with a credible and remarkably transmitted by Allen's omnipresent disengaged face. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 15, 2021

The problem ... is Chaganty seems to earnestly believe he is making a serious thriller, refusing to acknowledge the vein of absurdity that runs through the entire thing.

Full Review | Jun 5, 2021

To a large extent, "Run" plays like gangbusters.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2021

Gets by almost entirely on the energies of its two lead actresses, including a beautifully villainous Sarah Paulson and newcomer Kiera Allen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 30, 2021

Taut, compelling and with just the right scale and intensity to keep us engrossed without ever going too far over the top and collapsing into camp.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2021

Run starts off as a Horror movie, but quite soon it becomes clear that this is an A to Z Thriller flick. Halfway through audiences should probably turn up a notch their suspension of disbelief in order to keep enjoying this one.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Apr 21, 2021

...Run sets up a Rear Window/Misery story of captivity and attempted break-out, but squanders almost all of the screen-time on admittedly engrossing physical detail...

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 17, 2021

Both leads are simply fantastic, and the simple premise unfolds with energy and intensity.

Full Review | Apr 16, 2021

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 13, 2021

It's (Sarah Paulson's) American Horror Story pedigree which suggests there's more to this film than there really is.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 9, 2021

A problem with the film is its insistence to keep the characters mysterious.

Full Review | Apr 6, 2021

"Run works as a compelling thriller because it casually reminds viewers that disability is a class that anyone can join. Whether by birth, accident or malice, anyone can become disabled, and so disability rights and concerns apply to everyone."

Full Review | Apr 4, 2021

Another absorbing and effective thriller whose simple premise is executed with skill, good acting and no need for exposition. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Apr 2, 2021

Chaganty fully commits to delivering breathless thrills and outrageous revelations, rather than lecturing us about the real-world implications.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 3, 2021

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Common sense media reviewers.

Dark domestic thriller has violence, mature themes.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Courage and perseverance can literally save your l

Lead character Chloe is strong, resilient, brave,

Teen trapped in a house, locked in rooms. Chase sc

Some talk of dating.

"Goddamn" and an implied not fully said "motherf--

A mother drinks wine occasionally. Scenes of homem

Positive Messages

Courage and perseverance can literally save your life. Those who commit harm, crimes, and abuse will be caught and punished.

Positive Role Models

Lead character Chloe is strong, resilient, brave, curious, and intelligent. She works on fixing her electronic 3d printer and other devices. She also overcomes many dire and terrifying situations with grit, ingenuity, and hope. She does kill in the end, however.

Violence & Scariness

Teen trapped in a house, locked in rooms. Chase scenes, fleeing, moments of peril and terror. Guns, woman shot in shoulder, some blood. Two forced syringe and needle druggings. An implied murder by pills. Dead mailman dragged across floor leaves blood trail. Premature baby struggles to breathe in incubator and later a mother sobs while holding her. Some scenes with emotional torment.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"Goddamn" and an implied not fully said "motherf----r."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A mother drinks wine occasionally. Scenes of homemade drug concoctions meant to incapacitate and/or kill. Syringes, pills, and talk of medications.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Run is a thriller about an abusive mother who has been making her child sick and the attempts of the teen trying to escape. The film is dark, suspenseful, and has moments of emotional and physical terror and violence. Diane, a child abuser with Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, formerly Munchausen syndrome by proxy, hides a tragic past. She entraps, forcefully drugs, and threatens to kill her daughter Chloe. With a syringe and needle Diane knocks out a mailman and later kills him, dragging his body across the hallway floor, which leaves a trail of blood. Chloe tries to escape Diane and various dire situations. Chloe gets locked in bedrooms, chained to a wall, chased a lot, hurt when tumbling down stairs, forcefully drugged multiple times, threatened, and kidnapped; all these scenes can be scary. Diane sometimes suddenly appears in the background or in the dark. Adults drink wine. Language includes "goddamn" and an implied "motherf----r." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (3)
Kids say (30)

Based on 3 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In RUN, 17-year-old Chloe (Kiera Allen) lives a solitary life except for her mother Diane ( Sarah Paulson ), who tends to her daughter's every medical need and has done so for her entire life. Chloe supposedly suffers from arrhythmia, hemochromatosis, asthma, diabetes, and paralysis of her legs, the latter of which has required her to be in a wheelchair for as long as she can remember. The only problem is that Chloe starts to realize some oddities about the care her mother provides. Chloe's extremely limited freedoms are odd, the way her mother always gets to the mail before Chloe is odd, the way the Wi-Fi doesn't work when her mother isn't home is odd. Some of the medicine her mother gives her isn't what it seems. If Chloe had to escape her mother, how exactly could she manage that? What lengths would her mother go to stop her?

Is It Any Good?

Not a deep look into the behavioral and mental health complexities and nuances of Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another, this thriller only wants to thrill, and it just about does. In terms of quality, pace, writing, acting, and thrills, Run is on par with and sometimes exceeds director Aneesh Chaganty's first feature, the chillingly disturbing Searching . For Run , Chaganty structures his focus on child abuse and parental derangement in three acts: family horror, hostage drama, escape thriller. By the time the pace ramps up entering the finale, lead character Chloe has more than earned her freedom. Run is a platform for two great performances, one a terribly menacing desperate mother from Sarah Paulson and the other a courageous first-time lead achievement for Kiera Allen, who is also a wheelchair user in real life.

In some other ways, by the time the epilogue rolls, some viewers may find some logical gaps and inconsistencies, even if parsing them out would have only likely bogged things down. There's a distinct lack of any scenes of Chloe's childhood or growing up alone with no friends, television, public life outside visiting the pharmacy, or grander curiosity about the outside world. Somehow, Chloe made it all the way to 17 before really questioning or seeing the horrible things her mother was doing. Lastly, the film's ending may leave some viewers disappointed.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how Run portrays Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another (Munchausen syndrome by proxy). How is it different from other films or tv shows that also feature this form of child and sometimes elder abuse?

Sadly, many people lose a child, but what was different about Diane's loss that made her turn to kidnapping, abuse, and murder?

Was the portrayal of Chloe a strong one? If you were in her situation, would you have done anything differently? If so, what?

Do you think Chloe's last act at the end was necessary? How would the film have looked if she had done something else?

Why do you think people are interested in tragic stories based on real life? Does Run glamorize any part of the abusive caregiver? Does it glamorize any part of the person under their care? Explain.

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : November 20, 2020
Cast : Sarah Paulson , Kiera Allen , Pat Healy , Sara Sohn
Director : Aneesh Chaganty
Inclusion Information : Female actors
Studio : Hulu
Genre : Thriller
Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance
Run time : 90 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : Disturbing thematic content, some violence/terror, and language.
Last updated : March 12, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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‘Run’ Review: Bad Medicine

Sarah Paulson plays a menacing parent in this enjoyably ludicrous thriller.

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‘Run’ | Anatomy of a Scene

The director aneesh chaganty narrates an escape sequence from his film, featuring kiera allen..

Hi, I’m Aneesh Chaganty, and I’m the co-writer and director of Run. O.K. So the scene that’s playing out right now takes place in the second act of the movie. Without giving much away, the basic setup is this. So our daughter, played by newcomer Kiera Allen, has been locked in her room by her misaligned mother, played by veteran Sarah Paulson, and is convinced that she needs to escape. From a form standpoint, I think what you’re about to watch is actually one of the few sequences that breaks the pattern of the film’s aesthetic. Much of the film’s style is sort of borrowed from the films of Hitchcock and Shyamalan, and those films don’t just choose shots because one thing can happen in them. They designed frames where, like, four or five things can happen in them. So to borrow a page out of their book, I storyboarded every single frame of this movie by hand before we started shooting. You can actually compare the boards to the final film. It’s all pretty identical. So right now, we’re watching Chloe, who’s this super resourceful and smart and inventive girl, sort of MacGyver a solution out of her room. Chloe uses a wheelchair, so a solution that an able-bodied person might have come up with won’t work for her. She has to overcome that with just sort of pure intelligence, and she does. Every single shot inside this room here is repeated from an earlier shot in the movie. I wanted to be super spare with the visuals of this movie and always design frames that could be repeated so that when things start to explode narratively, like right now, it would feel like real catharsis. [MUSIC PLAYING] So all of this was shot on a stage in Winnipeg. We basically created the entire second story of his house on a stage, and the first story and the outside— what you’re looking at now— is all on-location. So now we’re kind of jumping into the single most complex shooting process of the entire film, where this whole sequence is about to stitch so many different skill sets and elements and shooting days into one. So she just kind of comes out onto her roof. We’re landing on a shot of Kiera in a stage on a set where the roof is actually flat and the walls are tilted to the side. It looks sort of like a really cool— it’s hard to describe, but just movie magic makes that work. So the camera’s just tilted. She’s actually perfectly flat on the ground. We’re just tilting her hair a little bit and occasionally blowing wind to the side. And that’s her face pushing forward a little bit, and sort of a blue screen behind her. The next shot you’re going to see is going to be from the side, and that is a stunt double. But it looks like Kiera because we face-replaced Kiera’s face onto it. And this shot sort of was actually the first shot that we did on day one of shooting. And we had to shoot it on day one, because we shot in Winnipeg, Canada, which is, like, the coldest place ever, and we had to shoot out our exteriors first before everything started snowing. We started shooting October 31st of 2018. By the way, the house was chosen because it just felt like when we saw it that it looked like it was, like— you could put it on a movie poster and draw it out and put Sarah Paulson’s face above it, and it just had the vibes of this old-school, Hitchcock house, so there’s just like secrets inside of it and stuff. This is a shot on set, again, on this little fake, made roof. This is another shot on set. Obviously, we did not put Kiera on an actual roof with danger. But this whole sequence, we shot over multiple, multiple days. And she still has a bunch of water in her mouth that she swallowed from earlier. She plugs in a soldering iron, heats up the soldering iron, and puts the soldering iron to this glass in the cold, where it immediately starts to kind of crack because the heat is expanding it, and then immediately will spit out some water onto the glass, where it shatters the rest of it. This is actually a technique. One of my best friend’s dads is a glass blower, and taught me this over the phone. So that’s the end of one of the biggest set pieces of the movie, which honestly tries to do what we were trying to do with this whole movie, which is take a normal house and turn every single element of that house into a massive Burj Khalifa-scale obstacle.

By Jeannette Catsoulis

If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother. Balancing on the backs of umpteen matriarch-from-hell movies, the director Aneesh Chaganty brings us “Run,” a nifty little thriller whose title pleads for an exclamation point.

And not just because of its hyperventilating style. Sarah Paulson’s performance in the role of Diane — a single mother so controlling she’s more prison warden than parent — flickers with camp. That tone is on display when Diane insinuates to fellow home-schoolers that, for the past 17 years, her sickly daughter, Chloe (Kiera Allen), has made her life a misery of servitude. And it fully blooms in the movie’s dementedly operatic final scenes, when the scales have slipped from Chloe’s eyes and Diane is revealed in all her deranged glory.

Before then, the movie hints at a mildly sinister hostage drama as Chloe, smart and (like Allen herself) in a wheelchair, waits for her college acceptance letter and navigates multiple chronic health conditions. Surprisingly cheerful for someone with neither friends nor phone nor unmonitored internet access, Chloe maintains a comfortable codependency with Diane, who provides pills and plausible reasons for denying her daughter further freedoms. Until a troubling discovery kicks Chloe into an unexpectedly suspenseful battle for more than just the right to online privacy.

This will involve stunts both elaborate and hazardous, and Allen, in her first feature role, is convincingly up for all of them. Despite a script (by Chaganty and Sev Ohanian) that sees no need to flavor its tension with flashbacks or character-fleshing, “Run” has fun with its ludicrous plot. As when Chloe persuades Diane to take her to a movie and we glimpse its title on the marquee: “Breakout.”

Run Rated PG-13 for a nasty rash, a toxic beverage and a very unlucky mailman. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. Watch on Hulu .

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‘run’: film review.

'Run,' Aneesh Chaganty's follow-up to 'Searching,' watches as a teen (Kiera Allen) tries to escape the clutches of her desperately possessive mother (Sarah Paulson).

By John DeFore

John DeFore

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A delicious Hitchcockian thriller about the perils of maternal codependency, Aneesh Chaganty’s sophomore feature Run proves wrong anyone who might’ve suspected the attention given to his 2018 Sundance darling Searching was due to its screens-centric formal gimmick. (The film, which opened the online Nightstream festival Thursday, will debut on Hulu November 20th.)

Release date: Nov 20, 2020

Paulson plays Diane, who has spent the last seventeen years as sole caregiver for a child with an assortment of special needs: Chloe (Allen) is paralyzed from the waist down, diabetic and asthmatic, has serious heart and skin issues — everything but a nut allergy, it seems. Yet she’s a remarkable girl: bright, resourceful, and eager to start life on her own just as soon as the University of Washington sends her an acceptance letter.

Opening scenes displaying the friendly ease of the pair’s home-school routine — handfuls of pills throughout the day, a rigorous lesson plan, a surprising lack of teen resentment — also casually inform us that this kid, unlike nearly all others, has no always-on connections to the outside world. No phone, and seemingly no computer in her room, though one wonders how she uses the 3D printer she’s repairing without one. The point is, it would not be easy to do detective work if she were to suddenly worry Mom might be up to something shady.

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Review: ‘Run’ is a gripping psychological thriller fueled by chilling performances

In 2018, first-time writer-director Aneesh Chaganty exploded with his debut feature, “Searching.” Chaganty and co-writer Sev Ohanian took a gimmick – a film taking place entirely on the screens of various devices – and elevated it into one of the year’s best thrillers, and honestly, best films, regardless of genre.

Now, the duo has shed the limitations of MacBook screens and FaceTime calls and entered into the real world where they ask the question: Can a parent possibly love a child too much?

Rather than a parent willing to do whatever it takes to find their daughter, “Run” flips the script and explores just how far a mother is willing to go to keep her daughter – and it does so in a deeply unsettling and gripping manner.

Chloe (Kiera Allen) can never remember a time without her mother. As a wheelchair-bound teenager with a laundry list of ailments, her mom, Diane (Sarah Paulson), is never more than an arms length away – and usually with a spare inhaler or glucose meter in hand. Diane wouldn’t have it any other way, though, as a doting mother who’s entire identity is comprised of her daughter’s dependency on her.

On the cusp of graduating high school – where she’s home schooled, of course – and heading off into the real world without her mother’s guidance, Chloe’s once-clear world begins to turn cloudy. Chloe discovers one of the staple prescriptions in her daily medicinal cocktail is actually prescribed to Diane, and after a bit of digging, her mother’s antics begin to look more and more sinister. Suddenly, Chloe’s lack of a cell phone, internet connection and general access to the outside world can no longer be brushed aside as the behaviors of a protective mother, but instead are part of something much darker.

There’s no denying the subject matter alone is enough to create a chilling thriller, but it’s the performances that elevate “Run” to the next level – particularly that of Paulson. Over the last decade, Paulson has established herself as somewhat of a modern horror icon, anchoring the “American Horror Story” franchise and dabbling in other freaky shows and films, and her eeriness is once again on display here. Diane begins as a well put together, loving mother, but before long she is completely unhinged, and Paulson portrays the twist in a way only she can.

Opposite Paulson is newcomer Kiera Allen, the latest beneficiary of Chaganty’s strategy of pairing veteran stars with up-and-coming actors. Allen more than holds her own against the seasoned professional, although she’s often the one reacting to the terror rather than delivering it. Chloe too goes through a transformation as her world is shattered, and Allen’s increasingly frantic performance matches her character’s experience at every turn.

Allen’s casting also marks a huge win for on-screen representation, considering she’s a wheelchair user in real life, not simply an actor pretending to use one. Rather than opt to put a more experienced performer in the chair, Chaganty said there was never a doubt their leading actor would also be disabled – and Allen earned the role.

Chaganty’s steady hand is felt throughout the film, as he slowly and methodically develops both his story and his characters. The pacing is deliberate as he uses the first act to establish the daily routine of Chloe and Diane – their isolation, and the daughter’s extreme dependency on her mother. Once audiences are lulled to sleep in the caring arms of a seemingly loving mother, Chaganty delivers the first of many twists.

Most viewers entering into “Run” will see this first twist coming – the growing distrust of Diane’s intentions – but the reveals keep coming until Chaganty has viewers questioning everything they know about the world he has built. It’s truly an equally magnificent and horrific psychological thriller.

After stepping onto the scene with a film as highly regarded as “Searching” at just 27 years old, Chaganty’s work was cut out for him if he planned on topping his debut. While “Run” may not surpass its predecessor, it certainly comes close and proves itself a worth entry in the familial-thriller genre Chaganty is establishing.

Star Rating:

“Run” premieres exclusively on Hulu November 20.

Check out our exclusive one-on-one interview with writer-director Aneesh Chaganty.

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Aneesh Chaganty , coming soon , daughter , disabled , drama , entertainment , family , film , Home Featured , home release , horror , hulu , hulu original , Kiera Allen , lionsgate , medical , mother , movie , munchausen by proxy , new release , Pop Culture , review , Reviews , run , sarah paulson , searching , streaming , thriller

Zach Goins View All

Zach Goins is a member of the North Carolina Film Critics Association based in Charlotte, N.C. Zach co-founded Inside The Film Room in 2018 and serves as Editor-in-Chief of the website and co-host of the podcast. Zach also serves as a film critic for CLTure.org.

‘Run’ Review: A Wheelchair-Using Teen Tries to Escape a Sadistic Caregiver in Wild Sarah Paulson Thriller

In low-budget debut 'Searching,' Aneesh Chaganty found clever solutions within constraints. For his follow-up, he builds a gripping action movie around a wheelchair user.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Sarah Paulson is either the world’s best mother or the worst in “ Run ,” a deranged (in a good way) two-hander from “Searching” director Aneesh Chaganty that piles one tragedy upon another and serves it up in the form of a thriller.

The first of these injustices is revealed in the opening scene: Paulson plays expectant mother Diane Sherman, whose only child is delivered prematurely, taken from her and hooked up to machines in a long-shot hope for its survival. The second emerges only gradually almost 17 years later, as Diane’s college-bound daughter, Chloe ( Kiera Allen ) — who’s dealt with diabetes, asthma and lower-body paralysis for as long as she can remember — starts to question whether her life could have gone a very different way.

Short answer: Yes. But Chloe is hardly prepared for the degree to which her reality has been meticulously constructed by Diane. And the film’s title, “Run,” suggests just how difficult escape will be for a young woman who, by design more than disability, has been confined to a wheelchair for the better part of her life. Like Stephen King’s “Misery,” the movie turns too much attention into a very uncomfortable thing, suggesting that “overprotective” can be a synonym for abuse.

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Certainly, there’s a lot more to her parenting than meets the eye, and Chaganty has some pretty good surprises up his sleeve — so stop reading now if you’re sensitive to spoilers. Without giving too much away, let’s just say that “Run” is the latest in a string of film and TV projects (e.g., “Sharp Objects” and “The Act”) dealing with Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a condition by which a parent or guardian gets off on someone else’s disability, inventing ailments in others so that they might play the caregiver.

In Diane’s case, what she views as mother’s love relies on an elaborate deception, and Chloe finally starts to question the circumstances she takes for granted — confinement that amounts to a kind of house arrest and a daily dose of pills that may in fact be prolonging her condition — when she discovers a bottle of medicine in her mother’s grocery bag. It’s rare that Diane leaves anything unattended, and yet, Chloe’s snooping suggests that she’s probably been having doubts for some time. But how to investigate them when her mom seems to be monitoring everything, from her phone and internet use to the duration of her bathroom breaks? (In one of the film’s tensest scenes, she sneaks out of a movie, crosses to the pharmacy and demands to know what the new pills are. The answer is so much worse than she imagined.)

Arriving just two months after “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” spinoff “Ratched” on Netflix, “Run” seems almost subtle by comparison. It’s not subtle, mind you, but in the scheme of campy Paulson performances, this one registers as more nuanced, allowing Chaganty to get away with maintaining the mystery for longer. Instead of casting knowing looks that indicate her character’s true motives, Paulson assumes a poker face. What she’s doing is evil, and yet, like a great many real-world villains, she has managed to justify it to herself, which is perhaps the scariest aspect of all.

Whereas Chaganty’s “Searching” — which was told entirely through computer screens — kept audiences guessing till the very end, “Run” switches gears to a fairly routine thriller once the ruse is up. The family lives in a tiny town where everyone thinks of Diane as a super-mom, so Chloe’s options are limited in terms of where she can turn for help (and audiences don’t yet know how far Diane will go to maintain her control over her daughter). But of course, the biggest obstacle is Chloe’s handicap, which limits her mobility and leads to a number of unique sequences in which the character — and the performer playing her — maneuver with limited use of her legs.

It’s still fairly uncommon for Hollywood movies to include characters who use wheelchairs, and even rarer still for directors to cast actors with disabilities in those parts. How far things have come since “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” and the cliché of the helpless invalid at the mercy of her caregiver! And yet, the representation conversation is evolving so fast that one can imagine “Run” rubbing certain audiences the wrong way, whether today or in a few years, when the rules for who can play which roles have changed again.

Kiera Allen, who plays Chloe, represents a genuine discovery: funny, charismatic and in many ways more relatable than the Clearasil-commercial models who populate most teen flicks — which represents a second agenda, beyond mere authenticity. Between this and “Searching” (with its Asian American leads), Chaganty is actively expanding audiences’ ideas of what movie heroes can be. In the end, the character’s disability feels like an extension of the approach taken in his debut. Once again, perceived limitations become opportunities for more creative solutions, and differences disappear unless audiences decide to obsess over them.

Reviewed in Nightstream Film Festival (online), Los Angeles, Oct. 8, 2020. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 95 MIN.

Production: A Hulu release of a Lionsgate presentation and production. Producers: Natalie Qasabian, Sev Ohanian.
Crew: Director: Aneesh Chaganty. Screenplay: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian. Camera: Hillary Spera. Music: Torin Borrowdale.
With: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen.

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Run review: American Horror Story star Sarah Paulson's thriller is a wild, twisted ride

Mother knows best, right?

The thriller about a mother who has a very twisted idea of love for her daughter was originally set for a fitting Mother's Day cinema release in the US, before cinemas closing down put paid to that . It came out on Hulu in the US in November, and the wait in the UK is finally over as it's out now on Netflix.

As great as it would have been to see Run on the big screen, the thriller doesn't lose any of its edge with its streaming premiere. If anything, there's an added relevance given that, like most of the people watching, it's about a person who is effectively stuck in their own home due to circumstances out of their control.

And whether it was on the big or small screen, Run still has the goods to keep you on the edge of your seat, constantly in the dark at what wild turn the thriller will make next.

With a lean runtime of 90 minutes, Run wastes little time in setting up its premise and remains propulsive throughout.

After a montage of an ordinary day for Diane (Paulson) and her daughter Chloe (newcomer Kiera Allen), it doesn't take long for Chloe – and the audience – to get suspicious of the reasons why Chloe is being kept in total isolation by her mother, as she has been since birth.

An errant pharmacy receipt starts Chloe questioning everything she thought about her life, leading her to uncover secrets that will forever change her relationship with her mother. Does mother really know best?

The unexpected joy with Run is that it's barely 30 minutes in when it plays its – admittedly very guessable – hand. You're expecting it to drag out the revelation, but it blindsides you with it and sets the stage for a thriller that will keep you guessing as it takes increasingly wild turns.

Anyone who's seen the innovative Searching will know that director Aneesh Chaganty and co-writer Sev Ohanian know how to deliver a surprise. Run takes this up a notch as you're so convinced what the movie's reveal will be that you forget to think about the numerous other dark turns it'll take.

At times, things do get a bit trashy and ridiculous, but Run 's strength lies in the casting of Sarah Paulson and its ace-in-the-deck Kiera Allen who delivers an outstanding debut performance.

Their characters in the credits are referred to as "Mother" and "Daughter" and, in truth, they don't get much fleshing-out in the script. However, Paulson and Allen are so committed to the roles that they round out what could be thin stereotype roles, and ensure that the ludicrous twists are met with shock and not an eye-roll.

There's few better around than Paulson at playing a slightly off-centre role, so it'll be no surprise to people that she's magnetic in Run . What will be a surprise is the performance of Allen, managing to hold her own against Paulson in what is effectively a two-hander movie.

An added freshness is added to the role of Chloe in that Allen is a wheelchair user, marking the first time a wheelchair user has starred in a major thriller in more than 70 years (according to the press notes – though we think Christopher Reeve might have disputed that claim had the elastic word "major" not provided a get-out regarding the 1998 remake of Rear Window ). It adds an authenticity to the scenes when Chloe has to use ingenious methods to escape from Diane.

Allen's performance means you're fully on her side ("I'm paralysed, feel bad for me") and willing her to survive, crucial in such a lean and pared-back thriller. Hopefully it's the start of a prominent career for her.

Run might not have the innovation of Searching , but it's every bit as gripping and confirms director Aneesh Chaganty as an exciting talent to watch.

It's an old-school thriller told expertly that refuses to let you settle, elevated by two excellent performances from Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen. If it was in the cinemas, we'd say "run, don't walk" to the next screening, but as it is, you'll just have to run to your TV instead.

Run is available to watch now on Netflix in the UK and on Hulu in the US.

20th Century Fox Television/Ryan Murphy Productions/Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision American Horror Story: Murder House

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.

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Run – Hulu Review (4/5)

Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Nov 20, 2020 | 4 minutes

RUN is a new Hulu horror-thriller starring Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen. It has a rather simple plot with a built-in mystery and the 90-minute runtime does it justice. It does pack quite a punch in many ways. Mostly, it’s just really entertaining. Read our full Run movie review here!

RUN is a new Hulu movie starring Sarah Paulson which is more than enough reason for us to watch it. Obviously, the fact that the genres for this movie are horror, mystery, and thriller means this Hulu release is also right up our alley.

The plot is both simple and familiar – which you will know if you’ve watched the trailer – but that’s exactly what makes this movie work so well. A solid 90-minutes of entertainment with a story that feels both familiar and fresh. Also, watch out for some awesome pop culture references (such as the mention of Stephen King’s “Derry, Maine”).

Continue reading our Run movie review below and do check it out on Hulu.

Newcomer Kiera Allen

Comparing this new Hulu movie with the Hulu series The Act (based on a true story, starring Joey King ) is also obvious due to the nature of the plot. Make sure you check out The Act as well. Especially if you enjoy the core plot of Run and like watching young actors giving brilliant performances.

For Run , we get to watch newcomer Kiera Allen deliver an amazing performance. She is so wonderfully natural and I have no problem buying into whatever she’s selling at any moment. Prior to making this movie, Kiera Allen had only been in a short film from 2014. I really hope we won’t have to wait long before seeing her again.

Maybe she could follow her “movie mom” Sarah Paulson over to Ryan Murphy productions?! She certainly has everything needed to work perfectly with genre productions.

Also, I have to mention Pat Healy, who will be very familiar to fans of indie genre film. Pat Healy was brilliant as the star of Cheap Thrills (2013) and was in the recently released The Pale Door (2020) . In Run, he has a small but pivotal role!

Sarah Paulson is our genre queen

Obviously, the Netflix series Ratched , which starred Sarah Paulson in the title role, has meant that she is very much top-of-mind right now. However, having worked with Ryan Murphy on American Horror Story since 2011, she is definitely one of our most beloved genre queens right now. In fact, she is probably the queen!

You might like: Our Season 1 review of the Netflix series Ratched here >

She has played so many iconic roles in Ryan Murphy productions alone but she was also in the Netflix mega-hit Bird Box (directed by my fellow Dane, Susanne Bier, who has The Undoing on HBO right now). Going back even first, she also co-starred in Frank Miller’s The Spirit from 2008 . Before this, she was also in the TV series American Gothic (1995-1998).

What I’m trying to get at is simply that Sarah Paulson has been doing genre movies and TV series for a few decades now. And she is bigger and better than ever. Now, having said that, I expect she had a blast making Run because she definitely delivers the kind of performance that makes an impact.

Of course, she was also beyond brilliant as Mildred Ratched in Ratched but somehow the two seem miles apart. As they should, of course. After all, that’s what acting is all about; constantly creating new personas for different stories.

The ending of Run on Hulu!

As it’s so often the case, movie endings can make or break a movie. For Run , the ending is yet another spot-on moment! In fact, when the final scene comes along, you should both gasp and smile. Well, I know I did anyway!

Also, the ending of Run comes along very organically. Sometimes, these horror-thrillers can have a tendency to run a bit too long to really work with the mystery aspect. There’s none of that with this Hulu release since the 90-minute runtime keeps the pace tight and constant.

Finally, yes, Run is obviously quite easy to compare with the insanely iconic Stephen King book and adaptation Misery . Coincidently, this was the movie that made Kathy Bates a household name. Of course, Run star Sarah Paulson and Kathy Bates have been working together on American Horror Story for years now.

Possible Easter egg: Pay attention to when the name of Kathy Bates’ character in Misery suddenly pops up in Run !

For the record; no, I am not saying that the ending of Run is comparable to the ending of Misery . Even though I can easily say that I love both endings in their own ways. Neither of them is too simple or “soft”, which is a pet peeve of mine.

Watch Run on Hulu now!

Aneesh Chaganty is the director and co-writer of Run along with Sev Ohanian. The two previously wrote the screenplay for Searching (2018), which was also directed by Aneesh Chaganty. If you haven’t watched that movie yet, then you most definitely should make sure you do.

Searching is told only via technology devices (laptops and phones), which means it’s the same method as used for the brilliant Shudder movie Host . Another movie, you should have watched by now. Otherwise, you really do need to check out Host if you’re a horror fan.

Before you get to any of the above movies, you should first check out Run on Hulu, before someone spoils it for you.

We don’t do spoilers here at Heaven of Horror, but they will surely be difficult to avoid. This is only the second feature film from Aneesh Chaganty (with co-writer Sev Ohanian), but he has delivered two very strong movies so far, so we hope this will continue!

Run is out on Hulu from November 20, 2020.

Release date: November 20, 2020, on Hulu Director: Aneesh Chaganty Writers: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian Stars: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Pat Healy, Erik Athavale, Bradley Sawatzky

They say you can never escape a mother’s love… but for Chloe, that’s not a comfort — it’s a threat. There’s something unnatural, even sinister about the relationship between Chloe and her mom, Diane. Diane has raised her daughter in total isolation, controlling every move she’s made since birth, and there are secrets that Chloe’s only beginning to grasp.

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About The Author

Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard

I write reviews and recaps on Heaven of Horror. And yes, it does happen that I find myself screaming, when watching a good horror movie. I love psychological horror, survival horror and kick-ass women. Also, I have a huge soft spot for a good horror-comedy. Oh yeah, and I absolutely HATE when animals are harmed in movies, so I will immediately think less of any movie, where animals are harmed for entertainment (even if the animals are just really good actors). Fortunately, horror doesn't use this nearly as much as comedy. And people assume horror lovers are the messed up ones. Go figure!

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‘Run’ Review: Sarah Paulson Careens from Psycho Horror to Camp in Berserk Munchausen Thriller

Ryan lattanzio, deputy editor, film.

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Having a mother is a scary thing in “ Run ,” Aneesh Chaganty ‘s slick thriller starring a deranged Sarah Paulson as the domineering single parent of a chronically unwell young woman played by Kiera Allen. Clearly inspired by the millennium-defining Munchausen by proxy case of all — that of Gypsy Rose Blanchard — “Run” has more in common with “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” than Hitchcock, operating at the clip of a runaway train. You think, What the hell am I watching? And you wouldn’t be wrong, as “Run” is so berserk, and so tonally schizophrenic, it’s hard to read it either seriously, or as garish camp.

The movie’s cold and clammy opening sequence in a greenly lit hospital immediately conjure visions of another hot Sarah Paulson project at the moment, Netflix’s “Ratched,” in which she stars as a demented nurse. In “Run” as Diane Sherman, Paulson is the patient here, wheeled through the hospital to meet a baby, shriveled and underweight and in critical condition, that apparently belongs to her. Never one to buck a challenge, Diane is overjoyed to welcome her bouncing ball of joy into her world.

Well, not quite. “Run” then flashes onscreen a list of harrowing medical conditions: Arrhythmia, hemochromatosis, asthma, diabetes, paralysis. All grown up, Chloe Sherman (Kiera Allen) is evidently one sick cookie, doused with gobs of medication every day. She spends her days toying with a 3D printer and building other Rube Goldbergian devices, bound to a life of the mind but also to a wheelchair.

We also learn she’s now 17 years old, which means nearly two decades of potential mama trauma are entirely swept under the rug by the film’s script, leaving the audience in the lurch when Chloe decides she wants out of the house and away from Diane. Why is she afraid? What is the source? We don’t know, but now that she’s just about 18, it’s college time, and Diane isn’t happy, venting in a support group about her impending empty nest. When she’s not helicoptering over her ailing daughter, she’s nursing instead a glass of red wine while blankly watering her sprawling (and severely organized) hydroponic garden. She then retreats to her cellar viewing room to replay old home movies of her little girl. Diane is not going to let Chloe get away without a fight.

RUN -- They say you can never escape a mother’s love... but for Chloe, that’s not a comfort — it’s a threat. There’s something unnatural, even sinister about the relationship between Chloe (newcomer Kiera Allen) and her mom, Diane (Sarah Paulson). Diane has raised her daughter in total isolation, controlling every move she’s made since birth, and there are secrets that Chloe's only beginning to grasp. From the visionary writers, producers and director of the breakout film Searching, comes a suspense thriller that shows that when mom gets a little too close, you need to RUN. Chloe (Kiera Allen), Diane (Sarah Paulson), shown. (Photo by: Allen Fraser/Hulu)

So more ambitious measures must be taken. Chloe, through a series of convoluted hijinks, discerns that amid her daily cocktail of drugs, Diane has started slipping her daughter something called “trigoxin.” It turns out to be a… dog medication? And one that can apparently numb a human’s legs when used beyond its express purposes? When Chloe wheels up to the pharmacy demanding the name of the mystery pill (nonexistent in reality, according to Google) under the pretense that it’s part of some twisted game that mother and daughter like to play, the pharmacist sure is quick break HIPAA laws on the basis of a scavenger hunt.

It’s just one instance of increasingly difficult-to-believe human behavior in a movie full of them. “Run” is brazenly ridiculous. When Diane googles “household neurotoxins” — a search that should, in any other world, be immediately shuttled to the FBI — you know you’re in for it. That Chloe isn’t as sick as she thinks shouldn’t come as a shock, but the movie certainly serves that fact as if it should. Further reveals can be spotted from far away, but still play out with the grandeur of skull-popping revelation.

The film’s final act unfurls into a mother-daughter face-off that’s, yes, part escape-room frenzy, and also part Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in terms of how hysterically these women try to one-up one another (right down to the final frame). But “Run” more closely resembles “The Act,” the Hulu series starring Joey King as Gypsy Rose Blanchard and Patricia Arquette as her coddling mommy, yet with none of that show’s toxic, Greek-tragedy pull.

“Run” is equally about the dangers of a too-close relationship with a mother, but the lack of an emotional or deeper psychological framework for the characters makes it difficult to care, despite several suspenseful set pieces. One scene where a grunting Chloe crawls across the roof as part of an elaborate method to get to the other side sans wheelchair, rambles on to cringing, baffling lengths. Almost slapstick in its execution, it’s hard to take straight, and if the scene tilted off the rails just an inch further, this would firmly throw the movie into the realm of a campy, self-aware spectacle. Then shows up game horror-comic actor Pat Healy, who almost confirms your suspicions that “Run” is supposed to, in fact, be funny.

From “American Horror Story” to “Ratched” and, these days, pretty much her whole body of work, Sarah Paulson has proven herself a walking master class in playing deluded women grimly determined to annihilate a world that has done her so much wrong. While Diane is a bit of an empty slate, Paulson does her fiery best to fill in the blanks through a menacing performance that’s impressively well-rounded. Kiera Allen, meanwhile, shows promise as the outsmarting and clever Chloe, but isn’t given much to do outside of run, hide, and run again.

Chaganty and Sev Ohanian’s (“Searching”) screenplay hits repetitive beats and summons a deja-vu-esque feeling of haven’t I seen this before? — and you probably have — but 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.

“Run” world premiered at Nightstream. It starts streaming on Hulu Friday, November 20.

Most Popular

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Review: run.

Director: Aneesh Chaganty

Screenplay: Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian

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.

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Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble Review: The Top Banana Of Monkey Ball

#blud review: an adventurous but clunky homage to cartoon network's classics, i'm ok with power book ii: ghost & power book iv: force both ending, thanks to this spinoff i've wanted for years.

WARNING: Major spoilers for Run ahead

Director Aneesh Chaganty's 2020 thriller, Run , leaves audiences with a breathtaking ending that raises quite a few questions about Chloe, Diane, and what their future will look like in the aftermath.

After his 2018 critically acclaimed directorial debut, Searching , Chaganty returned to form in the psychological thriller sub-genre with Run , which stars Sarah Paulson ( American Horror Story , Ratched ) and Kiera Allen. Exploring a mother/daughter relationship that has become strained due to Diane's obsessive hovering and smothering that directly ignores her daughter's desires for independence, Run proposes how a mother's love can be oppressive and even dangerous when she's threatened with losing her child. However, Run digs far deeper than that — it explores mental illness and co-dependent relationships, and while Diane is certainly not a sympathetic villain, her troubles are rooted in real life terror.

Related: Every Delayed 2020 Horror Movie

Run 's ending shows Chloe turning the tables on her long-time captor; Diane is at her most vulnerable in a psychiatric facility. While this might seem like an open and shut ending, there's a lot to unpack about Chloe's mindset and Diane's ultimate fate that weren't made clear by the time the credits rolled. Run provides powerful commentary on the lasting effects of trauma, the cyclical nature of abuse, and how people can value justice or even vengeance more than a clean break. Here's our breakdown of Run 's ending, the hospital twist, and what it all means.

What Happened In Run's Ending

After Diane's showdown with armed officers at the hospital while she was trying to escape with Chloe, she was wounded and ended up being institutionalized. While it might seem to Chloe's benefit to cut Diane out of her life, it speaks to her mental state that she continues to visit Diane in the hospital. Chloe could have easily detached from Diane, especially since Diane isn't her biological mother and possibly hasn't even legally adopted her. Beyond that, at the end of the movie, Chloe is an adult who has started a career of her own in the medical field, has a partner, and a child of her own. She's managed to create a successful life for herself on her own merits and seemingly has no reason to continue keeping Diane around. She does this because she wants to continue asserting control over her "mother" to assuage the emotional strain that stems from the period of her life where she had none. It's a complicated relationship, and seemingly always has been, but it's interesting that Chloe is so focused on vengeance after the fact when she seemed to always want her freedom before.

What's Going To Happen To Diane?

Chloe gives Diane a familiar green pill in Run 's ending scene, which ultimately seals her fate. The audience is familiar with what the medicine does to someone based on how Chloe reacted to it throughout the movie. However, Diane is also subjected to whatever medications or treatments are being prescribed to her by hospital staff; she could be even more helpless, in that regard, than Chloe ever was despite her many illnesses. Presumably, Chloe's access to medicine means that she'll be able to not only continue getting this prescription filled to pass it along to Diane as continuing punishment and even torment for what she's done, but the ending also suggests Diane will be trapped in the institution forever. She's committed serious crimes; it's unlikely she'd be eligible for release, but there's nothing that says she couldn't eventually escape.

Diane has proven herself to be highly intelligent and capable; she's also manipulative, and if she managed to garner sympathy from someone, she might even be able to con her way out. It's unclear whether Run will receive a sequel, but since Diane is alive at the end of the movie and still has Chloe in her life in some capacity, it's possible a future storyline could see them at odds again. There's also the chance that, over time, Chloe will stop visiting Diane entirely. In a way, this would likely be a worse fate for Diane — she'd be completely disconnected from Chloe, and never have access to her again. Diane's obsession with Chloe and delusions don't seem to have faded even though she's been forced to come to the reality of her situation, to some extent. However, Chloe being fixated on doling out vengeance rather than condemning Diane to true suffering plays into Run 's deeper meaning.

Related: Who Was The Better Nurse Ratched? Louise Fletcher vs. Sarah Paulson

Run Ending Explained: What It Really Means

At its core, Run is about the cyclical nature of trauma, violence, and abuse. Even though Chloe managed to successfully escape Diane's clutches and start a seemingly successful life of her own, she's never able to escape what has been done to her. Instead of carving out a separate space for herself with her newfound freedom, she continually visits Diane and keeps her under her control. She inadvertently feeds into Diane's own delusions that Chloe cares for her, at least to the extent that she won't abandon her completely, and reinforces Diane's belief that Chloe " needs " her. In a way, the two women do need each other — their relationship was incredibly toxic, but the cycle of abuse and violence can result in the victim becoming an abuser. This is certainly not what always happens; people who have endured horrors like Chloe has survived can go on to become well-rounded, highly functional, happy people.

However, the final scene of Run suggests that, for some people, there really isn't an escape. Chloe's body is permanently altered from the long-term abuse and poison that she endured as a result of Diane's illness—very likely Munchausen syndrome by proxy —and she can't completely forgive her "mother". Beyond that, the more terrifying implication made in the movie's ending is that Chloe is empowered and even freed by finally being able to maintain full control over Diane. She's aware of where she is at all times, she's able to witness her in a vulnerable, isolated state, she can decide when they interact and when they don't, and she's in a position to literally give Diane a taste of her own medicine without anyone stopping her. It's a twisted quid pro quo that offers the thought that empowerment and control mean different things to people. Chloe has seemingly found some sort of closure or solace in now being able to become Diane's caretaker while constantly serving as a painful reminder of how Diane's obsession with control cost her everything.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Run’ on Hulu, a Bad-Mom Thriller in Which Sarah Paulson Takes the Psycho Path to Crazytown

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Hulu movie Run falls smack into American Horror Story and Ratched star Sarah Paulson’s wackjob wheelhouse. She plays a mom whose wheelchair-bound teenage daughter has a litany of health issues, so they mostly stay home in their insular little bubble, and the more we get a sense of the situation, the more it has that should-we-eat-this-ham-from-the-back-of-the-fridge sense of slightly slimy, slightly ill-smelling off ness. Of course, if all was just fine and sandwich-ready, there might not be much of a movie here.

RUN : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The operating room. Surgeons resuscitate what appears to be a premature baby. The mother, Diane Sherman (Sarah Paulson) peers through the incubator glass, hope and despair mingling on her face. SEVENTEEN YEARS LATER: Diane has homeschooled Chloe (Kiera Allen) her whole life, and it’s been pretty effective, maybe too effective, because the kid seems pretty damn smart. She pulls herself out of bed into her wheelchair, takes a handful of pills for her irregular heartbeat and blood disorder, rubs ointment on her omnipresent skin rash, hits the inhaler for her asthma, checks her blood sugar, eats breakfast, does 90 minutes of physics, reads her lit assignment and waits for the postal carrier to come, hopefully with a University of Washington acceptance letter.

Mom, meanwhile, substitute teaches or tends her impressive garden, watering hose in one hand, wine in the other. They live in a nice country house on a dirt road and there are no neighbors in sight. One day, Chloe dips her hand into a grocery sack and finds a prescription bottle with Diane’s name on it. But inside are the pills Chloe takes every day. Hmm. She waits for her mom to leave to call the pharmacy, but the pharmacist immediately recognizes the number so Chloe hangs up. The mailman arrives and she rushes to the door only to find Mom holding the envelopes and a little short of breath, the car parked and still running with the door hanging open as if she raced to intercept the delivery and this is all starting to have the whiff of BAD HAM.

Chloe creeps downstairs in the middle of the night and — well, she can’t creep. She has to painstakingly get into her wheelchair and take the motorized lift down the steps as quietly as possible, but she’s resourceful. She fires up the computer (Mom won’t let her have an iPhone, gee I wonder why) and searches the name of the medication, but then the internet connection goes out, and maybe Mom was sitting in the dark watching the whole time? Chloe says they should go to a movie, and in the middle of a thriller titled Breakout (ha ha) she says she has to go the restroom but instead goes across the street to the pharmacy to get a phillips head to further loosen dear Mom’s already-loose screws, and pop this unsettling little mystery wide open.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Director Aneesh Chaganty nurtures some good Baby Jane / Misery / Carrie / Mommie Dearest vibes here. And one scene has more than a little Kill Bill in it.

Performance Worth Watching: Of course Paulson is delightfully twisted as the mama gone bananas, but Allen makes the most of her feature debut, digging deep for an intense, sometimes psychologically grueling performance.

Memorable Dialogue: “Sorry everyone, coming through, I’m paralyzed, feel bad for me.” — pressed for time because her mother is bonkers, Chloe pushes her way to the front of a long line at the pharmacy

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Chloe can’t run — hence the irony of the generic movie title — so she has to wind up her brain-gears in order to escape Codependenceville, pop. 2. It’s a bit of a bummer that Chaganty spends two acts establishing Chloe’s resourcefulness only to undermine it down the stretch as Run hops a jetliner to the remote Eastern European country of Ludicra. But at least there’s a couple nicely ominous shots of a classic Hitchcock Staircase during the climactic scene, so it wraps up with a touch of cinematic flair.

Wisely, the director keeps the overall concept simple — the broiling psychological mother-daughter stew here has but a few ingredients, and the goal is for Chloe to make like the title from loony Diane. He isn’t reinventing the wheel, but he’s remarkably adept at fostering tension; he executes a terrific sequence where Chloe knots together extension cords and army-crawls out the window onto the roof with her cheeks full of water and… well, I won’t ruin it, but it’s scary and hilarious, and Allen shows she’s capable of a fully committed physical performance.

Chaganty doesn’t quite whisk all the tones together smoothly, but at least he knows that Preposterous Thrillers work best with an elbow in the ribs. He leans on his veteran star — because Paulson can do this type of stuff convincingly with one hand behind her back cradling a glass of cabernet — showcases Allen and doesn’t distract us or himself from the matter at hand: 90 minutes of nudge-wink suspense.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Run is an impressive exercise in ramping-up tension, pun mostly intended. There’s plenty here that’s entertaining, laugh-out-loud funny and lightly disturbing.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba .

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Run Movie Explained (Plot And Ending)

The movie Run is a 2020 psychological drama directed by Aneesh Chaganty, who also brought us interesting films like Searching and Missing. It follows the story of a wheelchair-bound girl who is supported by her seemingly struggling single mother. But one day, she discovers there are some secrets in that household that could shatter her life. The film raises some questions, so here’s the plot and ending of the movie Run explained; spoilers ahead.

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To find where to stream any movie or series based on your country, use This Is Barry’s Where To Watch .

Oh, and if this article doesn’t answer all of your questions, drop me a comment or an FB chat message, and I’ll get you the answer . You can find other film explanations using the search option on top of the site.

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

– Plot Explained
– Diane Sherman’s Past
– The Truth About Chloe
– Tom, the mailman
– The Syringe
– Ending Explained

Run Movie: Plot Explained

The movie Run follows Chloe who realizes her mother stole her from the hospital after the death of her own baby. She keeps Chloe sick to prevent her from finding the truth. The climax of the movie sees Chloe discovering the the truth, being saved by the authorities, and exacting revenge on her fake mother.

Run begins with Diane giving birth to a premature baby, which is kept on a ventilator. We’re given the definition of 5 medical conditions: arrhythmia, asthma, diabetes, etc. After that, we cut straight to years later. Diane lives with her ailing daughter Chloe, who is home-schooled because of the medical conditions that she has listed in the previous cut.

One day, Chloe discovers a bunch of pills in Diane’s name in a shopping bag. Later that night, Chloe notices that Diane has given her the pill. Chloe confronts her mother, saying the green and grey pill is not hers, but her mother’s. Diane convinces Chloe that only the receipt is in Diane’s name, but the prescription is Chloe’s.

Chloe is not convinced and snoops around to notice that the pill bottles have Chloe’s label on top of Diane’s for the green and grey pill called Trigoxin. Late at night, Chloe tries to read up on the medicine, but Diane has disconnected the internet. Making a random call to a stranger, Chloe figures out that Trigoxin is a drug for arrhythmia but is a red pill and not a green and grey one.

Chloe suggests they go out for a movie, and under the pretext of going to the bathroom, Chloe heads out to the nearby pharmacy and convinces the store lady to disclose what the green and grey pills are. She says it’s Ridocaine, which is for dogs to alleviate leg pain, and that if humans took it, they’d experience numbness in the legs. Diane shows up and drugs Chloe and takes her home, and locks her up. Chloe breaks out and seeks the help of the mailman, Tom. Diane drugs him, too, and chains Chloe in the basement.

Plot Hole Alert!!

It’s a little ridiculous that Diane locks Chloe with every piece of evidence lying around, which is needed to know the exact truth about the past and the present (including all the hidden college acceptances). Yet when Diane returns, she’s shocked that Chloe knows the reality. This portion of the film feels like it was done only to let the audience know what the plot twist was, and it was far too conveniently placed for the film to move along.

Run Movie: What did Diane Sherman do with the baby?

From convenient pieces of evidence, Chloe learns that Diane gave birth to a baby that lived only a couple of hours. Before leaving the hospital, Diane steals another baby and moves town. She names the baby Chloe and raises her as her own daughter. Diane is clearly unstable because she goes on to do the unimaginable to little Chloe.

It’s important to note that we are told nothing about Diane’s past, who her husband or partner was and the source of her wealth. We don’t know if Diane’s mind split because of the death of her baby or if she was already unstable before that. I’d go for door number 2!

Run Movie: Why can’t Chloe walk?

Diane has been drugging Chloe from a very early age with medicines that induce the variety of medical conditions displayed at the beginning of the movie Run. In Reality, Chloe does not have any medical condition; everything she’s been suffering with is a result of the drugs she’s been taking most of her life.

Run Movie: What happened to Tom, the mailman?

The movie gives us enough evidence to say that Diane killed Tom and stashed him somewhere because he knew too much and was a threat to Diane. We see Diane drugging Tom before she gets Chloe. Later, we see blood on Diane’s sleeves. When Chloe notices it, Diane says Tom is fine; he’s just ‘sleeping’.

Run Movie: What was in the syringe?

Diane goes to the store to get some paint thinner. Diane has been reading up on how to make a neurotoxin that can induce amnesia in a person… with thinner, yes indeed! At this point, Diane has clearly lost her mind fully and is ready to do anything to make Chloe forget everything after reasoning with her fails. The syringe contains a homemade toxin that Diane believes can help Chloe forget everything she has learnt in the past few days and go back to living as a ‘happy family’. The reality is that the chemical in the syringe would have killed Chloe.

Chloe locks herself in, picks up a bottle of organophosphate, and gulps it after telling Diane she needs her. As expected, Diane rushes Chloe to the hospital. Unable to speak, Chloe tries to warn the nurse that her fake mom has gone bonkers. Before anything, Diane kills another patient, causing a code blue. Oh yes, she did! In the commotion, Diane leaves with Chloe. However, the nurse reads Chole’s writing that reads “Mom”. Realizing what has happened, the nurse calls security.

Before Diane can leave with Chloe, the security guards stop her. Because she’s armed and threatens to fire, they shoot her, and Diane has a terrible fall down the stairs but survives.

Run Movie Ending Explained: What does Chloe do to Diane?

Chloe, who can now walk a little (because she’s off drugs), is shown visiting her fake mom once a month. The ending of the movie run discloses that Chloe is now smuggling in and forcing pills on Diane, which is keeping her immobilized and sick, perpetually hindering any recovery from the fall. While the initial part of the conversation seems to be that Chloe might have reconciled with Diane, the truth is far from it. Chloe is looking for revenge, which she’s going to dish out over a long time to come.

Run Movie Ending Scene Explained Open Up Wide

What were your thoughts on the plot and ending of the movie Run? Did you like it, did you have a problem with the plot hole as well? Drop your comments!

Barry is a technologist who helps start-ups build successful products. His love for movies and production has led him to write his well-received film explanation and analysis articles to help everyone appreciate the films better. He’s regularly available for a chat conversation on his website and consults on storyboarding from time to time. Click to browse all his film articles

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Official Discussion - Run [SPOILERS]

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A homeschooled teenager begins to suspect her mother is keeping a dark secret from her.

Aneesh Chaganty

Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian

Sarah Paulson as Diane Sherman

Kiera Allen as Chloe Sherman

Pat Healy as Tom

Sara Sohn as Kammy

-- Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 64

Cast & crew

In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to re... Read all In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past. In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.

Elizabeth Debicki
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COMMENTS

Run movie review & film summary (2020)
But the great discovery of "Run" is Kiera Allen, making her feature film debut. As if performing opposite one of the greats working today weren't daunting enough, "Run" asks a ton of Allen in a physically and emotionally arduous role, and she's up for every challenge. She's a real find and a joy to watch. "Run" begins, though ...
Run (2020)
Rated: 4/5 Sep 1, 2022 Full Review Keith Garlington Keith & the Movies "Run" is a sneakily absorbing thriller that pokes at the idea of a mother's domineering love and a child's blind trust.
Run (2020 American film)
Run (referred to on-screen as 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 disabled teenager Chloe Sherman, who begins to suspect that her mother, Diane (Sarah Paulson), has been keeping a dark secret about her upbringing.The film has connections to other films by Chaganty and ...
Run (2020)
Bad medicine. Sara Paulson and Kiera Allen combine beautifully to play mother and daughter in this twisted thriller. A young, disabled girl is convinced that her mother is hiding a dark secret, surely there's a reason why she's shut away from the outside world. After a slow start, it opens up very nicely, it's twisted, and will definitive you ...
Run (2020)
Run: Directed by Aneesh Chaganty. With Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Sara Sohn, Pat Healy. Chloe, a teenager who is confined to a wheelchair, is homeschooled by her mother, Diane. Chloe soon becomes suspicious of her mother and begins to suspect that she may be harboring a dark secret.
Run
Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 30, 2021. Alejandro Turdo Hoy Sale Cine. Run starts off as a Horror movie, but quite soon it becomes clear that this is an A to Z Thriller flick. Halfway ...
Run (2020) Movie Review
In terms of quality, pace, writing, acting, and thrills, Run is on par with and sometimes exceeds director Aneesh Chaganty's first feature, the chillingly disturbing Searching. For Run, Chaganty structures his focus on child abuse and parental derangement in three acts: family horror, hostage drama, escape thriller. By the time the pace ramps ...
'Run' Review: Bad Medicine
Directed by Aneesh Chaganty. Horror, Mystery, Thriller. PG-13. 1h 30m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission ...
Run (2020) Movie Review
Run Review: Sarah Paulson Is One Crazy Mother. Director Aneesh Chaganty delivers sleek thrills in Run, a Hitchcock-inspired thriller that operates on a razor's edge. Swiftly ushered in by a powerful performance from American Horror Story alum Sarah Paulson, Run promises the audience will stay securely at the edge of their seats for the 90 ...
Run Review: Movie (2020)
October 8, 2020 9:09pm. Courtesy of Hulu. A delicious Hitchcockian thriller about the perils of maternal codependency, Aneesh Chaganty's sophomore feature Run proves wrong anyone who might've ...
Review: 'Run' is a gripping psychological ...
Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen stand out in Aneesh Chaganty's latest thriller "Run." Read our full movie review and stream it on Hulu Nov. 20. ... Over the last decade, Paulson has established herself as somewhat of a modern horror icon, anchoring the "American Horror Story" franchise and dabbling in other freaky shows and films, and her ...
'Run' Review: A Wheelchair-Using Teen Tries to Escape a Sadistic
Sarah Paulson. 'Run' Review: A Wheelchair-Using Teen Tries to Escape a Sadistic Caregiver in Wild Sarah Paulson Thriller. Reviewed in Nightstream Film Festival (online), Los Angeles, Oct. 8 ...
Run review
Run review: American Horror Story star Sarah Paulson's thriller is a wild, twisted ride. ... as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world.
Run
Run is the story of Chloe Sherman (Allen), a wheelchair-bound homeschooled 17-year-old, whose mother, Diane (Paulson), is consumed by caring for the teen and is overprotective. Diane provides Chloe her medications, physical therapy, sets a strict educational curriculum and a stricter diet to manage all of Chloe's ailments.
Run
RUN is a new Hulu horror-thriller starring Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen. It has a rather simple plot with a built-in mystery and the 90-minute runtime does it justice. It does pack quite a punch in many ways. Mostly, it's just really entertaining. Read our full Run movie review here!
'Run' Review: Sarah Paulson Careens from Psycho Horror to Camp in
October 9, 2020 3:00 pm. "Run". Hulu. Having a mother is a scary thing in " Run ," Aneesh Chaganty 's slick thriller starring a deranged Sarah Paulson as the domineering single parent of a ...
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 ...
Run Movie Ending Explained
Related: Every Delayed 2020 Horror Movie. Run's ending shows Chloe turning the tables on her long-time captor; Diane is at her most vulnerable in a psychiatric facility. While this might seem like an open and shut ending, there's a lot to unpack about Chloe's mindset and Diane's ultimate fate that weren't made clear by the time the credits rolled.
'Run' (2020) is a brilliant horror thriller which has ...
'Run' (2020) is a brilliant horror thriller which has tones of 'Misery', including the smart protagonist. ... "Love, for Real" Hallmark Movie Review - "Love, for Real" Hallmark Movie Review - I LOVED this movie! Absolutely loved it! I thought it was great that they were poking fun at the hit TV show The Bachelor. It made for a ...
'Run' is a Terrifying Psychological Thriller
Okay, enough about me, let's get back to Run. This film stars Kiera Allen as Chloe, a diabetic, asthmatic, wheelchair-bound teenager, and Sarah Paulson has her devoted mother, Diane. Over the ...
'Run' Hulu Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Stream It Or Skip It: 'Run' on Hulu, a Bad-Mom Thriller in Which Sarah Paulson Takes the Psycho Path to Crazytown. Hulu movie Run falls smack into American Horror Story and Ratched star Sarah ...
Run Movie Explained (Plot And Ending)
The movie Run is a 2020 psychological drama directed by Aneesh Chaganty, who also brought us interesting films like Searching and Missing. It follows the story of a wheelchair-bound girl who is supported by her seemingly struggling single mother. But one day, she discovers there are some secrets in that household that could shatter her life.
Official Discussion
Official Discussion - Run [SPOILERS] : r/movies. Go to movies. r/movies. r/movies. The goal of /r/Movies is to provide an inclusive place for discussions and news about films with major releases. Submissions should be for the purpose of informing or initiating a discussion, not just to entertain readers.
MaXXXine (2024)
MaXXXine: Directed by Ti West. With Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan. In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
How Realistic Is Netflix's Shark Movie Under Paris?
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'Run Lola Run' at 25: A High-Speed, High-Style Thriller
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20th Century Fox Television/Ryan Murphy Productions/Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision American Horror Story: Asylum

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