You introduce a violent element to your house, and instantly events can change. “Running Scared” is a taut examination of how one little slip up can result in a massive change of your life, and is also the ultimate example of karma. “Running Scared” is a very tense thriller revolving around one man’s struggle to save his own life after he slips up royally, and in many ways, it works. “Running Scared” is not the brainless crime thriller I thought it would be, but is a gritty neo-noise that bases its plot on a string of events that unfold to either digs our hero into his grave, or help him out of it.

The fact that all of the events can take place because of one tiny mistake is pulled off with rather good execution thanks to a coherent story that tries to be as realistic as possible. One tiny ripple can cause a massive tidal wave for someone who’s had a fortunate string of good luck, and it takes many loose ends to tie before our reluctant anti-hero can sleep easy. More so though, Kramer’s film is centered on the theme of the loss or childhood innocence. But on the flipside, “Running Scared” is a basic exploitation flick filled with camp and cheese that will purely entertain you, particularly because of the extremely over the top performances by its cast. From Walker to Farmiga, the cast really does know how to chew the scenery and assure us that Kramer never takes this material too seriously even with the demented route it takes halfway in.

Walker is especially fun to watch as Joey Gazelle a mafia confidant who hides evidence for them, but when something happens, he finds that his life of comfort is at risk. Walker, who I’m growing quite fond of as an actual actor, chews the scenery with the best of them, and that’s what makes his character so much fun. Kramer’s film explores how a kid grasps violence and his attempts to resolve his own trauma, the loss of childhood innocence, and how violence is difficult to keep out of your home when you surround yourself with it, and then the film gets much more demented and surreal as the story unfolds. Kramer’s direction is on par with the story based around consistent stark colors of red that works, and keeps “Running Scared” an original and unique action thriller that I had fun with.

Were it not so obviously laid out for us, this could have been a rather brilliant action film too. Kramer’s direction is often very weak, and when he’s pointing to his puzzle of a film, he makes the clues and plot devices too obvious. In one scene he’ll zoom in quickly on a piece of setting which will obviously come into play later on, and then continues with this by focusing on a particular part of a setting making it plainly obvious that later we’ll see more of it which will affect the characters and situations.  Kramer also relies too much on visuals and not enough on the weight of its story creating these highly stylish sequences that zoom in on characters and zoom out that look an awful lot like Kramer is attempting to mimic the style of “Sin City” when really it just comes off as padding and compensation for a film that gets much hokier as it goes along, with sub-plots that become to convenient and obvious for what the entire moral of the story is. And when I was sure this film had the balls to do what I think it did, Kramer gives us one huge cop-out of a climax that made the event before it pointless, and rendering it a waste.

It sure as hell isn’t a perfect movie, but it sure as hell was not the mindless mafia action thriller I was expecting it to be. Instead it’s a tense thriller based around mistakes, circumstances, and coincidences that leave the lives of three people hanging in the balance served with a rather demented series of scenarios to go along with it, and I enjoyed it in all its cheesiness and stupidity.

• Thomas Jane declined the role of Joey Gazelle due to scheduling conflicts. Paul Walker was a second choice.
• The medicine bottle that Oleg uses to find the address of Dez and Adele's apartment is a prescription for Valtrex, a medication used to treat genital herpes.

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