{"id":39943,"date":"2023-10-20T03:18:20","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T07:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=39943"},"modified":"2023-10-20T03:16:46","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T07:16:46","slug":"run-sweetheart-run-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/20\/run-sweetheart-run-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Run, Sweetheart, Run (2020)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Subtlety is not one of Shana Feste\u2019s strong suits and that\u2019s probably why I loved \u201cRun Sweet heart Run.\u201d It\u2019s not subtle at all. It, in fact, clubs us over the head with its message about the dangers of being a woman in modern society. It\u2019s a horror movie in every sense of the word that takes every probable situation that a woman can find herself in, and then amplifies it with a villain that is absolutely more human than human. It\u2019s so blatant in fact with its message about the predatory society women are stuck in, that director Feste even breaks the fourth wall on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n

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Initially apprehensive when her boss insists she meet with one of his most important clients, single mom Cherie (Ella Balinska) is relieved and excited when she meets charismatic Ethan (Pilou Asb\u00e6k). The influential businessman defies expectations and sweeps Cherie off her feet. But at the end of the night, when the two are alone together, he reveals his true, violent nature. Battered and terrified, she flees for her life, beginning a relentless game of cat-and-mouse with a bloodthirsty assailant hell-bent on her utter destruction.<\/p>\n

Shana Feste\u2019s \u201cRun Sweetheart Run\u201d is a stellar horror film teeming with social commentary. Although the director is seemingly on the side of character Cherie, she builds a villain that is so powerful that he defies the fourth wall in order to bend the universe to his will. From the first sly acknowledgement to the camera in the epilogue to the final shot of Cheri, \u201cRun Sweetheart Run\u201d is clear with its mission statement. While villain Ethan is a horrifying monster, he\u2019s able to stalk and pursue his victims because of the civilization Cherie is in. She\u2019s in a world where too many women like her have been victimized and stalked, and she\u2019s confronted with so many variations of the fall out. From slut shaming police officers, to dismissive bystanders, to traumatized taxi drivers, Cherie runs the gamut of what assault victims endure.<\/p>\n

And as the hours wear on, she runs out of options quickly. Pilou Asb\u00e6k really is one of the most charismatic and horrifying horror movie villains of the last five years. He\u2019s just everything you want and don\u2019t want a horror villain to be, and to make things worse, he\u2019s always five steps ahead of our protagonist. As for Ella Balinska, she really does carry the movie with co-star Asb\u00e6k, building a fascinating chemistry as well as progressing from someone who is fighting a losing battle for her life. Writers Shana Feste, Keith Josef Adkins, and Kellee Terrell keep Ethan an ambiguous amorphous monster that is a very scathing symbol of the patriarchy.<\/p>\n

Ethan is neither a vampire nor a demon. He\u2019s worse. He\u2019s the embodiment of everything women are terrified of. He\u2019s entitled, he\u2019s privileged, he\u2019s sadistic, he\u2019s mentally abusive, he\u2019s physically abusive, he\u2019s predatory, he\u2019s narcissistic, he\u2019s ruthless, he\u2019s masochistic, he\u2019s gas lighting, he\u2019s territorial, and he\u2019s unapologetic. Even worse off is that he knows that the world, deep down, is on his side. Even the director of the film has no power over him, as Ethan controls the narrative whenever he feels it necessary. If we don\u2019t see him victimize Cherie, can we prove he did it? I will say with disappointment that \u201cRun Sweetheart Run\u201d loses all steam once Shohreh Agdashloo\u2019s character is introduced.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless Shana Feste\u2019s \u201cRun Sweetheart Run\u201d still wraps up as a nail biting, just downright intense survival horror film with a lot of malice projected toward not just predators, but the society that nurtures the predators.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Subtlety is not one of Shana Feste\u2019s strong suits and that\u2019s probably why I loved \u201cRun Sweet heart Run.\u201d It\u2019s not subtle at all. It, in fact, clubs us over the head with its message about the dangers of being a woman in modern society. It\u2019s a horror movie in every sense of the word […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[259,477,703,1008,1012,1087],"class_list":["post-39943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-halloween-horror-month","category-movie-reviews","tag-dark-comedy","tag-horror","tag-mystery","tag-supernatural","tag-survival","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39943"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39945,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39943\/revisions\/39945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}