**This review contains MINOR spoilers**
The Story- After double-booking her boss, James Fuller (Clark Gregg) on his wedding anniversary, Cherie (Ella Belinska) agrees to fill in for dinner with a client named Ethan (Pilou Asbaek). Cherie’s dinner date takes a dangerous turn, when Ethan suddenly attacks her at his house.
Ethan challenges Cherie to a game: Ethan will stalk and hunt Cherie until sunrise. If Cherie survives, Ethan will let her go. Cherie seeks protection and help from her ex-boyfriend, Trey (Dayo Okeniyi), and her ex-friend, Dawn (Carmela Zumbado). James’ wife, Judy (Betsy Brandt) quietly gives Cherie crucial tips for survival. But if Cherie plans on stopping and defeating Ethan, she’ll need to join forces with The First Lady (Shohreh Aghdashloo) before it’s too late.
My Thoughts- Ethan is a monster! Not only is Ethan a cruel and heartless misogynist, he’s literally a monster, a ferocious and relentless beast. Ethan’s transformation scene is one of the bigger highlights in the movie, and it’s a scene that doesn’t work without Ella Belinska’s perfect horrified reaction. You don’t actually see Ethan transformation, because the focus and the camera is solely fixed on Cherie. You’re lead to believe Ethan’s true form is something that’s genuinely grotesque and shocking. The real Ethan is too unbearable to witness. That’s the idea, and a church was the perfect ironic setting for a demonic monster’s big reveal.
Pilou Asbaek knocks it out of the park as Ethan. During the early stages of the movie, Asbaek absolutely nails the suave, charming, and charismatic gentleman side of Ethan. But when Ethan reveals his true colors, Asbaek smoothly switches gears to playing a cruel and sadistic man, who enjoys torturing Cherie.
Cherie is a single mother, who’s just trying to do her best, a young and shy pre-law secretary struggling to make it in a man’s world. Cherie was HOPING the night out with Ethan would be something “nice.” She just wanted to let her guard down, and have a good time, so she could remember what it was like to have fun with life.
There’s no denying Ella Belinska puts a lot of effort into playing Cherie. It’s a lot of screaming, begging, and pleading for help throughout the movie, but you’ll still see flashes of a potentially solid or good overall performance.
But Belinska’s hysterics fits Cherie’s character, and what she’s going through. We’re talking about a woman, who’s forced to run around mostly barefoot a lot at night in some seedy parts of Los Angeles, while she’s being chased by a bloodthirsty maniac. That, and Cherie truly suffers here. Ethan beats her for his own amusement, she’s constantly covered in blood, and exhausted. Cherie is forced to endure a hellacious series of events. To make matters worse, she doesn’t have time to relax, breathe, or slow down, if she wants to survive, because Ethan is closing in and waiting for an opportunity to attack.
Run Sweetheart Run’s ending sticks the landing for an easy and satisfying conclusion, but it’s a questionable path to get there. Ethan is one mean dude. He’s all-powerful, and you could say he’s nearly invincible, so why didn’t he just kill Cherie earlier? I get it. Ethan loves the chase, the hunt, and he gets a kick out of toying with Cherie. But killing her was his main goal, right? So why didn’t he just do it, when he had numerous chances to finish her off? Yes, you could say Ethan got too cocky, and his ego was his downfall. But it’s just one too many self-inflicted missed opportunities for Ethan during his pursuit of Cherie.
Consistency with Ethan’s vulnerability is another problem here. Cherie knocks Ethan down with brick, one brick, but Ethan walks away without a scratch after the attempted ambush at Trey’s house? Mind you, Dawn was armed with a shotgun, and everyone else had weapons, including a sword! Maybe you could say Ethan was too fast, and he used super speedy techniques to avoid any damage, but I’m not buying it. The priest also wounded Ethan at the church with a sword? Yeah, the priest caught him off guard, but it’s still a bit strange.
Luck, convenient luck, is also on Cherie’s side. When she learns the truth about James Fuller, Cherie runs outside, and there’s a bus passing by. After the big car crash, a dog shows up to protect Cherie from Ethan. It’s a big deal, because Ethan really hates dogs. But the timing of everything is hard to ignore. Ethan is about to murder Cherie (again), and a dog just walks right up to Ethan, seemingly out of nowhere?
For me, Run Sweetheart Run has a handful of annoyances, but there’s also a lot of good to focus on here. Cherie is a young woman and a single mom, who’s struggling to find her way in the world, a world dominated and ruled by condescending and misogynistic men. Pay close attention, and you’ll notice every time someone calls Cherie “sweetheart”, whether it’s Ethan or James, it’s not used in an endearing or complimentary way. The men surrounding Cherie view her as this naive little pet, someone, who obeys or should obey commands without any real resistance. Ethan also refers to Cherie as a “cocktease,” who wore a “fuck me” dress to meet him.
Cherie is justifiably terrified of Ethan. Judy? She walks around on eggshells, because she knows who Ethan truly is, and she knows the dark secrets behind James’ connection to him. Fear is used to keep women in line, and Ethan is the boss, dishing out brutal violence to ensure the system he put in place stays on the tracks.
Cleverly breaking the fourth wall happens in three noteworthy scenes. You’ll either see Ethan turn the camera away, or he’ll put his hand up to stop filming, because what he’s about to do to Cherie is too terrible to witness. Is it possible Ethan is giving commands to the camera, because he wants the audience to know he’s in complete control? It makes sense. Ethan has the ability to control other men with his powers. The guy is an egomaniac, so he gets to decide what we can or can’t see, when his character is on the screen.
But things change towards the end. Cherie takes control of the camera during the big final showdown. Why? Because a weakened Ethan is not calling the shots anymore. He’s not in a position to tell Cherie what to do, threaten her, or make any last attempts to boss her around.
Run Sweetheart Run mostly delivers an entertaining film, telling an ambitious young woman’s story about fighting back against the most evil forms of sexism and a patriarchy with a horror twist. The movie takes some time to breathe with a bit of levity, when Trey appears. Some decent laughs during the fiasco at Trey’s house, because Run Sweetheart Run hits a point, where you’re introduced to more carefree and relaxed characters, who aren’t afraid to crack jokes. And they’re having fun watching the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre!
Good music and a nice, fitting soundtrack for this one, and a fair amount of blood and gore here, including a few nasty scenes. The overall cast is solid from top to bottom. Shohreh Aghdashloo brings a commanding presence to The First Lady. Aghdashloo plays a powerful character, but she’s also someone, who doesn’t take herself too seriously. She has a good sense of humor, isn’t afraid to curse, and you know she’s a woman, who’s dead serious about killing Ethan.
Director Shana Feste deserves a lot of credit for turning Los Angeles into a scary place, during daylight and nighttime hours. Eerily quiet and spooky streets, the wanted posters plastered everywhere, sordid characters roaming around, and showing numerous desolate settings littered with trash and rows of tents really drives home the idea that Cherie is truly all alone in a big city.
But surely Cherie can count on good samaritans to help her, right? Well, no. There’s the scene outside the movie theater, where two women, obviously believing Cherie is an hysterical alcoholic, hesitate to help her. And a woman looks away and goes back to minding her own business during the scene on the bus, when Cherie is sexually assaulted by the creepy weirdo.
The police? Instead of doing something useful for Cherie, after she barely escaped an attack from a psycho, they treated her like a criminal, a loony drunk wandering the streets late at night. And there’s the scene in the underground club, where a soldier, feeling disrespected because she didn’t enlist, turns into a jerk and tries to intimidate Cherie, while she’s wearing a bedazzled military jacket.
I have a lot of problems with the gaps in logic for Ethan hunting Cherie. But there’s no denying that Cherie can’t escape one nagging problem: she’s not safe anywhere. Not on the streets, not at a police station, her ex-boyfriend’s house, or the bathroom at a convenience store. Throwing a bloody tampon on the back of a pickup truck buys her some time, but it’s not enough to stop Ethan. Cherie can’t escape the monster lurking in the shadows, because no matter where she goes, or who she turns to for help, it’s only a matter of time before Ethan finds her.
Rating- 7/10
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