Run Rabbit Run (Daina Reid, 2023) wr. Hannah Kent; Sarah Snook, Damon Herriman, Greta Scacchi, Lily LaTorre; supernatural thriller
As real reviewers (below) have found this to be a conventional film of its genre, I'll just add my two cents worth. Re the story: I couldn't make any sense of it. Even in a fantasy of this kind, there should be something that's 'real' as counterpoise to the characters' imaginings, and I couldn't tell the one from tother. Also on that topic, a story should have some kind of 'subtext' (as my dear departed psychiatrist/playwright friend always said) and Hannah Kent's script seems to lack that.
But the main thing I want to say is that Sarah Snook is again impressively faultless in her acting. The little girl is pretty good too. I hope she doesn't go on working past her use-by date, as a few Australian actors who started as children I could mention did/have. That beanpole guy, for example.
Damon Herriman and Greta Scacchi are good too (of course), in small roles.
Travis Johnson:
Sarah Snook takes time out from trying to impress Brian Cox in Succession to play a fertility doctor in this supernatural thriller from director Daina Reid and screenwriter Hannah Kent. Snook’s Sarah thinks she has a handle on life, death, and the firm divide in between, but when her daughter Mia starts acting unusually after her seventh birthday, she must come to terms with both a possible supernatural explanation and her own traumatic past.
We tend to do well with spooky kids in richly psychological thrillers (see: The Babadook, Celia), and this latest entry into the subgenre will be getting an airing at Sundance in January before a wider release later in the year. Damon Herriman, Greta Scacchi and Lily LaTorre co-star. flicks.com.au, 3 January 2023.
Leila Latif:
For those not particularly steeped in the horror highlights of the past decade, Run Rabbit Run may make for a worthwhile watch; the direction, script and sun-dappled camerawork are all competent, bordering on elegant. But for genre fans, every beat is so familiar that the film feels like the ungodly creation of an AI that was tasked with blending Repulsion (1965), The Babadook (2014), Relic (2020), Hereditary and even last year’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Nanny. It is also susceptible to some of the less exciting instincts of ‘elevated’ horror, wherein juicy genre elements play second fiddle to fairly conventional dramatic arcs, and character development gets in the way of the in-depth exploration of an interesting concept. In Run Rabbit Run, even the occasional jump-scares seem to exist out of contractual obligation rather than profound engagement with the genre’s cinematic potential. Creatively nasty moments are hinted at, such as rooms in Sarah’s childhood home filled with items that resemble medieval torture devices, but this horror film appears almost too embarrassed to debase itself by including anything approaching a horrifying moment. Sight and Sound.
Eliza Janssen:
... As the film obsessively circles in on a bizarrely abrupt end, it does perhaps achieve some goal of making us empathise with Sarah’s unravelling, as we’re made to feel frenzied and confused while watching. At some point, though, Run Rabbit Run seems like it’s merely punishing its characters (and us), by being both nonsensically monotonous and also too sensible for its own good. Somebody put Sarah Snook in a fun, fresh, gutsy Aussie horror movie please: I wanna see her fight a big crocodile or evil bogans or something. flicks.com.
Wikipedia very kindly, as it does these days, gives a useful summary of the reception of the film (I won't include the links or footnotes):
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on 93 reviews, with an average rating of 5.0/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Run Rabbit Run boasts some powerhouse performances, but they're largely overwhelmed by a thin plot and overreliance on stale horror tropes."[13] On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100 based on 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[14]
Leila Latif of Sight and Sound wrote, "For those not particularly steeped in the horror highlights of the past decade, Run Rabbit Run may make for a worthwhile watch; the direction, script and sun-dappled camerawork are all competent, bordering on elegant. But for genre fans, every beat is so familiar that the film feels like the ungodly creation of an AI that was tasked with blending Repulsion (1965), The Babadook (2014), Relic (2020), Hereditary and even last year's Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Nanny."[15] Jourdain Searles of The Hollywood Reporter also noted the film's similarities to The Babadook and Hereditary. Searles said that the film was "moody and atmospheric" and "easily builds tension and dread", but "keeps hinting at depth that never comes. Director Daina Reid takes us through all the similar motions–hallucinations, mysterious injuries, bursts of violence in the most generic way possible. Even the symbolic white rabbit that appears throughout the film inspires neither interest nor dread."[16]
IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio gave the film a C grade, calling it "a pile-up of banal horror tropes", but praised the film's cinematography. He added, "The saving grace that makes Rabbit maybe worth seeing is an unkempt Sarah Snook, who goes into full, well, Babadook and Black Swan and even Repulsion territory in the movie's final throwdown."[17]
Ed Gibbs of The Times gave the film 3/4 stars, writing, "Reid's handsomely shot film takes its time building to its inevitable climax, and some of the more familiar genre tropes feel a little on the nose. But Snook carries the piece with gusto".[18] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times said that the film "delivers a succession of initially effective frights before devolving into Run Rabbit Run Rinse Repeat", but added, "I was glad to see it in a packed Park City house regardless, happily sandwiched between two friends whose nervous giggles, along with Snook's characteristically arresting performance, were more than enough to keep me in my seat."[19] Damon Wise from Deadline Hollywood described the film as "effective but perhaps overlong" but with "a poetic resonance" that makes for a "nightmarish essay on action and consequence, not to mention the isolation and travails that come with single parenthood". Wise said the film "deliberately overlap[s] notions of reality and abstraction", and praised LaTorre and Snook's performances.[20]
as above
Garry Gillard | New: 10 January, 2023 | Now: 21 July, 2023