REVIEW: ‘Run’ is a fantastic rush of suspense

Don’t get on Sarah Paulson’s bad side. That’s one lesson to take away from this movie.

In this film, Paulson plays Diane Sherman, a single mother who’s been raising her daughter Chloe on her own. Chloe (Kiera Allen) is wheelchair bound and has several diseases, requiring a lot of medication.

Chloe is a teen anticipating college, and she’s really excited to get accepted to a university. However, as the film gets underway, Chloe begins to notice her mother is hiding things.

“Run” is a really solid thriller that uses the trapped-in-a-house approach to great success. The movie has an atmosphere  very reminiscent of 1990’s “Misery,” and it excels at making that intensity be felt by the audience.

The film doesn’t quite hide things from the viewer. It’s pretty clear early on what’s really happening in the picture, so there’s not a huge curve-ball thrown. This works to the movie’s advantage, because as a viewer quickly learns the truth, the tension rapidly increases as concern grows for Chloe.

Watching Chloe’s awareness of her mother’s actions increase and subsequently seeing the situation go in a downward spiral is engaging to experience. The film is consistently suspenseful, especially during the wonderful second act.

Making a lot of this movie work are the two lead performances. Paulson is especially effective as the mother Diane.

The character is emotionally manipulative, calculating and is clearly hiding things. Paulson is superb in bringing this all to the screen with a thrilling performance.

Allen as Chloe is just as integral with a physical, demanding performance. Her character does go through the ringer here, and Allen really makes it convincing here.

For all of its strengths, “Run” does stumble a bit in the third act. Some moments in the final scenes get a bit too unrealistic compared with the rest of the film and the ending could have been handled better.

However, director Aneesh Chaganty, who was also a co-writer on this, delivered an above average, entertaining thriller with some good performances. 3.75 out of 5.