Sundance 2023 M2: Run Rabbit Run

I’m not a big HORROR Movie fan, but I have been doing one H Movie a year at Sundance, and have really enjoyed them, especially ones that do not take themselves seriously.. which after all is one of the tropes of H Movies. In the Horror category:

Run Rabbit Run

SUNDANCE SAYS: Fertility doctor Sarah begins her beloved daughter Mia’s seventh birthday expecting nothing amiss. But as an ominous wind swirls in, Sarah’s carefully controlled world begins to alter. Mia begins behaving oddly and a rabbit appears outside their front door — a mysterious birthday gift that delights Mia but seems to deeply disconcert Sarah. As days pass, Mia becomes increasingly not herself, demanding to see Sarah’s long-estranged, hospitalized mother (the grandmother she’s never met before) and fraying Sarah’s nerves as the child’s bizarre tantrums begin to point her toward Sarah’s own dark history. As a ghost from her past re-enters Sarah’s life, she struggles to cling to her distant young daughter.

Director Daina Reid crafts an exquisitely fine-tuned psychological thriller, elegantly incorporating unsettling visual and aural cues to signal how destabilized Sarah’s world has become, in perfect complement to screenwriter Hannah Kent’s captivating excavation of the character’s most deeply guarded secrets and lingering traumas. Sarah Snook does fascinating work, as the desperate mother’s escalating loss of control unearths hidden and complex layers of her identity.

Hmmmm. Interesting synopsis. Australian, although could be anywhere. Some bleak rural scenes. It is an odd H movie as it was not very scary. Mostly it was just odd. I figured out the main event fairly early - and then it played out reasonably well. A couple plot holes, but… In other words - not the best. It got some buzz, but it didn’t do it for me. Will be available on Netflix (at some point). A good movie for Netflix.

Run Rabbit Run on the Sundance Festival Website

Tom Jones