Run

From the writer-director of Searching comes another neatly crafted, briskly paced & delightfully atmospheric mystery-thriller that makes fab use of its genre elements to deliver the chills. Run steadily ratchets up the tension & only gets more suspenseful as plot progresses but the story also loses its sure footing in the final act and fails to separate itself from the crowd.

Co-written & directed by Aneesh Chaganty, where his feature film debut dazzled us with its originality, unpredictability & edge-of-the-seat storytelling, this sophomore effort only gets bogged down by our own familiarity with the setup. Still, there are several tense & thrilling scenarios in store here and the plot sustains its grip on the viewers for the most part. However, the payoff isn't rewarding enough.

It doesn't take long for the main plot to surface. It actually does a tad too early when more time should've been devoted to make the mother-daughter bonding feel real & authentic before sowing the seeds of doubt & suspicion in our protagonist. Acting is impressive from both Sarah Paulson & Kiera Allen, for the former is believable as the crazy mom while the latter renders every facet of her character's physicality with precision to steal the show.

Overall, Run is a competently constructed example of its genre(s) that manages to keep us invested in the outcome despite the predictable storyline but unfortunately fails to stick the landing in the final moments to wrap up on a fulfilling note. The finale still works, albeit in a formulaic & generic way. Underwhelming when compared to Chaganty's previous feature, Run is still far from a disaster and a slight adjustment in expectations should yield a satisfying enough experience for most, if not all.