'Run Rabbit Run'
Never seen the Australian wetlands? Well, you’re gonna.
My Daughter, My Ghost
Decapitated daughters, little girls falling down wells, cherubs possessed by demons. As if horror movies haven’t provided mothers with enough nightmare fuel, enter “Run Rabbit Run,” which manifests its darkness around a girl’s seventh birthday. Though it’s slow and muted, like the Australian wilderness its characters occupy, this film’s strong performances and complex psychology make it a worthwhile addition to the ever-growing film canon of problematic mothers.
“Run Rabbit Run,” the first horror film from the Australian director Daina Reid, starts with the protagonist, Sarah, and her daughter, Mia, celebrating Mia’s seventh trip around the sun. Sarah, played by the ever-compelling Sarah Snook, seems like a perfect single mom. She drops Mia off at school and heads off to her job as a fertility doctor, where she gets to show a tearful mother-to-be her first baby’s heartbeat.
It doesn’t take long to see the cracks in Sarah’s veneer, though. When a white rabbit and reminders of Sarah’s estranged mother show up at her house, mommy dearest quickly unravels. Around the film’s 15-minute mark, Sarah breaks out her secret cigarettes and gets up to mischief while Mia is asleep. She smugly burns a card her mother sent for Mia’s birthday, then tries to get Mia’s new pet rabbit to “fuck off.”
Her sins certainly won’t go unpunished — after all, she is a mother, and this is a horror movie. When Mia starts asking to see her grandmother and pretending to be Sarah’s long-lost sister, Alice, the stage is set for one deliciously creepy stumble down memory lane. “Run Rabbit Run intrigues rather than thrills as it ambles along, its terrors understated and colors dulled to earthy hues. Still, this pressurized little world remains compelling.
That’s largely thanks to outstanding performances from Snook and Lily LaTorre, who plays Mia. LaTorre’s strong, stern brow can make her blue eyes almost look black, a startling complement to her cherubic, little-girl cheeks. Cinematographer Bonnie Elliott makes the dark freckles on her face seem almost otherworldly as she catapults from childlike joy to something far more sinister.
It’s a shame, ultimately, that “Run Rabbit Run” is landing as a Netflix original. This is not bombastic, high-adrenaline horror — there are scares you can easily miss just by glancing down at your phone. So if you’re in the mood for a well-plotted and -acted tale of family darkness, turn out the lights and tune in all the way. Though it’s a long, mostly quiet journey to the center of this family mystery, “Run Rabbit Run” shows that there can be scariness in subtlety.
Run time: 100 min.
Not recommended if you: didn’t like “The Babadook,” are averse to mild gore and disturbing themes, are a nervous single mother, dislike the Australian wilderness, prefer your thrills delivered posthaste.
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