Title: Run Hide Die
RLJ Entertainment
Director: Collin Joseph Neal
Writer: Alison Monda
Cast: Alison Monda, Alicia Mendez, Ivey Bronwen, Tabitha Bastien, Nathan Christopher Haase, Gail Harvey
Running time: 75min, Not Rated (Sexuality, Language, Gore, Violence)
Available on DVD, VOD & Digital Video September 1, 2015
It’s the anniversary of Addison’s husband’s death and she has been distant from everyone she knows. On her front doorstep she finds a bouquet of flowers and an invite from her mother to go use her uncle’s cabin in the woods for the weekend. She calls up several of her friends and they all are eager to see her and spend some time catching up. When they get there, Addison becomes her old self and is able to laugh again…until she calls her mother to thank her and is confused when her mom doesn’t know anything about flowers or a cabin invite, and the line goes dead. Soon all the girls are violently attacked and tied up in a room by her mother-in-law, who blames Addison for the death of her son. How violent is her wrath when the truth of his death is finally revealed?
The Good: The chemistry of the group of girls feels very genuine. The dialogue is natural and the obvious ad-libbing works well to fill the gaps.
The Bad:The story doesn’t flow well. There’s a buildup to the big reveal, and the reason behind the husband’s death is kind of lame. This mother finds out how and why her son died and overreacts by brutalizing these girls. She’s an older lady. None of these younger women can overpower her? She has one girl cut out organs from one and plans on cooking them up for another one to eat – why? The way she’s torturing each girl appears to be strictly for shock value. There’s no reason behind each violent act.
The gore effects were cheap. The scene where one girl is forced to cut into the stomach, which looked like wax or latex. The knife couldn’t cut through and the organs removed looked like pieces of steak. Did the persons responsible not take any anatomy courses? The spot they cut into, would most likely reveal the small intestine. Any muscle there would not come out in symmetrical pieces. The wound was too clean. If you’re trying for gore, commit to it. Your audience is smarter than you think.
The ending was confusing and too convenient. Somehow someone connected to Addison’s husband’s family is able to clean up the mess. Someone we have to kind of guess by looking at a random photograph. There’s an actor credited as “the Butcher” but they don’t seem to know how to “butch.” They’re supposed to work in a diner, you’d think they’d know how to cut a piece of meat. They couldn’t make that a casting requirement? One of the few scenes I actually laughed was seeing the cook cutting the meat, and then the character Indy putting a gun to her head after eating a piece of the steak. Shit, that steak must’ve been something awful.
It took 3 years for this film to be released on DVD. I think writer/actor Alison Monda had some good ideas, but the story itself didn’t flesh out. There is some good suspense, but there was too little character development to really care about these girls. You feel sorry for the Ariel the actress, Addison the widow and Indy the punky lesbian, but the rest of the girls were just meatbags. Why was the mother in law such a psycho bitch? Who was this other dude that shows up out of nowhere? Too many questions to ask and no answers to give.
Acting: C
Story: D
Technical: F
Total Rating: D
Reviewed by: JM Willis