The Stream: Everything you think will happen happens.

The Big Screen: Kiera Allen gives a feisty performance.

The Final Bill: Thoroughly unoriginal, but mercifully short.

– Trip Fontaine
Director: Aneesh Chaganty
Writers: Aneesh Chaganty, Sev Ohanian
Stars: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Rating: PG -13 for disturbing thematic content, some violence/terror and language
Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
Platform: Hulu

Well, Streamers, it seems that this season there will be new movies coming out like bargain hunters on Black Friday, except it’s still mostly online. Hulu premiered a thriller, Run, starring Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen this week. The sinister tagline of this movie is this: You Can’t Escape a Mother’s Love. Hmmm… let’s see.

Run is the story of Chloe Sherman (Allen), a wheelchair-bound homeschooled 17-year-old, whose mother, Diane (Paulson), is consumed by caring for the teen and is overprotective. Diane provides Chloe her medications, physical therapy, sets a strict educational curriculum and a stricter diet to manage all of Chloe’s ailments. As Chloe awaits acceptance from the colleges she’s applied to, Diane begins to tighten the already constricting reins; and Chloe begins to question her mother’s motives as things stop adding up. A sick child, who wants more freedom, and an overprotective parent, who resists at every turn – c’mon, you know where this is going.

Run is directed by Aneesh Chaganty, who wrote and directed the very engaging and original Searching (2018), which was similarly a thriller about a parent-child relationship. Unfortunately, Run isn’t even trying to be original. The twists are predictable and the turns are laughable. It fits right into the canon of Lifetime “Original” Movies of paint-by-numbers thrillers. The best part of this film is the feature debut of Kiera Allen. Allen is feisty and curious enough to make what her character does understandable, but the movie itself is just too obvious and ridiculous to be believed.

Ultimately, there’s nothing to run to in Run. If you’ve see one Lifetime movie, you’ve seen them all. Run does nothing to improve on this story. Although it’s less than 90 minutes, your time could be better used this weekend catching up with your family or friends or shopping online. Give Run one popped kernel, if you must.