When you go to HR with an honest report of someone at work making abusive statements, you expect that people in authority will do the right thing. And if they don’t, and you’re told to simply look the other way, it can be very disconcerting.
No, it’s worse than that: It’s kind of horrible.
But if you decided to talk to Cherie amid your outrage—having heard that she once went through something similar—you would find yourself surprised. For when you unloaded the horror of your situation, she would just turn and walk away quickly while you were in mid-ramble.
Cherie knows horrible.
It started for her when her boss asked her to cover a company dinner with a client. As a single mom, she hadn’t actually been to a nice restaurant for a while. So, not only did she agree to cover the meeting for her boss out of company duty, but she did so for a nice steak, too.
In fact, after meeting the client—a good looking, wealthy guy named Ethan—she started thinking that she may have really lucked out. He was humorous and gentle. He treated her kindly. The two of them got along so well, it was almost like a dream: Almost like a date! So, when they got back to his place, she only paused for a moment before accepting his invitation to step in for a drink.
Less than a minute later, Cherie found herself bloodied, torn and gasping as she stumbled back out of this animal’s front door. She quickly climbed over a neighbor’s wall, banging on doors and crying for help.
Maybe it was because she was Black and this was a predominantly white neighborhood, but not a soul responded to her calls. They’d turn away. Turn off the lights. And Cherie could only stumble on; tripping, gasping, bleeding. No money, no phone.
In fact, her anguished thought that Ethan was an “animal” was more accurate than she could imagine. For no matter how she ran and screamed, no matter who she spoke with or how far she went, Ethan was always tracking her. He was always calmly sensing her, smelling her, and never far behind.
Yes, Cherie knows horrible. And it’s on her trail.
There are some people who stand up to selflessly give Cherie aid. (In several cases, that ends in their bloody murder.) And at one point, Cherie realizes that she’ll have to follow through on several unpleasant things if she hopes to keep her daughter safe.
As the story unfolds, Cherie stumbles upon evidence that there is something spiritual about Ethan. In fact, a woman called the First Lady makes it plain that she is an angel and that Ethan is something quite the opposite—a creature who is fulfilling his given duty to “protected mankind” by making sure that men are dominant and women are “kept in their place.”
It’s actually all very nonsensical but played as some kind of odd and unorthodox twisting of Scripture. First Lady snorts at the idea that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, for example, stating that it was the other way around.
From there, Ethan is presented as some sort of amalgamation of a vampire and a demon. He transforms—bones snapping and popping—into his full demonic form in front of Cherie at one point after the young woman says she doesn’t believe in him. (We don’t see this new creature, just her reaction to him.) Then he asks if she believes in him now.
Cherie has her Tarot cards read by a young man. And he balks at the things he sees (including a card labeled: Death.) The guy asks if Cherie goes to church and suggests that she should start. Later, Cherie does go to a Catholic church where she asks for a cross and throws holy water on Ethan. He laughs in her face.
When Cherie is dressing for her business dinner, we see her in her underwear. And her friend, who’s babysitting for her, encourages Cherie to dress in something more alluring—making sexual jokes while doing so.
A bit later, Ethan and Cherie are finding each other very attractive, So much so that they kiss at the end of the date. Later, Cherie’s injuries and torn clothes cause police officers to believe she is a prostitute. They arrest her for public intoxication and toss her in a cell with another prostitute.
The camera catches sight of a billboard featuring a busty woman laying on her back with her legs spread. The billboard’s caption reads: “Now Open.”
Cherie finds her way to a spa-like bathhouse. One room features a group of naked women scrubbing each other. (All seen from the back or side.) Cherie is approached by a small group of young men and threatened sexually.
Finally, we need to note that menstrual bleeding plays a surprisingly large role in this movie’s story; it’s obviously anatomical function that doesn’t fit neatly into any of our content categories. But because of its connection with reproduction, we’re including it in the Sexual Content section.
Cherie realizes early on (in the shower) that she is having her period and then winces as her infant daughter throws her last tampon in the toilet. Everything from then on is driven forward thanks to Ethan’s sensitivity to the smell of her blood. (Cherie is embarrassed to realize that blood is running down her leg in one scene. And not long after, Cherie begins bleeding from many areas.) Later in the film a woman declares that Cherie’s menstruation is not her weakness, but her power. And they work to use this natural bodily function to Cherie’s benefit: Cherie repeatedly uses her menstrual blood to lure Ethan away. These graphic and bloody scenes involve removing soiled feminine hygiene products from her pants.
[Spoiler Warning] At one point, a desperate Cherie uses the promise of sex to lure Ethan into a trap.
From the moment Cherie steps into Ethan’s house after dinner, she is constantly abused, battered and pummeled. Much of the time, we don’t see the visceral physical abuse—the camera looks away when she is choked or punched in the face—but we always see the ripped and bloody aftermath. She’s thrown around, getting smashed into walls and mirrors. She sustains several large gashes on her forehead and a ripped open patch of skin on her back, for instance, along with cuts on her arms, legs and torso. And on the occasions when she’s able to wash and grab new clothes, she bleeds through the new clothing quickly.
Cherie isn’t alone in her suffering. Though we don’t always see the deadly murders, we do see numerous bloody bodies, bullet wounds and pools of blood in the street or in rooms after an attack. The one bit of truly gruesome deadliness we do see is that of a guy who stands up for Cherie and has his throat ripped open by a creature’s teeth and then his head wrenched forcefully off his body. A man is set ablaze, and his body burns fiercely.
A car full of people is smashed and sent tumbling in the street, killing all but one inside. In order to cover her scent, Cherie wipes her wounds and her anatomy with bleach wipes—blanching and crying out from the pain of contact with the chemical.
About 25 f-words and seven s-words are joined by two or three uses each of the words “d–n” and “h—.” God’s name is misused five times (once in combination with “d–n.”), while Jesus’ name is taken in vain once. There are several crude references to male genitals.
Cherie drinks wine with her friend in her kitchen and with Ethan at dinner. Ethan fixes her a gin and tonic. Cherie’s ex, Trey, has littered his porch with empty beer bottles.
Indeed, Cherie does go to her HR rep with a report of someone saying something off-color. And she is told to not make waves in light of all the positives that have already come her way.
Cherie vomits from her pain. While on the run, she wanders through a street littered with makeshift tents of homeless people—trying to avoid any threatening-looking individuals.
Action horror pics of this stripe often aim to please viewers in one of two ways. They either try to shock you with violence—leaving you wincing and cheering for the abused protagonist. Or, they’ll pack in some subtle message about societal shortcomings in the hope that those themes will stick with you after you’ve rinsed away the gore.
Run Sweetheart Run attempts to tear and rip its way to both outcomes. And it attains neither. Yes, it does deliver statements about its view of our culture’s male oppression and abuse. But it’s about as subtle as a protestor screaming obscenities in your face on the street corner. Meanwhile, the rest of the story is far too misogynistically blood-soaked and illogically ham-fisted to be anything more than offensive.
I’ll give lead Ella Balinska credit for working hard to make her tortured character relatable, but everything around her is a malignant, popped-blister mess.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
