What age is Run appropriate for?

Run is rated PG-13 and PopcornCheck recommends it for ages 14+, based on reading the actual screenplay. The film centres on a mother deliberately poisoning and kidnapping her own child — Diane is revealed to have been administering Ridocaine (a canine muscle relaxant) to Chloe to induce leg paralysis, and the climax involves Diane holding a gun in a hospital corridor threatening to drag Chloe home by force, ending in Diane being shot by a security guard.

Does Run have swearing or bad language?

Run has Mild language. Characters say 'goddamn' (x1 — Diane at the support group: 'So, yeah, I feel goddamn great'), 'hell' (x1 — Diane to Tom: 'I don't give a shit what she told you')

Run has Moderate violence. Chloe attempts to escape through a second-storey window, falls, and sustains visible injuries — she is found bleeding and bruised by the mailman Tom, who describes her as looking 'really bad'

Is Run scary for children?

Run has Moderate scary scenes. The slow revelation that Diane has been medicating Chloe with dog paralytic drugs to manufacture disability is deeply psychologically disturbing — the horror builds across multiple scenes as Chloe connects the dots alone in her house

Is Run OK for Kids?

Name: Run
Director: Aneesh Chaganty
Genre: Thriller, Horror, Drama
Released: 2020
Duration: 90 min
Cast: Sarah Paulson, Kiera Allen, Pat Healy, Sara Sohn, Erik Athavale

ThrillerHorrorDrama

14+

PG-13⭐ 6.7 / 102020 · 1h 30m

Aneesh Chaganty

Where to Watch

United States

Stream

Rent or Buy on Amazon

Streaming data by JustWatch

What's In It

Based on the actual screenplay

🗡️Violence

Moderate▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Cartoon / Comedic

Action & Peril

Injuries & Death Shown

Graphic & Disturbing

Chloe attempts to escape through a second-storey window, falls, and sustains visible injuries — she is found bleeding and bruised by the mailman Tom, who describes her as looking 'really bad'
Diane attacks Tom the mailman off-screen with enough force to render him unconscious — the script notes 'BODY THUDS' and Chloe hears a gunshot sound cut followed by muffled thuds
Diane is shot by a hospital security guard in the South Wing corridor after drawing a gun and refusing to put it down — the shooting is dramatised with muffled sound and slow heartbeats suggesting serious injury
Chloe ingests what is implied to be a large dose of medication in what is treated as a suicide attempt — she is later found in critical condition requiring hospital stabilisation
Diane physically restrains Chloe, chains her in what is implied to be a basement or locked room — chains are heard clanging and rattling while Chloe screams
Overall violence is psychological and domestic in nature — no gore or prolonged combat, but the sustained threat of a parent harming her child gives scenes a deeply disturbing quality

💬Language

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mild Words

(damn, hell)

Moderate

(ass, b**ch)

Strong

(sh*t)

Extreme

(f**k)

Characters say 'godda**' (x1 — Diane at the support group: 'So, yeah, I feel godda** great'), 'hell' (x1 — Diane to Tom: 'I don't give a s**t what she told you')
Characters say 's**t' (x1 — Diane to Tom: 'I don't give a s**t what she told you'), 'da**' (x1 — Chloe: 'Da** it'), 'a**' (x1 — the boy on the phone: 'What the hell you need so badly'), 'hell' used approximately 3 times across dialogue
Chloe says 'Mother—' as an expletive after breaking out of her room, strongly implying 'motherf**ker' though the word is cut off by a scene break
No f-word spoken in full, no c-word, no slurs detected in the script

👻Scary Scenes

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mildly Tense

Startling Moments

Genuinely Scary

Deeply Disturbing

The slow revelation that Diane has been medicating Chloe with dog paralytic drugs to manufacture disability is deeply psychologically disturbing — the horror builds across multiple scenes as Chloe connects the dots alone in her house
Chloe is locked in her room while Diane calmly explains through the door that she is going to give Chloe something to 'make her forget all of this' — the quiet, controlled tone of this scene is more frightening than overt threat
Diane appears in Chloe's hospital room holding a gun and telling Chloe 'We are going home' — a direct and credible threat from a parent toward her disabled child in a place of supposed safety
Chloe crawls out of a second-storey window and falls — her physical vulnerability combined with the urgency of escape creates sustained high-tension peril
The opening sequence features a NICU resuscitation scene with EKG flatlines, doctors performing compressions on a newborn, and crying — unsettling for children who have experienced medical trauma
The film's horror is rooted in a real-world scenario — a caregiver causing deliberate harm — which may be more lastingly disturbing than fantasy-based threats, particularly for children with parents who manage their health

💕Romance

Very Mild▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Crushes & Holding Hands

Kissing & Dating

Suggestive

Sexual Content

The boy Chloe calls on the phone is dealing with a jealous girlfriend who suspects him of cheating with someone named Paola — this is played for light comedy and involves no sexual content
No romantic relationship for Chloe is depicted in the script
The epilogue mentions Chloe has a partner named Ara and a baby daughter Annie — referenced only in dialogue, no romantic scenes shown
No kissing, sexual content, nudity, or sexual implication of any kind is present in the script

🍺Substances

Moderate▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Mentioned in Passing

Shown Casually

Featured Prominently

Glorified or Abused

Ridocaine, a canine muscle relaxant, is secretly administered to Chloe by Diane to induce leg paralysis — this is the central plot mechanic and is portrayed as deeply criminal and harmful
Trigoxin, a heart medication, is referenced — Chloe investigates whether her prescribed medication has been substituted; the pills are described as small and red
Diane is shown managing multiple prescription medications for Chloe and manipulating doctors over years to maintain false diagnoses — prescription drug misuse as coercive control is a sustained theme
No recreational drug use, alcohol, or smoking is depicted; all substance content is framed as abuse and portrayed entirely negatively

⚡Stimulation

Extreme▼

Moments in the script, mildest → most intense

Gently Engaging

Exciting

Intense

Overwhelming

The film opens with a NICU emergency scored with swelling suspenseful music — rapid medical dialogue and EKG flatlines establish high tension immediately
Multiple extended sequences of Chloe alone in the house at night — searching drawers, hiding from her mother, crawling through windows — are scored with sustained suspenseful music and use silence and sudden sounds effectively
The hospital climax features blaring Code Blue alarms, PA announcements, a gunshot, muffled sound design suggesting Chloe losing consciousness, and rapid intercutting — this sequence is aurally and dramatically intense
Pacing is generally controlled and slow-burn for the first half, escalating sharply in the second half — not suitable for sensory-sensitive children due to the unpredictable shifts from quiet domestic scenes to high-stress confrontations

Run — Heads Up for Parents

The film contains a scene in which Chloe, alone in a locked hospital bathroom with no apparent way out, ingests what is framed as a potentially lethal quantity of medication — this is treated as a suicide attempt by the hospital staff and is depicted with clinical detail including a subsequent flatline and resuscitation; parents of children with mental health histories or who have experienced suicidal ideation should be aware this scene exists and is not brief.

About Run

Run is a psychological thriller about Chloe, a 17-year-old with multiple disabilities who begins to suspect her devoted single mother Diane is secretly poisoning her with dog medication to keep her dependent and housebound. As Chloe pieces together the truth, she must escape her own home — and her own mother — in a desperate bid for freedom. The tone is tense, claustrophobic, and deeply unsettling, rooted in a real-world horror rather than supernatural threat.

👨‍👧

Best watched together

The parent-as-abuser premise and the scene in which Diane tells Chloe through a locked door that she will make her 'forget all of this' while holding a syringe are likely to raise serious questions about trust, medical safety, and bodily autonomy that teenagers under 16 will benefit from processing with a parent present

Family Takeaways from Run

What it gets right

✓The film accurately and respectfully depicts a disabled teenager as the most capable and resourceful character in the story — Chloe's wheelchair and medical needs are never treated as weaknesses that define her, only as logistics she solves
✓The epilogue shows Chloe thriving professionally and relationally years after trauma, modelling recovery without minimising what she survived — she has a partner named Ara, a daughter Annie, and a career fitting prosthetics to children

Run Cultural & Values Guide

Cultural & Values Guide

No cultural or religious themes detected for this film.

Community Notes

Some disability advocates have noted that the film's premise — a wheelchair user whose disability is partially manufactured — risks reinforcing suspicion toward disabled people who 'don't look sick enough', though the film's resolution strongly validates Chloe's real remaining disabilities and her autonomy

Cast:Sarah PaulsonKiera AllenPat HealySara SohnErik AthavaleBJ Harrison