With a content warning that includes fatphobia, death, racism, discrimination, blood/gore, and strong physical abuse, sitting down to watch Run Hide Fight is certainly a daunting prospect. With so many harsh elements at play, and the associations with some highly questionable organisations, it presents itself as a truly deplorable film. The reality is that it isn’t as extreme as it initially presents itself to be, but it is still far from perfect.
Set on Senior Prank Day, Run Hide Fight pits a steely teenage girl, Zoe (Isabel May), against a group of her peers after they violently hijack the high school cafeteria for a school shooting. With her schoolmates dead, dying, and in danger, Zoe must use the training instilled in her by her ex-marine father to, not only survive, but also take down the enemy.
Touted as Die Hard in a school-shooting, Run Hide Fight immediately alienates a significant pool of audience members. America has a prolific problem with school shootings, and the decision to set what is essentially an action thriller within the environment is in bad taste. It’s a setting that will be a serious trigger for many and as such ensures the film’s notorious status, yet it doesn’t necessarily offer much beyond the shock factor. Its narrative could easily have been displaced into several alternative settings that would have worked better and would have been more palatable. The opening thirty to forty minutes, the build-up to the initial attack, are intensely uncomfortable as the audience knows what is to come. Having the attack begin with the head assailant screaming “trigger warning” is exceptionally ill thought through as it seems to be making light of the pain and discomfort that it will cause some viewers. Once this initial attack is over, Run Hide Fight falls into the trappings of all familiar action thrillers and renders the school setting null and void.
Run Hide Fight’s message on guns is also a cause for concern. Here, it is Zoe who has no choice but to arm up to protect herself, leading to gun-on-gun action. Guns taking down the bad guy is a staple of the action movie, but most scenarios in these films are pure fantasy and therefore can be overlooked. School-shootings however, are a horrific reality of American life and as such, Run Hide Fight plays in a different arena to the likes of Die Hard and warrants more sensitivity.
Outside of it’s shock-factor setting, Run Hide Fight is a fairly standard action film. The character development is kept to a minimum, especially with our antagonists. The leader, Travis, is a vain and self-important know-it-all, who despite his desires to be otherwise, is pretty forgettable. His henchmen (and woman) are even more so, each fulfilling their own cliché, and their involvement doing nothing to enrich the plot. As with many action thrillers, the film is about as subtle as a brick in places, with some really heavy-handed approaches to issues such as mental illness.
The saving grace of Run Hide Fight is the committed performance of lead, Isabel May. Zoe is manoeuvred into some uncomfortable actions, especially during the finale, but overall her character makes for compelling viewing. May’s performance is commanding and fiercely capable, and will hopefully lead to work on something less polarising. Zoe is signposted early on as a final girl when she picks up on strange behaviours that others have written off, but May infuses her with the gritty determination of some of cinema’s great action heroes, although thankfully forgoes the usual wise cracks.
Writer and director Kyle Rankin does manage to instil a great amount of dread and tension into the opening portion of the film, though how much is specifically generated from the confronting setting is unclear. The rest of the film plays as a standard actioner, and visually the production values are strong, easily holding its own against those with a much greater budget. It’s just a shame that the core values of the film were not thoroughly thought through. Controversies aside, Run Hide Fight is an averagely adequate action flick, but the highly ill-advised (and unneeded) setting and clunky messaging are very unpalatable.
Run Hide Fight was reviewed at Glasgow Film Festival 2021.
Run Hide Fight
Summary
Transposed to another setting, Run Hide Fight would be a fairly standard, and likely forgettable affair. The hot-button scenario ensures headlines and notoriety, but is ultimately in bad taste.
