Starring Sarah Snook, Greta Scacchi, Lily LaTorre

Directed by Daina Reid

Netflix

After the arrival of a mysterious rabbit on their doorstep, a single mother grows increasingly unsettled by her daughter Mia’s insistence that her name is Alice.

Students of the cinematic arts – some of whom become directors of Australian psychological horror films – are by and large familiar with the ‘Kuleshov Effect’. Lev Kuleshov was a Russian filmmaker, who, back in 1921, demonstrated the power of juxtapositional editing. By cutting the shot of an actor’s face sporting a neutral expression against that of a young girl in a coffin, the audience decided that the actor was skilfully conveying sadness and grief. However, the same shot cut against one of a beautiful woman reclining on a sofa, suggested that the actor was expressing his lust – and the same shot again juxtaposed with that of a bowl of food, had the audience convinced he was cleverly communicating his pangs of hunger.

Director Daina Reid would have been well advised to remember the power of this fundamental tool of movie making when juxtaposing shots of the superbly talented Sarah Snook attempting to look traumatised against close-ups of a cutesy rabbit snuffling its nose and flopping its big rabbity ears around.

There’s a reason Donnie Darko isn’t haunted by Snuffles the Bunny from the local Pets Corner and director Richard Kelly opted for a man in a huge, grotesque mask instead. There’s a reason why Night of the Lepus – where giant mutant rabbits were supposed to terrify the audience – swiftly became a hilarious cult classic. Rabbits are cute. Indeed, the rabbit in the new Netflix chiller Run Rabbit Run is particularly adorable – and no amount of ominous back lighting nor overused stab-chords can make Ms Snook’s reactions seem anything other than gloriously absurd.

I feel sorry for her really. She more than held her own against Brian Cox’s fearsome Logan Roy through four seasons of Succession only to meet her match with this latest lapine co-star.

To be fair, the whole cast are wonderful. Snook is acting her socks off as Sarah, mother to the haunted Mia, played by a phenomenally talented child actor Lily LaTorre (who we are surely going to see a lot more of in years to come). Greta Scacchi is underused, but on top form as Sarah’s mother Joan, succumbing painfully to Alzheimer’s.

The movie is beautifully lit, and directed with utter conviction, hoppity bunny notwithstanding.

The problem is the script and the ill-conceived story. The twist, such as it is, is blindingly obvious from about ten minutes in, leaving the actors nowhere to go as they play the same dramatic beats over and over again. It’s not helped by some tired horror clichés, the worst offender being the moment Mia’s teacher shows Sarah some of the spooky, scratchy pictures her daughter has been drawing. Cue another stab-chord on the soundtrack! Really?

Verdict: Despite everyone’s best efforts, Run Rabbit Run is ponderous, straight-to-video fare – not even vaguely unsettling at any point – which is a shame because this wonderful cast deserve a lot better. But, rest assured, no rabbits were frightened in the making of this film. 4/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com