WARNING! Contains SPOILERS for Run Rabbit Run.Although Run Rabbit Run is a streaming success on Netflix, its bad reviews, low Rotten Tomatoes score, and audience paint another picture entirely. The Australian horror movie follows the intriguing story of Sarah (played by Succession's Sarah Snook), a fertility doctor whose young daughter mysteriously claims to be the woman's long-lost sister. Throughout its first week of release, Run Rabbit Run was frequently Netflix’s #1 movie, implying that it was a big hit with subscribers.
Run Rabbit Run did not fare well when it came to reviews, however, and even the reception from general Netflix viewers has been negative. The movie has a 38% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and only a 26% audience score. Run Rabbit Run’s ending and the slow-burn tone of the movie have been the main targets of criticism, although some defenders note that it is at least anchored by a superb performance from Snook.
6 Run Rabbit Run’s Ambiguous Horror Is Divisive
For audiences expecting a straightforward horror movie, Run Rabbit Run’s atmospheric chills could reasonably be called slow, confusing, and dull. Run Rabbit Run’s approach to horror isn’t inherently flawed, per se, but this style of horror is not for everyone. Run Rabbit Run’s meditations on motherhood weren’t necessarily what viewers expected from a movie classified by Netflix as horror, and the fact that it doesn't explain its vague symbolism doesn’t help its case. While Run Rabbit Run’s stunning filming locations made great use of its Australian setting, its creative debt to hallucinatory Australian genre fare like Walkabout and Wake in Fright wasn’t universally appreciated by audiences.
Run Rabbit Run’s offbeat approach to horror might have resonated with a smaller audience, but its unexpected popularity on Netflix could have worked against the movie’s reception. Viewers who weren't expecting a slow-moving and deliberately obtuse character study may not have enjoyed Run Rabbit Run’s strange, discordant story. While Sarah's plot is compelling, her daughter Mia (Lily LaTorre) never feels all that human, and her dementia-stricken mother, Joan (Greta Scacci), is hardly a presence in the movie. As such, Run Rabbit Run left viewers with few characters to connect with — particularly after the revelations of its downbeat coda.
5 Run Rabbit Run Is Undeniably Derivative
Speaking of Run Rabbit Run’s creative inspirations, not all the things the movie borrowed were particularly subtle. Critics weren’t wrong to complain that Run Rabbit Run, the umpteenth elevated horror movie about motherhood, owed a lot to The Babadook, Hereditary, Relic, Nanny, Baby Ruby, Umma, and other recent generational trauma horror movies. Just as Antebellum and Them were accused of borrowing too liberally from Jordan Peele’s style of socially conscious horror, Run Rabbit Run’s reliance on creepy children and the inherent fear of parenthood felt played out for viewers who had seen innumerable spins on this theme in recent years. The current overuse of these tropes has lessened their impact.
In particular, the fact that The Babadook’s dark ending is so similar to Run Rabbit Run’s conclusion didn’t help. In both movies, a troubled mother suffers a mental breakdown that is realized via haunting hallucinations, only to eventually come to with a traumatic death in her past that shaped her subsequent family life. However, while The Babadook’s creepy conclusion offers viewers definitive catharsis, Run Rabbit Run’s ending is both too similar and nowhere near as satisfying. It is not clear what is happening to Sarah and Mia in Run Rabbit Run’s ending, making the inevitable comparisons to The Babadook feel unfortunately imbalanced in favor of the earlier movie.
4 Run Rabbit Run’s Marketing Didn’t Help
The trailer for Run Rabbit Run makes the movie look more like a straightforward horror film than a meditation on grief, which could be understandably frustrating. While Run Rabbit Run is hardly as impenetrable as 2008’s The Headless Woman or even 2019’s comparatively accessible La Llorona, neither of those art-horror movies was sold as mainstream genre fare. In contrast, Run Rabbit Run’s misleading trailer promised a more clear-cut story that didn’t represent the movie’s slow, inconclusive study of a mother’s crumbling psyche. It didn’t help that when viewed as a simple horror movie, Run Rabbit Run wasn’t particularly innovative or impressive — nor is it particularly unsettling or scary.
3 Run Rabbit Run’s Big Twist Is Predictable
When Sarah becomes terrified of her daughter claiming to be her “missing” sister, Alice, it doesn’t take a genius to guess that Sarah harbors guilt over secretly killing this sibling. When Run Rabbit Run’s Joan reveals Alice was Sarah’s sister, it is only a matter of time before viewers learn that Sarah’s fear of her child stems from her long-buried guilt. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Run Rabbit Run could have played with Sarah’s guilt throughout the movie, much like The Babadook addressed the threat of its heroine killing her child early on. However, by hiding this twist until the ending, Run Rabbit Run made its story less compelling.
2 Run Rabbit Runs Ending Frustrated Viewers
Run Rabbit Run’s ending fit the themes of the movie, as viewers were left unsure whether Sarah imagined her daughter running away with her sister’s ghost. However, it is not clear exactly what’s happening in the final scenes, and, viewers who wanted Run Rabbit Run to be a fun horror movie could reasonably emerge annoyed by this. Run Rabbit Run doesn’t depict anything as definitive as Alice’s ghost getting revenge on Sarah, and it is entirely possible that Sarah is merely imagining Mia walking away with the ghost. As such, viewers have no way of knowing what happens in Run Rabbit Run’s ending. Unlike The Babadook, there’s no clarity.
1 Run Rabbit Run Has A Great Performance (But Little Else)
While Run Rabbit Run’s cast is strong, Sarah Snook’s barnstorming central turn is a standout that ensures the film is worth watching. Snook is fantastic as the conflicted Sarah, as the actor manages to capture the fear her character has over losing Mia, the guilt she carries over Alice’s death, and the anger underpinning her decades of hiding from the truth. However, one great performance isn’t enough to carry a movie that never quite decides whether it is a dark domestic drama, an outright horror, or something else entirely. This means even though Run Rabbit Run is good enough to keep viewers watching, its chilly reception isn’t surprising.
