Run Hide Fight
Director: Kyle Rankin
Year:
2020
Rating: 6.0
Run Hide Fight is something I didn't have to
know about back in the Dark Ages when I was going to school, but in our insane
society it is the protocol regarding a school shooting. Run if you can, hide
if you can't and fight if you have to. The film was produced apparently by
a rightwing company and the politics of it are clear. Let's say the NRA and
Hunter Nation give it a stamp of approval. From the opening scene of a deer
being shot - for real - to this almost being a To Do List for future planners
of a school shooting and ending with a cold kill, it has a point of view
that is questionable. But while watching it, those issues just lurked in
the back of my mind and I watched it as a survival and revenge movie and
on that level, this was kind of stupid fun.
Our heroine is Zoe (Isabel May), a high
school senior, who has gone into a deep hole since her mother (Radha Mitchell)
died from cancer. She talks to her ghost throughout the film. We first meet
her hunting a deer with her father (Thomas Jane) and after she shoots the
deer it is still alive. While he is explaining what must be done to save
the animal from pain, she just picks up a rock and crushes its head. Ok.
Some poor deer had to die for the film. Its just another day at school filled
with boredom and small humiliations. Until four students arrive with guns
and start the killing.
Zoe was in the bathroom and is able to get
out of the school, but turns back to help students escape. And kill the little
pricks. It turns into a media circus with the events being streamed live
and the cops (Treat Williams) outside doing nothing. Sounds familiar. Inside
students are being shot. It is up to Zoe, the deer hunter, to save them.
Isabel May is pretty good in her role. I hope she gets to be the Prom Queen.
This is definitely gun porn but then most films are these days. That it takes
place in a school makes it feel exploitive, but that is America.
