PLOT: Cherie's dinner meeting with Ethan turns into a date. The date puts Cherie in grave danger.
First things first, Run Sweetheart Run isn’t exactly easy to watch. It is about a woman facing harassment and having no one believe her much less stand up for her.
Secondly, the movie takes a little more time than needed to get to the point.
Third, was there really a point to break the fourth wall?
Run Sweetheart Run is not devoid of plot holes but that doesn't stop it from being a decent thriller movie.
Also, the frightening scenes are kept to a minimum and happen off-screen so you don't actually cringe at the events that occur in the movie.
RUN SWEETHEART RUN Plot
The movie begins with Cherie sitting at an office and complaining about a coworker called Larry, making inappropriate comments. Her comments are not taken seriously and she has accepted that. She gets back to work, taking calls and making excuses for her bosses who don't want to take calls.
Cherie then takes the bus home where she receives a call from her boss James who keeps calling her sweetheart. Sweetheart is supposed to be a derogatory term now, one men use to not take pretty women seriously even though they may have something intelligent to say.
The movie seems to underline the point a lot as the villain uses the term sweetheart a lot too.
Anyway, while James tells Cherie he fired Larry (did he really? Probably not) he also tells her he double booked her. He has his anniversary today and she booked him with a client too. Cherie is shocked because she is usually so efficient.
She doesn't have time to ponder on it because there's a guy trying to touch her inappropriately. A woman notices this but looks away. It happens. That's not her problem.
Cherie doesn't punch the guy or make a scene. What's the point, right?
James is telling her to take the dinner with the client because Ethan doesn't like to talk law anyway. Cherie agrees and then sidesteps the creep and uses the bell to stop the bus. She gets off but not before giving the creep the finger.
At home, we see that Cherie has a toddler Luze who likes to throw tampons in toilets. That's right, Cherie's evening starts off with her getting her period, and what a gusher it is.
Luze tosses the only tampon for heavy flow Cherie has. Now here's the thing...she could have gone out to get more. She could have asked her friend to get some. She could have left early for her dinner to grab some tampons.
But nope. She doesn't do that and the movie becomes about Cherie and her heavy flow. And her not being able to find a tampon.
Her friend comes along and tries to help her find a better dress than the maternity clothes she has. They find a sensual red dress and it still fits!
They do an internet search and find a picture of Ethan. He's obviously good looking. Cherie's friend encourages her to go for it but she assures him that it is a client's dinner.
But just before she leaves, her friend hands her pepper spray. You can't be too sure.
Now you know that's a warning. The pepper spray is going to be used at some point in the movie. Oh no, the guy is going to end up being a creep.
We never see Cherie use the pepper spray. She doesn't get a chance considering what happens later.
So, Cherie heads out to Ethan's house and the second he opens the door, she's dumbstruck. He's so good looking. He knows it. He knows that she knows it based on her expression. He invites her in for a drink and Cherie tries to keep her cool. It is when she is walking around that she spots a drop of blood. Uh...oh...
She goes ahead and touches it when Ethan isn’t looking and gets curious.
She excuses herself to go to the bathroom and of course, her tampon has given up and caused her to make a mess. She cleans herself up but then decides against leaving messy tissues in his washroom.
At this point, Cherie could have asked Ethan to stop somewhere before going to a restaurant to get some tampons. She didn't even have to tell him, just made up some excuse.
Instead, they are at the restaurant and busy connecting to the point Cherie shows him a picture of her daughter Luze.
Did you know some washrooms in restaurants have a machine for tampons and pads? Cherie doesn't even bother to check.
They are having such a good time that the next thing they do is head to a roller rink and dance around. The meeting has clearly turned into a date.
Does Cherie excuse herself to get a tampon? Nope. Not even then.
Why was getting a tampon important? Because of what Ethan does next.
Cherie and Ethan head home and clearly they are attracted to each other. Cherie tries to tell him that she has to go home to relieve the babysitter but he is pretty persuasive.
He sets up an alarm so that he will have to wake up at 6:30 when her daughter does too. Cherie notices he has an alarm for 5:25 and he claims it to be a mistake. Cherie gives in and you are left wondering what she is up to since she is clearly not prepared for her time of the month.
Romantic music plays and we are supposed to go "awww". After Cherie enters the house, Ethan puts up his hand. The romantic music stops playing. He has broken the fourth wall.
Ethan is now connecting directly with us and spares us the violence he subjects Cherie to. We don't see anything but the door. Then we hear things breaking and Cherie's screams.
Moments later, Cherie emerges. Her clothes are torn and her make up is smeared. The screen flashes with the word RUN.
Cherie runs as fast as she can and manages to reach a cinema where there are two women standing outside. She approaches them and begs for help. They refuse to give out their phone and instead ask her for her babysitter's number. Cherie of course doesn't remember because it was in her phone that she dropped at Ethan's. She begs them to call 911 and they do that.
Except when the police arrive, they take her away on charges of public intoxication. Cherie can't understand what is happening to her. She is photographed at the police station and thrown into the cell.
She requests the officers to call the babysitter but they say they will look into it. She then requests them for a tampon and they just nod away.
In the cell, Cherie is at first wary of her cellmate who is clearly a woman of the night. She sympathizes with Cherie and tells her that she hopes her attacker gets punished.
Cherie begins to describe Ethan and the woman asks her if Ethan said he only knows how to make one drink and that he was afraid of dogs.
Cherie recalls the time at the restaurant when Ethan had overreacted and screamed when a dog had approached them.
See? If someone is afraid of dogs there is clearly something wrong with them!
The woman gets scared and tells Cherie she hopes she doesn't take it personally. She then screams to be let out because Cherie is going to attack her.
Cherie is shocked and the woman explains that she has been marked. She says that the same thing happened to her friend and now she was gone. She tells her that she has no chance but that she should try to contact the First Lady.
Cherie doesn't do that until the very end of the movie.
The woman is let out and Cherie sits on a bench, dejected and dripping blood because her request to get a tampon was denied.
That's when Ethan comes along and it is obvious he's someone with power. The officers don't even meet his eyes as they open the cell doors for him.
Cherie cowers as Ethan advances and smells her. He remarks that she smells good and clearly he isn’t describing her perfume. He tells her he is impressed with her fighting skills and since he has time to kill, why don't they play a game. He gives Cherie a headstart. She can try to survive the night.
Cherie is let go and she walks out of the police station. Nervous, she hails a cab but tells him she cannot pay him. He nods sadly and tells her he has seen plenty of women in her state before. He asks her where he can take her and Cherie remembers she was warned not to go home should Ethan follow her there and harm her baby.
She directs the driver to her boss' house. She clearly knows her way around and enters his apartment. James is in his robe and is absolutely shocked by her appearance. He calls his wife Judy who is told to make tea. Judy's hands tremble when she listens to Cherie's recount of the night's events.
James wants to call Ethan but Cherie stops him. He tells her to stay the night and she wants to shower because she doesn't want Ethan to catch her smell.
She is given a night gown but Cherie sees James' laptop and decides to do some snooping. She finds his planner and sees her name on it. Curious, she types Ethan TITHE and comes across several results.
Uh oh, James has been setting up these dates with Ethan because he is in cahoots with him. Just then Judy enters and gives her some tampons. She advises her to keep herself clean throughout the night because the scent of her blood is too powerful.
James comes in and Cherie decides to RUN again. The words appear on screen in red again. James tries to follow her but Cherie manages to get on a bus. James is seen making a call.
On the bus, Cherie sees a missing person's flyer and the words call the First Lady written in a red marker. Again, Cherie doesn't think of calling her.
She does instead contact her ex Trey. Later, she gets down at a stop and heads to a convenience store to buy tampons. Since she doesn’t have any money, she gives the vendor her watch saying it will fetch him at least fifty bucks. She gets her box of tampons.
Maybe she could have gotten some wipes, a bottle of water as well?
Anyway, she goes to the bathroom to clean herself up well and puts on a tampon. Just as she is about to, she hears a noise and for a moment you believe she isn't going to get to put on a tampon after all. But she does. Phew!
She opens the door and looks out cautiously. But oh no, Ethan is waiting for her. He proceeds to attack her and we are spared from the violence again as Ethan breaks the fourth wall. We see a homeless woman sitting and not reacting at all. We get it now. When women are attacked, even other women don't stand up for them.
Cherie manages to break free and runs. She finds Trey and tells him to start driving. He wants to know what is going on with her since she looks like she's been attacked. She doesn't tell him at first but then she spills the beans. Trey thinks he can take this man on but Cherie tells him not to show off and get to a safe place as soon as possible.
His safe place is his home but he warns her that Dawn will be there, Cherie's ex-best friend who got into an affair with Trey. Hence the breakup.
Cherie thinks Dawn is the least of her problems now. They go home and of course Dawn makes a ruckus about Trey bringing Cherie there. This happens off-screen again. No kind of violence in Cherie is shown yet. Dawn comes out and when she sees Cherie, she melts and hugs her.
Cherie is given fresh new clothes and gets to sit in a room and get a tarot card reading done. She picks her three cards that include the tower and the devil.
Her friend tells her not to worry about the past and is concerned about the cards she picked but then reminds her that the tower doesn’t represent Ethan but her. She's the personification of strength and determination. Renewed with encouragement, Cherie realizes one of her wounds is bleeding again. She now knows Ethan can smell her.
He is right outside the house and Dawn tells Cherie not to worry as she wants to do something for her. She and her friends are armed with weapons.
Trey will come later.
Cherie takes her young friend and hides. Chaos is heard and gunshots go off. The movie is nowhere to ending yet so we kind of know what is going on. Ethan survives. But just how? There are guns pointed right at him. No way he is going to be able to dodge that.
Unless...there is something supernatural about him.
Cherie comes downstairs and is horrified to discover that everyone has been slain.
Ethan is waiting for her and drags her out. Trey comes over and tries to be a hero. His head is promptly bitten off.
Cherie runs again. The letters appear on screen again. This time she heads to a church and meets with a Father. She requests to give him some holy water or something. The Father seems to be a little aloof and she gets suspicious. Cherie walks around and sees one of the Fathers laying on the ground, dead.
The Father talking to her reveals himself to be Ethan. He then also reveals his true self. We never get to see it. Cherie's expressions reveal he may be hideous to look at. Or maybe it is an attempt to not spend the budget on special effects.
He is about to kill her when the Father, Ethan was impersonating, shows up to be a hero. Cherie takes this as a chance to escape and finds a hidden tunnel to go through. Right before he is killed, he hands Cherie a lighter too.
Cherie finds herself at an underground club. Why is the church connected to that club?
Cherie finds bleach wipes and cleans herself, wincing in pain. She also tears up clothes and puts it around her forehead, Rambo style.
Dressed in an army jacket which has been made fashionable with chains, she heads out and finally makes a call to the First Lady.
The First Lady is surprised to hear from her but assures her she can help her. As Cherie looks for the exit, she is surrounded by some men who begin to harass her. Compared to Ethan, they are nothing so Cherie barely bats an eye.
Lucky for her, a group of women come to her rescue and take her away. They then offer her a ride.
On the way, the young women talk about their ambitions and how it is the year of the women. Yay! Feminists! But oh wait, they're way too ambitious about changing the world.
Cherie begins to bleed. Crash! It's Ethan. All of them die except for Cherie.
Ethan approaches her but a dog comes to her rescue.
Cherie finally makes it to see the First Lady who turns out to be some kind of angel. She explains that Ethan was sent to maintain order and harmony in the world. But for some reason, he decided that men should be in control of everything and so he began to eliminate women, especially those he thought had fight in them.
She asks Cherie for her help. Can she please be bait for a dangerous demon?
Of course, she says no. The First Lady reminds her that the angel will come after her daughter. Cherie decides to help.
But how?
RUN SWEETHEART RUN Ending Explained
Turns out the answer was in front of her this whole time.
5:25 am. Cherie's snooping skills comes in handy.
The First Lady, Cherie, and the other women devise a plan to drag Ethan into sunlight. Cherie is strong, they say, considering she managed to survive for so long. Long enough to call the First Lady in fact.
The plan is set and Cherie draws out Ethan by ripping out her bandages. He appears and overpowers her, mocking her for thinking the angels were going to protect her.
Cherie tells him she has given up and that she is ready to submit to him. Overconfident, Ethan pounces on Cherie but she manages to drag a rock to her hand and toss it at glass.
It's 5:25. Ethan should have been careful.
He screams but doesn't think one rock can stop him.
That's when Cherie tells him that there are more.
The women throw rocks at the glass and Ethan begins to weaken.
Every woman is wearing martial arts uniform for some reason.
Ethan drags himself out. Cherie takes control of the camera. It's supposed to signify that Good has taken control now.
The words RUN appear for Ethan now. The words are in green. Ethan drags himself to a bridge. His blood is all black.
It's also flammable.
Cherie manages to light Ethan on fire.
Evil has been defeated. The demon who was putting down women is gone.
Now perhaps the world will believe in equality more?
The movie ends.
Scare Scale: 3/5
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