Run on Hulu Is the Break You Need From All Those Holiday Rom-Coms

I’ve watched dozens of holiday rom-coms over the past few weeks—I’m all cheer-ed out! So when I decided to stream Run on Hulu, a new movie starring Sarah Paulson, I was hoping for a heart-pounding, terrifying respite. That’s exactly what I got.

The plot is very straightforward. It centers on Chloe (Kiera Allen), a teen wheelchair user who’s homeschooled and cared for by her mother, Diane (Sarah Paulson). Diane, on the surface, seems relatively laid-back. In a support group for parents of kids who are differently abled, she expresses no fear about Chloe going to college, saying her daughter is more capable than most teens not in wheelchairs. But as the movie progresses, we realize Diane’s cool-mom persona is exactly that: a persona. Not only is she incredibly overprotective of Chloe, she’s also doing things—sinister, awful, unspeakable things—to keep her daughter in a wheelchair and under her thumb forever.

I don’t want to give away much beyond that, but I will say the plot unfolds exactly how you’d expect. Chloe starts growing suspicious of her mom, uncovers secrets that chill her to the bone, and makes a plan to escape. But even with this formulaic narrative, Run still leaves you on the edge of your seat. It’s the perfect Friday night popcorn thriller—stuffed with action sequences and jaw-dropping moments that will have you shouting at the screen.

The movie rises above thrillers with similar premises for two reasons: One is Sarah Paulson, who gives a chilling, nuanced performance as the matriarch, Diane. It’d be very easy to turn this character into a monster, but Paulson instead gives Diane depth and empathy; at her core, she’s a mother who doesn’t want to let her daughter go. What she does in the film is really just a metaphor for something all parents feel when their children leave for college (albeit an extreme, incredibly fucked-up one). That being said, Paulson—a horror expert thanks to her time in the Ryan Murphy universe—delivers enough monsterlike moments to sufficiently creep you out.

Reason number two is Kiera Allen, the real MVP of this film, who uses a wheelchair in real life. The range of emotions she plays in Run is awe-inspiring. In an interview with IndieWire, Allen opened up about how Run accurately depicts real fears she’s had as someone in a wheelchair. “When people consider things like accessibility and other obstacles that are unnecessarily put before disabled people, I don’t think [able-bodied people] see it as terrifying,” she said. “I’ve been trapped in a building because of inaccessibility. I’ve been picked up by strangers, in my chair, without my permission, because of inaccessibility, [and] I’ve never seen a movie that portrays that fear.”

To make sure everything was portrayed correctly, director Aneesh Chaganty did his research, checked his own privilege as a nondisabled person, and chatted with Allen about her own experiences. (She was consulted on virtually every element of the script, according to IndieWire.) “I spent a lot of time talking to a disability studies professor at Brown, and she educated me on this concept of ableism [discrimination in favor of nondisabled people],” Chaganty told IndieWire.

Hopefully, Run will be the first of many movies—of all genres—starring actors in wheelchairs. For decades, nondisabled actors have played these characters, which is problematic for several reasons. Not only do their depictions lack the care and detail that would come from someone with lived experience, but it takes opportunities away from actors in wheelchairs. The industry still heavily caters to white, straight, male, cisgender, and nondisabled performers, and that needs to change. Run on Hulu is moving the needle forward in a very important way—and will absolutely frighten you in the process.

“I believe this will be the first studio movie ever starring a wheelchair user, and just to be part of a historical moment like that is really, really exciting,” Allen told Entertainment Weekly in February. “But the more exciting thing for me was just the character and the story, and to be able to play a part that was really about the character and not about the disability. And it was written so richly, and with such specificity and detail, which really gave me a lot to play with. But I never felt like he was casting just to be inclusive, I really felt like it was a collaboration.”

You can watch Run Hulu on November 20.

Originally Appeared on Glamour