Running Scared

I haven’t seen a film with less redemptive value than “Running Scared” in a long time. It is a dark film depicting how people can treat each other in their depravity. The various oppressive actions include threatening, injuring and killing others as well as child and spousal abuse, women bought and sold as property along with battering them, suicide, and substance abuse. Several of these have extended and somewhat frightening or gory time dedicated to them with a lot of foul language included.

The movie starts of with a drug deal put on by the Italian mafia that goes sour. After the battle that ensues, most of the 15 or so people in the room are lying dead on the floor from gunshot or knife wounds. Some of the men who broke into the room were dirty cops intent on stealing the drugs and money.

The mafia members’ guns are given to Joey (Paul Walker) to dispose of as he usually does. For some reason, he stores them in a hidden room in his basement instead. His son, Nicky (Alex Neuberger), and his best friend, Oleg (Cameron Bright), are hiding in the basement and see Joey and his stash of weapons. Oleg then steals the snub-nosed 38 Joey just placed there.

Oleg reluctantly returns home, and we soon learn that his father, Ivan (John Noble), is a meth lab running junkie who beats both his son and his wife. While Ivan is slapping his wife around Oleg returns to the room with the stolen gun and shoots his father.

Scared, Oleg runs to hide, setting the stage for the rest of the movie. Joey now has to track down both Oleg and the gun before the cops or the mafia figure out what happened. The night will prove long, bloody and abusive for all involved.

Joey enters a strip club to meet with mafia members and a dirty cop. Full frontal and rear nudity is shown by about six female dancers. Later, we see Oleg and two other children kidnapped by a couple who videotape the children. It is strongly hinted that the couple tapes the sexual abuse, torture and death of many children. Oleg is able to call Joey’s wife, Teresa (Vera Farmiga), for help. After his rescue Teresa sends the children out of the room, calls the police to report a shooting, and then kills the couple.

There was a lot more violence and abuse, but you get the idea. In addition to these things there were also more than 385 obscenities. About 290 of them were the F*** word and another dozen were profanities of God’s names.

A movie with this much violence doesn’t need a lot of good acting, and “Running Scared” is no exception. I can’t tell how good the actors are because they didn’t get the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities. The film itself was also darkened to match the mood of movie, so the picture wasn’t as clear as could be.

Though I wouldn’t recommend this movie, I have to admit that I liked the last five minutes. Information was revealed that attempted to make the movie more palatable. Unfortunately, my senses had been assaulted so badly by this time that it came “to little to late.” I can’t report what the good part was without revealing a spoiler, so I’ll stop there. I don’t think many people will want to endure this movie just to enjoy the fact that it ended.

• Violence: Extreme
• Language: Extreme— for example, an astounding 315 f-words (2½ per minute)
• Sex/Nudity: Extreme

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.