Where I Watched It: Netflix

English Audio Description?: Yes

this review is a bit of an exploration of what it means to be blind. So, stick with me here.

Admittedly, I’m always running a bit behind on posting a physical review versus filming a YouTube video. Since I can immediately upload the word vomit, it’s just so simple to talk about something almost immediately after I see it. Here I feel like my thoughts have to be more concise, because reading is hard these days. Everything is basically a meme length or it didn’t happen.

My initial thought on this film was that it was a hot mess. Honestly, the audio description I got I felt like I really was getting the strongest interpretation of the film. I loved a lot of the choices in the description, as I have noticed often UK describers have a wealth of adjectives at their disposal in comparison to often simplified American lingo. Our vernacular is direct, and AD teams don’t put a lot of thought into the variation of their adjectives. After all, if you use a word the audience doesn’t know or understand, you’ve lost them. And, as an American, I can say it doesn’t take long to figure out that those who keep it simple go further to a wider audience.

But, this flourished narration ultimately wasn’t enough. I had a separate conversation with a sighted person who was talking quite in depth about all the nuanced choices they made with the films direction, things that made it easier to understand the concept, and rounded out the story a bit more. Unfortunately, these are all non-verbal. It’s the equivalent of hunting for hidden Mickey’s at Disney. I’m sure they are there. I can’t see them.

So, now I’m at a place where I should be reviewing this film and talking about its audio description. As given to me, and as I consumed it, it’s one of the worst movies of the year. THere were several moments that didn’t make sense, attempts at an allusion to something else, and themes throughout that I felt never had a clear focus. At one point, there was a grey blob mentioned, and I thought we would be going in one direction with the film, but we never seem to go there. One of the things that bothers me no matter what is that the young daughter was essentially told to act like she’s one of the Children Of The Corn for the whole movie. She’s creep in every scene she’s in, no matter how much the plot has or has not advanced or revealed the potential of the plot. She never makes the kind of choices a girl her age feels like she would make, nor does she act like it. She seems also rather content at her life of solitude, as there are really no other kids around for her, and she seems to not be having any fun. It’s a huge turnoff for me, because we have so many creepy kid movies out there, that others have just done it better.

And, that’s not the fault of the actress. I feel like that’s just totally part of the script and direction, to have her saying and doing things to lead the audience to believe that Damien has been resurrected. Other things that frustrated me included a scene where the girl’s father, and our lead’s husband is pounding on the front door to the house like it’s an emergency, which is what Sarah Snook’s character wakes up to hearing. How long was he there? how was he sure they were inside and not in the backyard or something? Did he try another door? What was the game plan?

So, even though I feel like I missed things, I still don’t think I missed a great film. But that’s the problem, and why my perspective is different than that of whoever is writing for RogerEbert.com or Chris Stuckman, is that I am reliant on audio description. Some blind individuals have sighted people living with them, and they get that knowledge, but as those people will tell you sometimes that is inconsistent, and family members are not trained audio description writers or narrators.

Many people lose their vision at some point in their life, and not all blind or visually impaired people are that way from birth, and it’s not like we just stop liking everything we liked before, and instead take up butter churning or something. I have a film degree, and for 34 years, this was a huge part of who I am. It will never stop. And I know so many others like me.

But the reality is, even though I’m running a #describeeverything campaign, i don’t think it will ever happen without legislation, and people are just not motivated enough to help out and prioritize that kind of legislation in an ear where studios are claiming they are being put out by actors who don’t want their likeness scanned and used in perpetuity. So, this website will always just be my version of what I received, whether it had audio description or didn’t, and how I felt about that experience. And my voice as a critic is no less valid than that of any other film critic, but I have a feeling those elite groups have very little intention of letting someone in who can’t discuss the choice of color grading on the film.

I concede that you might enjoy Run Rabbit Run a lot more than I did, but even though I think Sarah Snook has a bright future ahead of her, this was one of my least favorite film experiences of the year. I think this has likely been done before, and done better. but, that’s just my experience. The problem is, for over 3 million Americans in this country who are visually impaired or blind, it might also be yours.

Final Grade: D