Had a chance to catch this early recently. The film really surprised me. It is no secret that I’m not the biggest Paul Walker fan, but at the same time, I’ve never managed to “hate” him in a film. It isn’t his fault that he’s just so damn purty. It’s like… I wish I could take an actor like Paul Walker and put him on a working ranch for about 2 years. Hauling hay, shoveling horse manure, rounding up cattle, a few bar room brawls and a healthy dose of alcohol abuse… just something to weather him a bit.

Well, for the very first time in RUNNING SCARED, I really like Paul Walker. In this, his eyes are not so bright, his face... not so clean. He's scared, frantic and dangerously out of control. Amazing what a role that doesn't play to his good looks can do for a Ken doll actor. Amazing what Wayne Kramer has done with Paul Walker.

Wayne Kramer has made an intensely dark and cruel urban Grimm’s Fairy Tale. You might remember Wayne from that brilliant William H Macy / Maria Bello flick THE COOLER. Well, this is a bit of a departure from that.

Remember the fevered insanity of films like FREEWAY? In RUNNING SCARED – you might think the film is a “Paul Walker” film… and it is true, he does have the majority of the screentime, but this film is less focused on him… and is more about Cameron Bright’s character of Oleg Yugorsky. You might remember this little kid from that Nicole Kidman film that never quite caused the controversy that everyone kind of wanted it to have… BIRTH? Well, here he plays the best friend to Paul Walker’s kid. He’s the next door neighbor. Son of a Russian whore and the adopted son of a Russian Mafia ex-family member. Yeah, the sort of kid you dream of hanging out with your kid. Except – Paul Walker is the guy that makes guns disappear for the other mafia in town.

Actually – I’m getting ahead of myself. If you have watched that “opening 8 minutes” that has popped online of RUNNING SCARED, then you know exactly how intense this film wants you to think of it. The Man on Man violence in this film is pretty fucking intense, but it’s actually the “disturbing situations” that should really get ya. Ok – back to the story…

Walker’s “Joey Gazelle” has decided not to go drop guns off a bridge somewhere, but instead is storing them in the basement of his house in a false wall. His son and Oleg happen to see him drop the latest gun into his hiding spot… a gun that was used to kill some bad cops, btw. Well, Oleg happens to hate his “wicked” step-father… a John Wayne loving meth-head played by Karel Roden to perfection. Oleg is tired of seeing this wicked bastard bitch slap his whore mother and more so… his bruised riddled body is sick of the beatings he’s received. So, he’s gonna go kill his step-father the next time he rears back to hit him. This is actually what sets the whole film in motion.

In many ways, this film recalls Charles Laughton’s NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, but with the energy of FREEWAY. As Laughton’s film was a perfect contemporary updating of that sort of cautionary fairy tale… Wayne Kramer’s film has done a great job of bringing this sort of tale to today. As a result of the type of story, do not expect a realistic tale, but one that skirts around in a stylized, as is befitting of the fairy tale roots, seediness, as is fitting with today.

Personally I can’t wait to see this one again, which is a very cool thing to say, as this wasn’t a film I was really looking forward to, other than to just see the “next Wayne Kramer film.” Instead, it’s a movie brimming with great performances from Cameron Bright to Vera Farmiga to Chazz Palminteri to Karel Roden and John Noble. It’s surprisingly creepy and fucked up. Not a very safe film, where anything could be around the next corner. Now to finish that DVD column!