Netflix Lands Sundance Horror Film Run Rabbit Run
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival officially began on this week, and as attendees are still funneling into Park City, the ink is already drying on the first major deal of the festival. According to The Wrap, Netflix has nabbed the rights to "Run Rabbit Run," a psychological thriller led by "Succession" star Sarah Snook. Netflix, which earned the global rights minus some select territories for an undisclosed price, already reportedly has plans to release the film in 2023.
"Run Rabbit Run" comes via director Daina Reid, whose work behind the camera includes directing episodes of "The Handmaid's Tale," "Shining Girls," and more. The film is written by novelist Hannah Kent, author of "Burial Rites" and "Devotion," in her feature screenwriting debut. "Run Rabbit Run" sounds like a chilling genre movie about motherhood and unsettled history, with a plot description that calls to mind films like "The Babadook" and last year's Sundance favorite "Resurrection."
According to the official Sundance synopsis, Snook plays a fertility doctor named Sarah whose seven-year-old daughter Mia begins exhibiting strange behaviors, beginning with her excited response to a rabbit that appears on the family's doorstep — an unsolicited birthday gift that leaves Sarah feeling unnerved. Mia's behavior soon escalates, and Sarah must deal with a "ghost from her past" when her daughter begins throwing tantrums and asking to see an estranged grandparent.
Sarah Snook stars in the psychological thriller
"Run Rabbit Run" debuted Thursday night in the Midnights category, a Sundance section typically reserved for the festival's freakier, genre-bending fare. While /Film's critic was disappointed by the movie, the official Sundance catalog offers some insight into its tone with a description that calls the film "an exquisitely fine-tuned psychological thriller" that "elegantly [incorporates] unsettling visual and aural cues to signal how destabilized Sarah's world has become."
Snook's role originally belonged to Elizabeth Moss, who was cast in the part back in 2020 before the actress best known as Shiv Roy ended up with the role after Moss reportedly dropped out due to scheduling conflicts (per Deadline). The Australia-filmed project comes courtesy of Carver Films, the production company behind another distressing family-oriented horror film, 2020's "Relic." XYZ films is also on board the project and reportedly brokered the Netflix deal.
This is the first year Netflix has visited Sundance since the streamer began making major changes in the face of significant subscriber (and thus, monetary) losses last year, and it'll be interesting to see what the streamer bets on. In past years, Netflix has been a noteworthy if inconsistent buyer at the fest, picking up films like Rebecca Hall's adaptation of "Passing," Dee Rees' "Mudbound," and the Oscar-winning doc "Icarus," but failing to buy anything at all in 2018. There's plenty more festival to go, so /Film will keep you posted on major deals as they arise.
"Run Rabbit Run" will debut on Netflix sometime in 2023.