Entertainment
The Thrilling Die Hard Homage That Made Scream VII’s Star
By Jennifer Asencio
| Published
Actress Isabel May is starring in Scream VII as Sidney’s daughter Tatum, a role that puts her character in the vicinity of her famous mother and therefore in danger from Ghostface. May isn’t a stranger to playing characters whose lives are in danger, as she was also the star of the Daily Wire thriller Run Hide Fight. Between the Scream movie and recent news events, this 2020 film about a high school shooter has resurfaced on social media.
Run Hide Fight is about an angry teen named Zoe Hull, who is still grieving the death of her mother, making things not so good at home with her ex-military and outdoorsman father, Todd. Typical teenage concerns abound: prom is coming up, and Zoe’s friend Lewis wants to ask her to it, while Vernon Central High School is having its “senior prank day,” resulting in rooms filled with balloons and a sloped hallway doused in vegetable oil.
But the joke is over when four of Zoe’s classmates, led by psychopath Tristan, ram into the school in a giant white van and start shooting. He and his friends aren’t just out to kill their classmates, but also to livestream it on social media and become famous. Zoe manages to escape detection, but can a single 17-year-old girl save an entire school?
Die Hard In High School Doesn’t Cover It
The movie has been described as “Die Hard in a high school,” and that’s a fair assessment of its basic plot, but it sells short the intricacy and psychological warfare that is woven into the script by director Kyle Rankin. Various powers collide as the hostage situation unfolds, as the school’s administrators and teachers, the police, the media, and the students themselves scramble to deal with the crisis in various ways. There is so much going on in this movie that I took three pages of notes to write this review.
While there’s plenty of action, it’s not really an action movie but a thriller. Zoe is on a hero’s journey that includes her own grief as she talks to her mother, played by Radha Mitchell, throughout the hostage situation. Tension is high even when characters are just talking to each other, because you never know when someone with a gun might burst into the room. The movie’s plot moves through the phases suggested by its title and mirrored in the phases of Tristan’s plan.
Zoe is also not invincible. She’s a scrappy teen, not a Navy SEAL, and she takes some injuries as she tries to help her classmates escape. Unlike John McClane, she’s not looking for a fight; she’s looking to survive, and all she has is her wits. She is also suffering: her mother appears as a hallucination whose appearance documents Zoe’s grief. Isabel May puts on a wrenching performance, not just in her dialogue but in her expressions of deeply conflicting emotions in the face of terror.
With so many characters and so much going on, the action is emphasized in short, staccato scenes that allow the plot to unfold organically. It has the frenetic pacing of up-to-the-minute news, creating a livestream effect that underscores Tristan’s plan, but it also knows when to slow down, giving us time to care about the characters and their survival. Treat Williams, who plays the sheriff managing this crisis, dominates almost all his scenes with charismatic energy.
Great Writing Makes Run Fight Hide a Must-See
Daily Wire+ has a mature warning on Run Hide Fight because of violence, but we are only given enough violence to emphasize the severity of the situation. These scenes are very impactful, especially as the students are forced to livestream the carnage and Tristan’s posturing. The technique of using phones to record for social media is always present, as it connects all the characters inside the school to the police and parents outside the school.
The true strength of this movie lies in its script, which doesn’t shy away from its numerous themes. There is humor in the dialogue, and the characters are fleshed out well. The film draws viewers enough into the school that it’s easy to triumph when they do and to be afraid for their survival. The threads of plot and theme are so well executed that they wrap the story into a neat package, from its cold open to its chilling resolution.
It is difficult these days to write a story about school shootings, and you’re not supposed to enjoy that, though that’s what’s happening during this one. The script never asks for it any more than Zoe asks to be a heroine. That makes it all the more worth watching.
Run Hide Fight is Isabel May’s first dramatic role and paved the way for her to star first in the Yellowstone spin-offs and now in Scream VII. Even though she plays a teenager, this movie marked her transition from teen roles to more mature ones. Many people ignore or dismiss it because it is a Daily Wire production, but Run Hide Fight represents a successful early effort by the streamer to create quality fictional content.
Run Hide Fight is streaming on Daily Wire+. Scream VII is currently in theaters.