Is the Movie ‘Run’ Based on a True Story?

After skipping theaters earlier this year, the Sarah Paulson and Kiera Allen drama Run has finally landed on Hulu. The new film stars Paulson as Diane, a single mom who’s been raising her daughter Chloe (Allen) for 17 years with an overprotective parenting style, tending to her daughter’s long list of health issues — but there’s something much more sinister lurking beneath her caring mother exterior.

Decider’s John Serba praised the film, which comes from director Aneesh Chaganty, for its gripping story. “Run is an impressive exercise in ramping-up tension, pun mostly intended,” he wrote in his review. “There’s plenty here that’s entertaining, laugh-out-loud funny and lightly disturbing.” Run is currently streaming on Hulu, and all you need is an active subscription to watch — no extra cost! But before you do, you may have a couple of questions.

Here’s everything you need to know about Run, Hulu’s new movie:

WHAT IS THE MOVIE RUN ABOUT?

Run is about the relationship between Diane and her daughter, Chloe. While at first glance she appears to be a nurturing, sweet mom who is dedicated to her daughter, Diane’s sinister intentions are soon revealed. Chloe, who is in a wheelchair and takes multiple medications per day, starts to realize her reality has been concocted by her mom when she finds a bottle of her pills with Diane’s name on them. Turns out her mom has been keeping Chloe ill and dependent on her for years by giving her the wrong medications, including one for dogs. When Diane finds out the Chloe has learned her secret, she becomes increasingly unhinged, doing anything she can to keep her daughter under her control.

IS RUN BASED ON A TRUE STORY?

While Run borrows from real-life cases, it is not based on a single true story. Instead, Chaganty and Sev Ohanian teamed up to creaft the Run story and wrote the screenplay together. To prepare for her role as Chloe, Allen told Decider that she pulled from the real-life experiences of others. “I had a lot of conversations with Anesh about trauma and did a lot of research,” she said. “I read a lot of stories that were similar to Chloe’s and heard stories of the people around them and how they changed [after those experiences].”

Run does have plenty of similarities with another Hulu project that is based on a true story, 2019’s The Act. The series, which stars Joey King as Gypsy Blanchard and Patricia Arquette as Dee Dee Blanchard, recreates the real story of a mother with Munchausen Syndrome By Proxy, a condition in which a caregiver fakes or causes an illness or injury to the person they are caring for. To find out more about The Act and its connection to real life, check out our explainer of the true story behind The Act.

Stream Run on Hulu