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‘Run Sweetheart Run': Shana Feste on Turning Her Worst Date Ever Into a Horror Film (Video)

Sundance 2020: Ella Balinska plays a woman who seems to have found the perfect man … only for him to reveal that he is a powerful stalker

| February 6, 2020 @ 6:33 PM

Shana Feste added every woman’s nightmare to the Midnight section of the Sundance Film Festival in the form of “Run Sweetheart Run,” her newest horror film starring Ella Balinska and Pilou Asbaek.

The film, which will be released by Universal later this year, stars Balinska as Shari, a single mother who decides to re-enter the dating scene. Asbaek plays Ethan, a man who seems to be charismatic and charming when he meets Shari for a date but soon reveals his sinister nature. Desperate to escape, Shari runs out onto the streets of Los Angeles after dark and soon discovers that Ethan is not only dangerous but well-connected, too.

“It was based on a bad date that I went on when I was attending UCLA,” Feste told TheWrap’s Steve Pond. “I literally — without a purse, shoes, cellphone — just ran home from Hollywood Hills to West Los Angeles. I think every woman could relate to something like that because every woman has their own real-life horror film.”

Also Read: 'Horse Girl' Star, Co-Writer Alison Brie on Writing an 'Almost' Completely Improvised Film (Video)

Feste’s personal story, one she said she wrote for her daughter from a “very angry place,” resonated deeply with Balinska when she read it while working on another film. She said she gravitated immediately to the film.

“There’s nothing in the script that’s like, ‘Oh, she has to make these decisions, otherwise it’s not a horror movie,” she said. “She’s intelligent. She does things that even I as a human being thought, ‘Wow, that makes so much sense!'”

Watch Feste, Balinska and Asbaek talk more about “Run Sweetheart Run” in the clip above.

81 Sundance Portraits From A to Z: Awkwafina to Zach Galifianakis (Exclusive Photos)

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  • Demi Moore, Corporate Animals
  • Ed Helms, Corporate Animals
  • Hillary Swank, I am Mother
  • Clara Rugaard-Larsen, I am Mother
  • Grant Sputore, I am Mother
  • Sacha and Rza, Of Mice and Men
  • Peter Sarsgaard, The Sound of Silence
  • Toni Revolori, The Sound of Silence
  • Reggie Watts
  • Zack Galifinakis,The Sunlit Night
  • Jenny Slate, The Sunlit Night
  • Storm Reid, Relive
  • David Oyelowo, Relive
  • Jacob Estes, Relive
  • John Lithgow, The Tomorrow Man
  • Blythe Danner, The Tomorrow Man
  • Director Noble Jones, The Tomorrow Man
  • Annette Bening, The Report
  • John Hamm, The Report
  • Maura Tierney, The Report
  • Scott Z. Burns, The Report
  • Danielle Brooks and Director Chinonye Chukwu, Clemency
  • Alfre Woodard, Clemency
  • Luce
  • Jennifer Ehle, The Wolf Hour
  • Cameron Crowe, Remember My Name
  • David Crosby, Remember My Name
  • AJ Eaton, Remember My Name
  • Ryan White, Dr. Ruth
  • Troup Zero
  • Alma Ha'rel, Honey Boy
  • Byron Byers, Honey Boy
  • Noah Jupe, Honey Boy
  • Clifton Collins, Honey Boy
  • Extremely Wicked Shockingly Evil and Vile
  • Matt Tyrnauer, Where's My Roy Cohn?
  • Richie Mehta, Delhi Crime Story
  • Aisling Franciosi, The Nightingale
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  • Lovie Simone and Celeste O'Connor, Selah and the Spades
  • Jharrel Jerome, Selah and the Spades
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  • Debra Eisenstadt, Imaginary Order
  • Garret Price, Love Antosha
  • Jim Cummings, Greener Grass
  • Paradise Hills
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  • Marin Ireland, Light from Light
  • Josh Wiggins, Light from Light
  • Penny Lane, Hail Satan
  • Alex Holmes and Tracy Edwards, Maiden
  • Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer, The Great Hack
  • Chris O'Dowd, State of the Union
  • Florence Pugh, Fighting with my Family
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  • Jack Lowden, Fighting with my Family
  • Saraya-Jade Bevis, Fighting with my Family
  • Nick Frost, Fighting with my Family
  • Stephen Merchant, Fighting with my Family
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  • Director Sophie Hyde, Animals
  • Stanley Nelson, Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool
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