From Emmy-nominated Victorian Director, Daina Reid, (The Handmaid’s Tale) and the brilliant mind of best-selling Burial Rites author, Hannah Kent, comes the heart-pounding thriller Run Rabbit Run – now streaming on Netflix.

Run Rabbit Run centres around Sarah (played by Golden Globe-winning Sarah Snook), a fertility doctor who believes she has a firm grip on the cycle of life until her young daughter, Mia, increasingly exhibits strange behaviour which starts to unravel the ghosts of Sarah’s past.

Filming took place in Melbourne and regional Victoria – attracted to the state through the Victorian Screen Incentive and VicScreen’s Regional Location Assistance Fund – Run Rabbit Run was shot across Melbourne and Victoria’s famed Great Ocean Road, engaging some of the country’s most skilled HODs, crews and creatives. And locking in Sarah Snook, was a dream moment for the creative team.

“You really can’t hope for a more instinctive, incredible actor than Sarah [Snook]…she looked amazing in the landscape as well, she’s just so talented.”

Director Daina Reid

Working with child actors in the thriller/horror genre can be tricky, Daina admits, however Lily LaTorre, who plays the tormented Mia, displayed a wisdom and sensibility beyond her years. “She was one of the first people we cast. She’d be mucking around on set one minute, just like any ordinary kid, and then as soon as the camera rolled, she was so incredibly focussed. Lily was just amazing.”

Shooting Run Rabbit Run in rural Victoria and South Australia helped convey a duality of beauty and terror. “It’s a beautiful but threatening place,” Daina reflects.

Cinematographer Bonnie Elliott, Production Designer Vanessa Cerne and Locations Manager John Greene were crucial in constructing a set that allowed the cast to reach the emotional depths required of them in this script. “It’s a real challenge, but it’s also a gift,” Daina says.

“Because it’s a landscape movie as well as a psychological thriller; it’s about a human being in that [Australian] landscape.”

Director Daina Reid

Want to find out more about filming in Victoria?

Contact Joe Brinkmann

Head of Incentives & Production Support at VicScreen
[email protected]