The film focuses on Cherie, a young law student who is denied career advancement by her sexist boss, James R Fuller. Rather than defending clients, she is forced to carry out secretarial duties instead but after she is accused by James of scheduling a client meeting at the same time as his anniversary dinner, she is given the opportunity by James to meet with the client. The client’s name is Ethan Sacks and on the surface, he seems to be very gentle and charming. But during her dinner meeting with him, he shows his aggressive side when a dog suddenly starts barking at him. He is clearly afraid of the canine and he tells Cherie his fear stems from a childhood incident where he was bitten by a dog. This is a lie but Cherie has more to worry about than this mis-telling of the truth when it later turns out that his whole identity is fake (which is something the dog could sense). It’s not long before Cherie’s life is put in danger by this seemingly inauspicious man. So who is Ethan? And why does he want to harm Cherie? Let’s take a closer look at the movie:
What happens after the dinner meeting?
The evening goes pleasantly enough, despite the barking dog. Cherie and Ethan have dinner and then spend a few more hours enjoying one another’s company. During their time together, Cherie notices the alarm on Ethan’s phone is set to 5.25. This might seem insignificant but later in the movie, we learn more about the importance of this. At the end of the evening, Ethan invites Cherie into his home for a drink. She is unsure about going in at first as she has a child at home to look after but as her daughter is with the babysitter, she eventually agrees to his offer. Bad move! As audience members, we don’t see what happens after she enters the house as Ethan holds his hand up to the camera as if forbidding us entry, before closing the front door on us. For a few seconds, all is quiet but then we hear sounds that suggest Cherie might be in trouble. Moments later, she emerges from the house, looking terrified and disheveled. It’s clear that Ethan has attacked her and to escape from further harm, Cherie flees into the night. After running through the streets of LA looking for help, she bumps into two ladies and asks to use one of their phones so she can call 911. The women don’t seem to take her pleas for help seriously but one of them calls the police on her behalf. When the police arrive, Cherie is taken to the police station and it can be presumed that she is now safe. Unfortunately, Cherie’s troubles are far from over.
What happens at the police station?
Instead of taking a statement from Cherie and giving her protection, the police officer in charge disbelieves her story and arrests her for public intoxication. He locks her up in a cell with another woman who initially offers the traumatized Cherie some comfort. But when Cherie relays the events of the night to her cellmate, the woman she is speaking to realizes the same thing happened to a friend of hers. We learn that this friend also met Ethan and shortly after, she was found dead. The woman becomes fearful and tells Cherie that she is a ‘marked woman.’ To escape from Ethan, Cherie is told that she needs to meet the ‘First Lady.’ She also tells her that Ethan “controls men.” What does the woman mean by this? We don’t get an answer at this stage and neither does Cherie as the woman is let out of the cell soon after. A short while later, Ethan does turn up at the cell and he is allowed in by a police officer who is presumably under his control. Ethan tells her that he wants to play a game. Unfortunately, he doesn’t whip out a Monopoly board or a pack of cards. He wants to play a different kind of game in which he hunts Cherie through the night. He tells her that he will let her go if she manages to survive until sunrise. Understandably, Cherie doesn’t want to play this game but he forces her into it. To make things fair, he gives her a headstart.
What does Cherie do next?
The hunt is on and after getting into a taxi, Cherie asks to be given a lift to her boss’s home. On arrival, James warmly receives Cherie and assures her that she will be safe. He asks his wife Judy to make Cherie some tea, which she does while Cherie showers and gets into a fresh set of clothes. After freshening herself up, Cherie checks James’ computer and finds out that her boss had arranged meetings between Ethan and some of the other women who worked at the law firm. It’s clear from this that the scheduling conflict was a lie and that James intended to hurt Cherie and her female colleagues by arranging meetings between them and this supposed psycho. Thankfully, Judy isn’t in cahoots with her husband or Ethan and she gives Cherie information that could save her life. She warns her that Ethan can smell her and that she must stay clean as best as she can so as not to give away her scent. As Cherie is on her period, this is something that proves to be difficult for Cherie throughout the movie as Ethan can smell her blood. After hearing Judy’s warning, Cherie then flees James’s house.
Does Cherie find safety?
After leaving James’s home, Cherie calls her ex-boyfriend Trey for help, and he takes her back to his house where Dawn, his latest girlfriend, is initially unhappy to see her. But after Dawn realizes Cherie is in trouble, she becomes far more accommodating. Cherie showers again while Trey goes out to buy her some tampons. Unfortunately, it’s not long before Ethan turns up at the door. Dawn and her friends arm themselves in readiness for a fight but they are no match for him. We hear gunfire and screams and while we don’t see what happens, it’s clear that Ethan has the upper hand. Soon after, both we and Cherie make a shocking discovery: Ethan has killed everybody! Cherie then comes face to face with Ethan again but before he can do her any harm, Trey arrives with the tampons. He steps up to confront Ethan but before he can swing a punch, Ethan bites his throat and rips his head clean off. At this point, it becomes clear to both us and Cherie that Ethan is far from human!
What is Ethan?
Cherie runs for her life once again and after another encounter with Ethan, where he gets hit by a car, she heads into a local church and asks a priest for a cross and holy water. She means to use these against Ethan because she recognizes he might be a demon. Sadly, the priest is no help, as it turns out the person Cherie had been talking to was Ethan in the form of the priest who is lying unconscious a few feet away. Cherie asks Ethan to reveal his true identity which he promptly does, although we don’t get to see the supernatural being that he turns into. Cherie is suitably terrified by what she sees but before the beast can kill her, the priest wakes up and stabs it in the back. He then points Cherie to a nearby escape hatch which, for some inexplicable reason, leads to a nightclub. Perhaps the priest was prone to partying! At the club, Cherie is able to steal some clothes and a phone. She uses the phone to call the First Lady, whose number she finds on a poster of a missing woman. She then heads to the First Lady’s location – the Grand Spa – and it’s here where Cherie learns more about the First Lady and Ethan. The First Lady reveals that she is the “first angel” and that she is on a mission to hunt down Ethan, a corrupted angel-turned-demon who was sent to Earth to guide humanity and maintain order. But for him, this meant giving men power over women. This clues us into Ethan’s actions as, in this feminist age, he presumably felt he had to wipe out any woman who didn’t ‘know their place’ in the world. It’s likely that he was summoned by James, Cherie’s boss, when she tried to ‘rise above her station’ in pursuit of career advancement. After learning this information, Cherie is asked by the First Lady to take down Ethan. She tells Cherie the best time to do this is sunrise as Ethan is susceptible to sunlight. The time of sunrise is 5.25, which is the time that Ethan had set his alarm for, presumably so he knew it was time to find shelter.
Does Cherie defeat Ethan?
Cherie travels to the harbour amusement park and wounds herself so Ethan can smell her blood and be lured in to her location. Ethan turns up and after a confrontation with Cherie, he knocks her unconscious by smashing her into a mirror. When she wakes up, she realises she has been pinned to a wall. Ethan tells her that his aim is to keep girls like her in their place. Cherie feigns defeat and this causes Ethan to release her. He promptly tries to lie down with her, presumably to have sex, but when the alarm on his phone goes off, she grabs a nearby stone and throws it through the glass wall. This causes sunlight to enter the room. The First Lady and her disciples also throw stones at the glass from outside, causing further gaps in the wall to be opened up to allow in more sunlight. As expected, Ethan is injured by the sunrays and he starts bleeding black blood. The First Lady sets the blood on fire and Ethan is then engulfed in flames. Ethan is then turned to dust and with his demise, Cherie is now safe.
What is the film’s meaning?
On the surface, the film is an effective horror thriller about one woman’s attempt to take down a demon. But underneath the surface, the film is about the attempt by men to keep women ‘in their place.’ The message is clear: Women are not to be silenced. Throughout the film, Cherie became another victim of our misogynistic society but by the end, she was able to stand up to the patriarchy which was symbolised by Ethan. As such, this is more than just another horror film. It’s an encouragement for all women to fight for equality and a reminder to men that they aren’t the dominant species on this planet. Read More: Run Sweetheart Run Movie Review
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