It’s been a while since Cherie (Ella Balinska) has dated. She’s a single working mother trying to remove herself from her volatile and estranged relationship with her ex. When her boss sets her up with a wealthy bachelor, Cherie thinks she’s meeting someone nice. Instead, she’s attacked, beginning a night-long cat-and-mouse battle for her life. While that sounds like a straightforward thriller, Run Sweetheart Runs turns what could’ve been a one-note date night into an impassioned battle cry full of humor, ferocity, and the unexpected.

Straight away, writer/director Shana Feste presents a deeply intimate portrayal of womanhood. Before heading out on her date, poor Cherie’s toddler flushes her last tampon down the toilet, leaving the menstruating mother no time to purchase more. There’s nothing more ferociously female than starting a romantically intentioned night turned marathon fight for survival like having your period complicate matters. Something women know well. Women also know the feeling of keeping your guard up when alone; Cherie’s rideshare driver behaves in just a bizarre enough manner to rightly sound an inner alarm. Just as she grabs her pepper spray, she’s arrived at her destination. It’s that guarded demeanor that allows her to survive the initial attack when her date goes awry. For round two of their battle, date Ethan (Pilou Asbæk) gives her an out; if she can survive until dawn, he’ll let her go. If not, she’ll die.

Asbæk (Overlord), who’s quickly cornering the market on charismatic genre villains, isn’t quite the entitled, rich playboy serial killer that he initially seems to be. Or rather, he’s much, much more. The cat-and-mouse game between Cherie and Ethan quickly reveals her pursuer to be of the supernatural variety. Like last year’s Sweetheart, this eponymous sweetheart finds herself going toe-to-toe with an inhuman monster, too, one with incredible strength and a seriously strong sense of smell. Oh yeah, too bad Cherie’s on her period.

While there’s a lot of on-the-nose critiques and insights on what it means to be female, especially in Cherie’s world, Feste balances the wrath with a sharp sense of humor and fun. We might rage on Cherie’s behalf when the police treat her like drunk garbage not to be believed, or when a pair of yuppy women do the bare minimum to offer half-assed help; the anger is offset by playful gags and gonzo humor guaranteed to elicit laughs. There’s a tampon gag so intentionally silly and bold that even the most squeamish about menstruation will applaud the ovaries it took to include it in the movie. It helps that Asbæk is relishing his role as an otherworldly beast that spiritedly hunts his prey.

The more Cherie decides she’s had enough, and the more we get a sense of what exactly Ethan is, the less suspenseful it becomes. Some of the mythology doesn’t quite feel fleshed out, either. One specific moment regarding insight into the demonic playboy hunting our heroine will likely elicit groans. There’s a fantastic setup for one of the villain’s significant weaknesses. Still, it doesn’t explore that to the fullest, opting instead to go for a more rote vulnerability to exploit. There’s also a few dangling loose threads leftover when it’s all said and done, and mixed messaging when it comes to a late-game character introduction.

Overall, Run Sweetheart Run is a lighthearted survive-the-night style romp. One that’s wholly unafraid to put you in the shoes of what it’s like to be female, but with enough playfulness and horror to feel inclusive for all. Balinska makes for a fine heroine able to switch between kind-hearted, broken, and fierce, giving us strong rooting interest. Aside from the thinly-veiled metaphors at play, there’s not a lot of depth to the plot. It’s a straightforward horror story that follows a path you’d mostly expect, but the journey still offers a ton of fun. It wastes no time getting straight to the action, either. It’s hard to be too down on a movie that aims to entertain and use blood-loving monsters as a vehicle for its central message, which involves making the world a better place for our kids.

Though imperfect, Run Sweetheart Run makes for an entertaining and cheeky trip centered around woman’s curse, and it guarantees to be divisive.