The late Paul Walker shot to fame as the star of the Fast & Furious franchise, which utilized his easygoing charm and square-jawed all-American looks to great effect. It wasn’t often that he branched out of his comfort zone and really tested himself as an actor, making it a little ironic that arguably the best performance of his career in Running Scared wasn’t seen by anywhere near enough people.
Written and directed by Wayne Kramer, the gratuitously violent crime caper ticks all the boxes you’d want from a cult classic. It tanked horrendously at the box office after recouping less than $10 million of its $15 million budget from theaters, and went on to become a hugely beloved title among genre aficionados, in spite of an unenthusiastic critical response.