BE VERY AFRAID OF 'RUNNING SCARED'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

IN AN EFFORT to get the word out about the subtle charms of its latest brain-splattering epic, ``Running Scared,'' the gang over at New Line Cinema marketing came up with an on-line game in which you could be Paul Walker (not my dream, maybe yours) and, um, pleasure the woman who plays his wife in the movie.

Now, while nothing in Wayne Kramer's pointlessly vile movie is as subtle as this rather desperate marketing ploy, you have to give the studio's hucksters points for recognizing that their product is nothing more than an overly long video game masquerading as a movie. Kramer's relentless, in-your-face style is wearying after the opening hotel room shootout where victims fly across the room, spurt fountains of blood and scream profanities after being shot in the privates.

And just think: After this bloodbath, there's still nearly two more hours of overly stylized, misogynistic hostility waiting to be savored.

What that means is this: A John Wayne-loving Ruskie smacks his little boy and said boy's mother. The kid, Oleg (Cameron Bright), takes exception, calls The Duke a ``faggot'' and shoots his step-dad, using a gun he found at his neighbor's house. Said neighbor, Joey (Walker), is a low-level mobster who was supposed to dispose of the piece after the aforementioned hotel-room butchery. Now the kid and the gun are missing and Joey had better find them both or he'll be the one screaming profanities after being shot in the privates.

Little Oleg suffers more calamities than Job, facing off with pimps wielding switchblades, smiley pedophiles who put a plastic bag over his head and a bunch of goombahs who want to put a bullet in his head. There's also a scene - and I'm not really giving away anything crucial here - where Oleg's beloved mother blows herself to bits in front of the child's eyes.

Oh - did I mention that Oleg is asthmatic? (How Kramer refrained from making the kid a diabetic, too, is beyond me.)

Kramer's grating bombast exists only to call attention to itself as well as the complete absence of any moral implications or recognizable human behavior in the film. Again: It's a video game. There's a scene in the movie where a middle finger is extended and then snapped in two. ``Running Scared'' is that middle finger. Let your own apathy serve as the payback finger-popping.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

RUNNING SCARED - No stars

(R: pervasive strong brutal violence, language, sexuality, drug content)

Starring: Paul Walker

Director: Wayne Kramer.

Running time: 1 hr. 59 min.

Playing: In wide release.

In a nutshell: Pointlessly vile video game in which a little boy faces off against a pimp, the mob, smiley pedophiles and an abusive step-dad. Oh, one other the thing: The kid's asthmatic. Yes, the movie is that subtle.