PLOT: A married couple (Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen) living in an isolated home in the Welsh countryside encounter a mysterious child (Jade Croot), whose sudden, intense devotion to them suggests something sinister is afoot.
REVIEW: Rabbit Trap is another entry into Sundance’s much-celebrated midnight section, a programme which has given us such horror gems as The Babadook, Hereditary, Talk To Me, and last year’s I Saw the TV Glow. Rabbit Trap, which comes from Elijah Wood’s Spectrevision label, is impeccably crafted and acted, but despite its programmed section, it doesn’t seem particularly interested in being a horror film. Instead, it’s more cerebral fare deeply rooted in Welsh folklore.
In it, Rosy McEwen plays Daphne, an experimental musician who composes atonal music using sounds recorded in nature by her audiophile husband, Darcy (Dev Patel). Set in 1976, they poor over their vintage audio equipment to put together these complicated soundscapes that evidently pay well enough for them to own a beautiful, remote house in the Welsh countryside. While there, they meet a mysterious child who ultimately endears themselves (their gender is left oblique, although the child is in fact played by an adult woman, Jade Croot). Soon, the child begins to view them as potential parents – but may not be of this earth. The child tells them of the Tylwyth Teg fairy ring, teaching them rituals and feeding them teas from plants in the area, only to take on a more sinister tone.
Rabbit Trap is purposefully oblique, with the entire film left open to interpretation. What’s happening in the film may or may not be real, with Daphne’s music not sounding of this earth, while Darcy is haunted by gruesome nightmares that are never really explained. They also live in a very remote area seemingly without any access to a car, food, or anything else to sustain them. Yet, the film’s visual beauty and immersive soundscape do indeed cast a spell, with this potentially being a cult hit that would be quite provocative if watched in the right headspace…and on the right substances.
Director Bryn Chainey makes an arresting debut and has assembled an impeccable cast. Patel and McEwen are a gorgeous pair, even if their relationship, like the rest of the film, is somewhat obtuse and dreamlike. Croot is even better as the otherworldly child who emerges into their world and starts to turn it into a nightmare.
It’ll be interesting to see if a distributor picks up Rabbit Trap, as Patel’s star power and the film’s aesthetic should make it an attractive pick-up for an adventurous distributor. However, given how the film plays out, it’s hard to say who the audience is exactly. This is the kind of movie that would play best in either the arthouse or at midnight screenings for a slightly stoned audience. It’s heady stuff that’s a lot to absorb, and already it’s turned into quite a conversation piece here at Sundance, with it a movie that could easily be interpreted in several different ways. For me, the film’s first hour, which leans into the pictorial beauty of DP Andreas Johannessen’s compositions and the innovative soundscape, is quite compelling. It starts to fall apart in the last half hour when it perhaps bites off a little more than it can chew, leaving many plot threads handing, but it’s also a film that would likely benefit from repeat viewings. While sometimes frustrating, Rabbit Trap is well worth seeing for the more adventurous filmgoer who wants something truly unusual.
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