Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen’s chemistry isn’t enough to lift Rabbit Trap out of mediocrity.
Rabbit Trap, writer and director Bryn Chainey’s first full-length feature, is yet another entry in the “horror film about trauma” category that has permeated much of modern horror cinema. Writer-director Ari Aster started a trend when he released his masterpieces Hereditary and Midsommar, films that many feel represent “elevated horror,” a condescending term that implies that horror is not an incredibly rich genre that has explored complex themes since its invention. Trauma is a favored theme among this new class of horror directors, who explore it to varying degrees of success. Often, it is merely set dressing to apply an air of profundity to a one-dimensional film. Unfortunately, this is one such occasion.
Rabbit Trap follows married couple Darcy (Dev Patel) and Daphne Davenport (Rosy McEwen) after they leave London to live in a cottage in the Welsh countryside in 1973. Daphne, an experimental musician, spends her days recording sound in and around the cottage. Darcy, plagued by unsettling dreams, struggles to cope with a shadowy past as he assists Daphne with recording sound in the present. When a mysterious child (Jade Croot) arrives on their property, the couple is forced to confront certain forces surrounding them as well as truths about themselves.
The haunting sound design and beautiful cinematography are the highlights of the film, the two combining to create an appropriately ethereal atmosphere. Sound designer Graham Reznick uses nature to great effect, leaving the viewer inspired to listen more closely when they venture outside. Sounds as simple as footfalls or a hand pressing into moist greenery are given an immense gravity.
An abundance of style belies little substance.
Chainey makes the countryside feel both appealing and overwhelming, capturing the enormity of the rolling hills and lush forest surrounding the couple’s comparatively small cottage. The forest especially feels like a portal to another world. This is a film that relies on visuals over story, so it is appropriate that it is a pleasant sensory experience.
Patel and McEwen are both infinitely watchable actors, but the film gives them very little to work with. Darcy and Daphne are written with only the vaguest whisper of characterization, and the repetitive story allows for little growth. Patel and McEwen have great chemistry, but the writing affords the audience practically no information about their relationship. When the child, played with appropriate creepiness by Jade Croot, arrives, one might expect a major shift in the dynamics of the characters. Instead, we are shown more of the same. Unfortunately, the folk horror elements are barely incorporated until the end of the film during a montage that is meant to offer emotional catharsis but falls flat after suffering through such a thin plot.
The bottom line.
Rabbit Trap is style over substance, depending on half-baked metaphors rather than a fully formed story. It feels like an amalgamation of all of the worst qualities of these “elevated horror” films, resulting in mediocrity. I can only hope that more horror directors focus on plumbing real depths moving forward rather than prioritizing a veneer of high art. Horror films are resonant enough, no elevation needed.
Rabbit Trap is now playing in select theaters. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Magnolia Pictures. Read more articles by Isabella Cantillano-Sanchez here.
REVIEW RATING
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Rabbit Trap - 3/10
3/10
