Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Bryn Chainey
Starring: Dev Patel, Rosy McEwen, Jade Croot
From the whistling of wind through gothic castles to the cattle prod electronic sting of jump scares, sound has arguably played a greater role in horror than any other genre. Like Jerzy Skolimowski's The Shout and Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio, writer/director Bryn Chainey's feature debut Rabbit Trap is centred on protagonists who make a living from the manipulation of sound, and like those films, the central couple here find themselves ultimately manipulated by sound.
It's 1976 and rising star Rosy McEwen is Daphne Davenport, an experimental electronic musician (the alliterative name surely a nod to electronic music pioneer Delia Derbyshire) who recently moved to the Welsh countryside with her sound engineer husband Darcy (Dev Patel). The latter performs the role of a hunter/gatherer of sound, capturing the noises of nature and taking them back to his wife, who attempts to turn them into music.
It's clear the relationship is in some sort of trouble, with both parties preferring to immerse themselves in their work rather than spend time in each other's company. That changes when Darcy returns home one day with a recording of muffled, ambiguous voices his microphone picked up near a fairy ring in the nearby woods. Listening to the sounds, Daphne's libido is stirred, and the couple engage in the sort of frantic lovemaking we suspect they haven't enjoyed in quite some time.
It's unclear if Daphne and Darcy are trying for a child, but they get one regardless. The morning after reinvigorating their lust, they wake to find an androgynous child (the child is referred to as a boy but is played by twentysomething actress Jade Croot) hanging around outside their home. The child, whose name we never learn, wins over the couple with their precocious intelligence, and Darcy and Daphne begin to behave like surrogate parents.
But this is a folk horror, and the local child introduces these English interlopers to Welsh folklore with tales of "the old ones" and of children disappearing after entering fairy rings. When the child begins to demonstrate inexplicable supernatural powers over Darcy and Daphne, they attempt in vain to get rid of the meddlesome brat, who isn't going anywhere.
Rabbit Trap distances itself from standard "creepy kid" fare by making its youthful antagonist a largely sympathetic if sinister figure. There's a sadness to the child, a sense of longing, which Darcy and Daphne cruelly ignore. They seem to want to be parents on a superficial level, but they aren't willing to give the child the sort of emotional attention it appears to be crying out for (they don't even bother learning the child's name). They have fun cosplayng as mum and dad, knowing that they can send this kid home when they get bored of it...well, until the point where the child refuses to leave and things take a dark, cosmic turn.
Daphne and Darcy's shallow relationship with the child is mirrored by their status as English foreigners in Wales. When the child speaks of local lore, Darcy is patronising and condescending in the sort of way only a secular, educated Englishman can be.
None of these themes are made explicit however. In an era when too many horror movies are overly keen to bludgeon us with their message, Rabbit Trap is refreshingly ambiguous. It's simultaneously very British in its setting and lore, but visual in a more continental manner, like some lost '70s Play For Today directed by an exiled Polish surrealist.
The thematic influence of classic British small screen folk horror like Robin Redbreast and Nigel Kneale's Beasts is tangible, but this is a movie to be seen on a big screen. With Yorkshire standing in for Wales due to a Welsh ban on depictions of smoking, Rabbit Trap is clouded in a mist that almost threatens to consume its characters. Cinematographer Andreas Johannessen captures this foreboding landscape in spectacular style reminiscent of the early works of British stylists like the Scott brothers and Adrian Lyne. The production design contrasts the then state of the art silvery sound equipment of Daphne and Darcy with the earthy moss and heather that surrounds their home-studio, giving the impression that they've arrived from the future to this timeless corner of the world.
On its Sundance premiere, Chainey's film was met with largely negative reviews that suggest many viewers will be exasperated by its ambiguity. But for those of us who welcome a favouring of mood and atmosphere over literalism, this is a film to let wash over you like a damp mist.
Rabbit Trap is in US cinemas from September 12th. A UK/ROI release has yet to be announced.
