Rabbit Trap
is full of melancholy and longing. It’s one of the first things I picked up when an unnamed child (Jade Croot) shows up at Daphne (Rosy McEwen) and Darcy’s (Dev Patel) remote home in the Welsh countryside. Writer-director Bryn Chainey builds an unsettling world set in 1976 and fills it with sounds — birds flying overhead, foliage crunching underfoot, Darcy’s haunting night terrors. The film is of the earth and the earth is of the film. The eerie horror allows us to settle into nature — what it gives us and what it takes away — and yearning.

Rabbit Trap Subverts Expectations Of Creepy Horror Children

Daphne is a musician recording her latest electronic music album. Darcy ᴀssists her in this endeavor and they also take the time out to enjoy each other’s company. The couple is clearly in love, and they seem content to spend their days working on music and putting together sounds they’ve recorded. After Darcy unknowingly steps into a tylwyth teg (fairy) circle, a child appears at the couple’s door. As with any horror film featuring a child, I instantly suspected Croot’s character to have ill intentions.

Chainey acknowledges that fact in the dialogue within the first few minutes of their onscreen appearance. Darcy is suspicious, somewhat taken aback by the child’s forthrightness, but he’s put at ease by the surprising visitor. Soon enough, they begin showing up at the couple’s home daily, slowly but surely worming their way into Darcy and Daphne’s lives. The child is a magical force of some sort, but the couple is initially happy to listen to their stories of fae and the haunting lullaby Croot sings.

While I began to think the child was trying to turn the couple against each other, the truth was far less sinister despite the spine-chilling way the child acted. Croot, for her part, is fantastic. She embodies the unsettling nature of her character while also imbuing them with so much heartache. I often felt bad for the unnamed child while also fearing what they would do. It’s a very fine line to walk and Croot moves between these two spheres delicately. There’s a deep sense of loneliness that Croot conveys in her eyes and I felt that ache throughout.

McEwen and Patel are equally mesmerizing, though the latter has more of an emotional stake in the story due to his mysterious night terrors. Patel speaks volumes with his eyes and he makes Darcy hesitant, open yet closed off somehow. His dreams reveal things his body knows but his mind can’t wrap around and Patel utilizes that sense of fear and insecurity in small but effective ways. He, too, wants to be loved and seen without condition and his arc, though it could have been fleshed out a bit more throughout the film, makes the final scene moving and tender.

McEwen’s arc as a musician and an unexpected mother to the child is nuanced. The film would have been more effective if it had explored any of Daphne’s feelings on motherhood beyond one scene with the child, but I also liked how the horror subverts expectations of parenthood in general. The couple wasn’t seeking a child, per se; quite the opposite, actually. Daphne is more gentle with the child and less suspicious. The change in their relationship is wonderfully conveyed through McEwen’s body language as she goes from enjoying her time with the child to feeling disconcertment and concern.

Rabbit Trap’s Sound Is Visceral & Haunting

At the screening of Rabbit Trap, Chainey spoke about wanting to do a horror film focused primarily on sound, as we so often we experience horror through our eyes. Here, the sound design is transcendent. It allows to engage with the film on a wholly different level. It’s very ASMR-driven and it will elicit shivers. The fact that the film is primarily set outside and inside a small house gives it a quiet, intense intimacy. It’s three characters interacting with each other and with nature around them, enveloping them in the surreal and the real at once.

The film is vague and more than a little mysterious but that’s also what I liked about it. It respects its audience by treating us like we’re capable of understanding what’s going on, even as it leaves us with plenty of questions. With so much of the film being sound-heavy, the silence also speaks volumes. Above all else, the folk horror movie wants us to truly feel the longing and need for love and attention.

The child wants to be claimed by a family, but the way they go about it is simultaneously chilling. This left me on edge for the film’s entirety, waiting for the other shoe to drop. But for all its unnerving atmosphere, Rabbit Trap is about acceptance and filling a void brought on by secrets the body holds and melancholic pasts. It’s beautiful in that way and Chainey understands how to build intensity and tension so that the ending is emotionally effective. There aren’t any jump scares here, but I will say the film is what The Watchers desperately wanted to be.

The film’s vagueness won’t be for everyone, but it gives us enough answers that center the premise of the story without trying to give everything away unnecessarily. It asks us to think about what we see and hear onscreen, as well as be enveloped in the magic and nature of the world Chainey creates. Rabbit Trap has its stumbles in terms of a couple of unfocused plot elements, but it’s an auditory experience worth taking.