Rabbit Trap

This is an old-time psychological horror film, short on scares and thrills but heavy on atmosphere. The vibe reminds me of early 70s films like Let's Scare Jessica To Death. I'm not surprised that 2025 audiences think it's too slow and that nothing happens.

The idea is fascinating: by recording strange sounds, a couple slip into the dreamlike and morally ambiguous realm of fairy lore. The acting is quite good, but I kept feeling like the writer-director could have done a better job. The narrative doesn't pull you in, there's too much goop and slime and not enough unearthly beauty, and although the sound is great, the film relies too much on sound to generate feeling.

Overall, a nice effort on a great concept.

I'm surprised that the reviews for this film are so bad. It's rather enchanting and plays on many ancient folk themes. The actors are brilliant and magical in each of their own rights. It all starts with dreams good and bad and then a wild mushroom trip. I don't even like horror films, but this one was really creepy. The end bit was admittedly a bit confusing, but incredibly poetic. It's the stuff of wonder. Perhaps the genre was indeed mislabeled. Perhaps it was not gruesome enough for the general public...

This is undoubtedly a tricky proposition but it seems to me that we castigate things for following a formula and then when someone attempts something different we moan about that as well. There is an intelligence to this project aligned with a willingness to take risks. Yes it doesn't always work but I think it's worth watching with an open mind. At least it's trying to forge a different path!

Darcy Davenport (Dev Patel) and wife Daphne Davenport (Rosy McEwen) are musicians moving to a house in the Wales countryside. He likes to record sounds in the world. He records a strange sound in nature which seems to be affecting the couple. Then he befriends a local boy.

Well, this has an idea. It does need more than that. The three actors are fine. Maybe the boy should be younger. Younger could be creepier. This needs more creepiness. It needs more of a lot of things.

This movie doesn't make any sense. The visuals are nice and the sound design is decent, but what is it actually trying to say? From the very first scene, I disliked the characters, their conversations are completely nonsensical and lead nowhere, and and if there were an award for bad haircuts, these characters would win it hands down.