Rabbit Trap

  Rosy McEwan        

Bryn Chainey's Rabbit Trap, his feature film debut, is an atmospheric horror film set in the wilds of Wales during the late 1970s. Rosy McEwan plays Daphne, a composer who festoons her electronic compositions with found sounds. Dev Pater plays her husband, Darcy, a sound engineer who scours the countryside recording nature whilst his wife works on her compositions in their cottage. The couple seem to revel in their solitude, alternately chain smoking and making love. Despite little in the way of a back story to provide us a clue, troubles from their past linger. Darcy, in particular, is haunted by nightmares in which he is consumed by a beastly shadow self. After accidentally wandering into a Tywyth Teg fairy circle, as one does in Wakes, their insularity is disturbed by a young interloper (Jade Croot). The unnamed lad says he is drawn by the music that emanates from the cottage, but it soon becomes obvious that the boy desperately craves parental figures in his life. Daphne and Darcy oblige, but only up to a point.

Chainey's casting of a young woman in the role of the boy is a real coup. Ms. Croot gives the role an uncanny feel that is a snug fit for a character who turns out to be more a pagan spirit than boy; a sinister Peter Pan if you will. This helps unsettle a film that feels a little too familiar at times. If I had a dime for every rustic UK horror film that featured magic mushrooms in the last two decades, why I'd have a dollar. Still, the production values of this film are a cut above most of its ilk. The cinematography of Andreas Johannssen captures the topography of Wales and Yorkshire in all its alluring and slightly terrifying grandeur. The film's sound design, by Graham Reznick, and the film's score, by Lucrecia Dalt, are both effectively creepy, helping make the film a chillingly immersive experience. All three leads are superb, though there is little in the way of character or plot development. Moody rural horror, then, and a promising premiere film. Rabbit Trap is currently streaming on Tubi.