The feeling of watching the film Rabbit Trap is one that is comparable perhaps only to the first time you hear your favorite song through a pair of actually good headphones.  What was once a familiar old friend, is now something new, something different.  Where once only silence was heard, now new frequencies and new sonic pathways open up from places that always dwelled under the surface, yet until now had never been accessible to you. Yes, this film is quite a bit like that.

Rabbit Trap is the story of Daphne (Rosy McEwan), an analog synth obsessed avant-garde musician, and her husband, Darcy (Dev Patel), a introverted sound designer who spends his days lugging his audio equipment into the forest to record the sounds of nature at work.  Seeking to immerse themselves in both their art and their relationship, the couple decides to sequester themselves in a scaredy populated forest home in Wales.  However, Daphne’s music has awakened something, and after Darcy stumbles upon a mysterious frequency emanating from inside the forest, it becomes clear that the couple were not nearly as alone as they had believed.

The couple’s life is turned further upside down with the appearance of a mysterious nameless youth (Jade Croot).  The child, seemingly born of the forest itself, quickly begins to insert itself into the lives of the couple instantly putting them at odds with each other while at the same time promising them the inspiration and sound they’ve been searching for all this time.  As the natural world begins to slowly permeate every inch of their house, and Darcy’s fits of sleep paralysis spike to an all time high, they start to wonder if there isn’t something supernatural at work here.

Rabbit Trap is a cinematic audio-visual experience like nothing you’ve ever seen or experienced  before.  Taking cues from Brian Froud (the concept designer of Labyrinth and Dark Crystal) as well as Daphne Oram (a pioneer of EDM music), Director Bryn Chainey has achieved something that is not just visually stunning, but sonically arresting as well.  The cascading oscillations of the film’s soundtrack and its tangible visual aesthetic casts a cinematic spell over its audience, and holds them captive from start to finish. Though most of it takes place on a single-set, the world of this film feels vast and rich in character and mythos.  It is a film that you can almost reach out and touch, or even worse, one that might reach out and touch you.

With its eerie set pieces, disquieting soundscapes and arresting visuals, Rabbit Trap is a pioneer of a refreshing new style of horror film.  However, to simply call it a horror film would only diminish it.  At its heart, it is a story that teaches us the power of love, while also exploring the debilitating power of melancholy.  In Bryn Chainey’s universe, the most terrifying thing in the world isn’t that which goes bump in the night; it is the all consuming fear of being alone, and the anguish felt when having to hide your true nature from those you love the most.

Coming in at a lean 97 minutes, Rabbit Trap is a cinematic adonis.  It is one of those rare films that contains no excess fat, and excels in every single aspect of cinematic storytelling.  This is the rare treasured piece of art that comes about when unmitigated passion meets unrivalled skill.  It is a cinematic swan song that once experienced, can never truly be repeated or imitated again.  It is a film that beckons to you from beyond the veil, beckoning you into its cold embrace like the Call of Cthulhu.

REVIEW OVERVIEW
Rabbit Trap
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Ty Cooper
Ty Cooper lives in Asia and spends most his time drifting through the streets of Taiwan imagining he is Shotaro Kaneda in Akira. Once a year he takes on the unyielding snow storm that is Sundance and attempts to capture a glimpse at what the upcoming year in film has to offer. Ty first started writing for HeyUGuys after SXSW in 2010.
rabbit-trap-reviewRabbit Trap excels in every single aspect of spell-binding cinematic storytelling. Visually stunning, sonically arresting, this is a cinematic audio-visual experience like nothing you’ve ever seen or experienced before.