In British director Bryn Chaney's feature debut, he uses Celtic folklore and the intimacy of sound to unpack a darkness that some may struggle to put into words.
It was set in 1973, Rabbit trap Stars Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen as Darcy and Daphne, an influential musical couple from London who retreat to an isolated cabin in the Welsh countryside to finish their next album. But when Darcy records a sound that is not meant for human ears, he accidentally conjures ancient mystical beings from the forest.
Best viewed in Dolby, the film uses hypnotic sounds in every scene, largely through field recordings Darcy made in the surrounding forest. In addition to the sounds of falling water, metallic metal and crunching grass, Darcy demonstrates how sacred the medium is as he explains that “the sound is a ghost…and your body is the house that haunts it.”
After recording strange noises in the woods, Darcy returns the recordings to Devney, who is quickly seduced and elevated to a “sublime” creative breakthrough. The cosmic intensity of composer Lucrecia Dalt's score and Graham Reznick's sound design immerses the audience in Daphne's chaotic creative process, as well as her romance with Darcy, with one sex scene set to FAE's music sounding like a banishing acid trip.
But sound is also used to express the darkness within. As Darcy struggles with sleep paralysis, Daphne records him talking in his sleep, giving words to the darkness he cannot face while awake. Although there are some words they still can't say out loud to each other, sound is used to emphasize their relationship as Patel and McEwen's visceral physical performances do the rest.
With their new discovery taking them out of a creative funk, the pair visit an unidentified child (Kade Croot) who is drawn to their music. Educating them on local folklore, as well as his affinity for rabbit hunting, the strange child soon takes a liking to the couple.
Croot's performance as the enigmatic youth provides a range of emotions for Patel and McEwen to play upon, with natural parental sympathy building through the dynamic, as the mounting dread passes. The trio navigates the emotional weight of the story with a precise synchronicity that peels back Darcy's self-conscious layers of trauma, threatening to drag Daphne's creative spirit down with it.
After Patel made his directorial debut with last year Monkey manthe multi-heaven actor seems to pay it forward with Chaney's debut, providing an emotionally raw performance that matches the deep, dark well of Auteur's rising imagination.
Producers are Lawrence Inglis, Daniel Noah, Elijah Wood, Elissa Lilas, Adrian Politowski and Martin Metz.
address: Rabbit trap
to divide: Sundance (Midnight)
Sales agent: CAA, Bankside Films
exit: Brian heals me
screenwriter: Brian heals me
ejaculate: Dev Patel, Rosie McQueen and Jade Crute
Operating time: 97 minutes
