“Together with your eyes, you enter the world. Together with your ears, the world enters you,” an ethereal voice begins, adopted by a sonic sensory assault that journeys the ability in an remoted Welsh countryside cottage. The aural and visible interpretation of sound within the introduction of author/director Bryn Chainey’s function debut, Rabbit Lure, indicators an progressive new tackle Celtic folks horror forward. As an alternative, sound turns into much less and much less of a focus as Chainey leans into cryptic Fae folklore and indirect storytelling.
The couple accountable for the opening’s cottage-shaking sensory assault is married couple Darcy (Dev Patel) and Daphne (Rose McEwen). The pair not too long ago bought the house to additional their artistic pursuits. Darcy is a sound recordist who spends his days roaming the countryside amassing nature audio together with his growth mic. Daphne then makes use of his recordings to create her area of interest model of music. However in opening themselves as much as listening to the land, they unwittingly develop into receivers of one thing otherworldly. Darcy’s recorder picks up unusual, unexplainable sounds and whispers, drawing him unaware right into a fairy circle. Quickly after, a mysterious little one (Jade Croot) reveals up at their house, drawn to their sound.
Naturally, issues solely get stranger from there, however these with even passing style savvy can guess the dilemma that Darcy and Daphne have stumbled into. It’s right here the place Chainey all however calls for a hefty suspension of disbelief. Known as a boy, the couple solely ask fleetingly for a reputation however by no means appear to register that the mysterious little one has evaded answering something about themselves. There’s by no means an inquiry about the place the kid lives; huge bucolic landscapes give no indicator of a single neighbor inside miles. Croot channels Barry Keoghan, infusing her character with a discomforting eagerness to please and a heat curiosity, and plies the couple with affection, presents, and information that’s peppered with peculiar, prying questions that ought to set off alarm bells.
Chainey crafts a beguiling, cryptic voyage that solely grows extra summary the additional it will get. Rabbit Lure consistently dances round an unstated rift between Darcy and Daphne, utilizing Darcy’s ongoing evening terrors or moments of reflection on Daphne’s profession to supply sufficient kernels for audiences to fill of their personal blanks; Chainey refuses to ever present any concrete solutions. Whether or not that rift is what permits the unusual little one to insert itself into their lives or just folks magic, that too stays shrouded behind deliberately obscure, mood-driven storytelling. By the movie’s conclusion, we’ve nonetheless barely discovered who any of these characters are.
It’s that fixed sense of evasiveness that dulls any pressure or atmospheric chills; Rabbit Lure is much less folks horror and extra beguiling folks story. Whereas Chainey struggles to elicit any sense of urgency or cohesive narrative, he crafts a handsomely made movie shot with primordial magnificence. The sound design is as enchanting as the magical deep woods, washed in vibrant emerald greens. Patel earns simple empathy because the deeply nervous Darcy, the extra cautious and damaged of the couple. McEwen infuses Daphne with an earthiness that makes her at house in this setting in ways in which scare Darcy. All of which highlights the huge potential on this function debut, simply one which maybe wanted extra finessing.
As beautiful and enchanting as Rabbit Lure might be, atmospherics solely go up to now in a reasonably simple story that goals to obscure its simplicity by way of folks horror signifiers, Croot’s cryptic dialogue, and an virtually disinterest in its central pair. An off-the-rails third act that solely additional obfuscates what, precisely, audiences are meant to remove from this journey outdoors of loosely outlined parenting fears. There’s no query that Chainey is a gifted filmmaker, however Rabbit Lure will get so caught up within the beautiful, poetic particulars that the bigger image turns into inscrutable and ineffective.
Rabbit Lure made its world premiere at Sundance.
