‘Rabbit Trap’ Review: Dev Patel Tampers With Ancient Magic In Bryn Chainey’s ASMR Folk Horror — Sundance Film Festival

deadline.com:

In British writer-director Bryn Chaney’s feature debut, he uses Celtic folklore and the intimacy of sound to unpack a darkness that some might struggle to put in words.

Set in 1973, Rabbit Trap stars Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen as Darcy and Daphne, an influential musical couple from London who retreats to an isolated cabin in the Welsh countryside to finish their next album.

But when Darcy records a sound not meant for human ears, he accidentally conjures ancient mystical beings from the forest. Best viewed in Dolby, the film utilizes hypnotic sounds in every scene, largely through the field recordings made by Darcy in the surrounding woods.

In addition to sounds of dripping water, clanging metal and crunching grass, Darcy demonstrates how the medium is sacred as he explains that “sound is a ghost … and your body is the house it haunts.” After recording strange sounds in the forest, Darcy brings the audio home to Daphne, who is quickly seduced and hoisted into a “sublime” creative breakthrough.