The Wasteland Reviewer

Rabbit Trap (2025) Written Review

What is your connection with nature? There are plenty of people out there that love to explore nature by hiking, climbing, and other activities. There are plenty of specific cultures around the world who have deeply rooted connections to nature including many indigenous cultures. There are plenty of myths, fables, and folktales centered on the natural world and how it connects with us on a deeper level. These significant connections, as told through stories have been leveraged many times in the world of cinema, all around the world. There is a specific subgenre of film that has leveraged these legends and beliefs in the service of unnerving and terrifying the audience…folk horror. The world of film has another new exploration of the subgenre coming to the big screen…Rabbit Trap. 

How does writer/director Bryn Chainey explore this genre and translate it to the silver screen? There are a few key elements of Chainey’s film that make it such an engrossing and dynamic cinematic experience. First off, the sound. When you have two protagonists who are musicians, there is going to be some kind of musical exploration, and the sound design is so key. What makes Rabbit Trap so much deeper in this area is the purpose of their visit to rural Wales…explore and discover new sounds for their latest albums. The sound design, mixing, and editing is sharp and cuts through so many sequences in the film, especially when Darcy (Dev Patel) finds a fairy circle and makes the grave mistake of recording the other worldly sounds that emanate from it. The visual experience is dynamic as well with precise editing and shot compositions. The intimate moments between Darcy and Daphne (Rosy McEwen) pop on screen with great energy and sexual tension. There are nightmarish experiences that Darcy has in his sleep and Chainey makes these visions so haunting and unnerving. The sequences exploring through the woods are aethereal, engrossing, and unnerving with the precise mixture of auditory and visual stimuli. The final act delivers such an artistically expressive, deeply thematic, and otherwise awe-inspiring morphing of their cabin that boasts some of the most interesting and impressive production designs in a film this year. Chainey understands the layers of visual, auditory, storytelling, theme, and performance that need to weave perfectly together to fully explore this story. Chainey accomplishes exactly that. 

Does Chainey’s screenplay offer up plenty to chew on through the runtime of the film? Admittedly, the narrative structure and strength might be the largest challenge facing Chainey’s film. There is no real structure or satisfying overarching story that has a clear roadmap for the audience to anchor onto. Chainey chooses to engage the audience through atmosphere and thematic density. Where the film shuns traditional storytelling elements, it makes up for with plenty of mystery and thematic richness. These unexpected visits in the form of The Child (Jade Croot) signal a change in Darcy and Daphne’s situation and an awakening in the forest (force on by their neglect of nature). The film builds strong tension through well-written and well-staged sequences. The pace of the story works as each offense of the characters is explored in this ever-propulsive story. The thematic richness of the film is the key to its story. Chainey explores relationships through this central couple. The film finds its most depth through the conflict between humanity and nature. The musical expression of this couple disturbs nature. Their act of taking in this child disrupts their balance with nature as well. There are key narrative beats like the treatment of a killed rabbit, the aggressive and unnerving outbursts of The Child, and the fusion they experience through the climax of the film. Chainey never lets up with his themes and comes for the story directly and unrelentingly. 

Where does this trio of performances fit into the experience that Chainey creates? Patel is such a talented actor who has quite a bit of range. Here, he portrays a man who is fully engrossed (obsessed with his work) and who longs for his wife as well. There is a suspicious air in the performance that Patel provides as Darcy is the one who is most weary and concerned about this unexpected conflict with nature around him. There is an aggression that boils up to the surface in conflict with The Child. There is a fear and unnerved feeling that Patel explores in the aftermath of his visions. There is a strong connection with McEwen who channels her impressive work on Blue Jean into another powerful performance. There is a magnetic aura around her (which her husband struggles to ignore). There is a tenderness that McEwen channels in Daphne’s interactions with The Child. The moment the story takes a darker and deeper tone; McEwen is needed to express her confusion and disorientation (which is evident in the performance). There is serenity explored and delivered upon by both Patel and McEwen as the film reaches its climax when the actors are needed to stick to the landing. Croot delivers such an eerie, vulnerable, and explosive performance. Her character calls for erratic and complex behavior that Croot steps up to and delivers things in this story so well. You will be looking out for Croot in the future. 

Does Chainey have a folk horror master class on his hands? There are some elements that don’t quite click to fully pull the audience into this experience (which keeps it from reaching the highest heights of film). But Chainey offers up a thought-provoking, intense, eerie, and engrossing cinematic experience. Sounds. Picture. Performance. Story. Themes. Each of these elements are melted together to create a unique and engrossing experience.