PARK CITY – Often, but not always, you need to tip your cap to a filmmaker willing to push boundaries with their debut feature film. Frankly, as a director, you never know if you’re gonna get that chance (or budget) again. Taking risks is a roll of the dice. You don’t always win. Such is the case with writer and director Bryn Chainey, who, after almost 20 years of making short films, collaborates with sound designer Graham Reznick and composer Lucrecia Dalt for “Rabbit Trap,” a fantastical thriller that is, first and foremost, a cinematic audio masterwork. An incredibly ambitious film that, at times, astounds and then somehow can’t completely stick the landing.
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A world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, the movie essentially begins with Darcy Davenport (Dev Patel) recording the sounds of a murmuration of wild birds in the Welsh underlands. He pauses for a moment because he hears something strange in the background of the audio. Neither he, nor the audience can recognize it, but it is mildly disturbing. It’s 1976 and His wife, Daphene Davenport (Rose McEwen), is an “influential” music artist whose focus is experimental electronic music. The couple recently moved to this small house in the middle of nowhere for artistic and personal inspiration. Darcy, who is also a musician (you’d only know this if you read the production notes, he seemingly could be a folly artist, or who knows what else, it’s never really mentioned), ventures into the woods one day to record more audio when he hears those strange sounds again. Unknowingly, he steps into a large circle created by an organic growth of mushrooms and the sounds suddenly attack him. He wakes up sometime later having collapsed from the experience.
Daphene is euphoric over what Darcy has recorded and immediately starts playing with it in her makeshift recording studio. Unbeknownst to the couple, these events have awoken something nearby. Something mystical, possibly evil, although it takes quite a while before either outcome becomes evident. When Daphene sees someone peeping at their home, Darcy goes out to investigate. He thinks he’s met a young boy, although modern audiences may identify this character as genderless (“the child” is portrayed by Jade Croot) or, what seems more obvious, a contemporary incarnation of a fairy or sprite.
The only predictable part of this endeavor is how quickly this child engrains themselves in Daphene and Darcy’s life. What the child is, what their motivation is, and where they come from is the cause of anxiety-fueled tension for just the viewer. Darcy and Daphene are intrigued by the child’s quirkiness or too polite to kick the kid to the curb. The child will mention traveling between different worlds or the danger of the Tylwhth Teg, but it’s all a bit nebulous and fantastical for the couple to believe. The only thing the audience knows for sure is that this child is increasingly manipulative and our heroes are oblivious to it for far too long.
While Darcy has his suspicions, Chainey’s major miscalculation, in a movie filled with meticulously smart choices, is assuming viewers won’t expect the couple to ask the most obvious of questions. Especially after spending day after day with the child. Where does this person actually live? Why won’t the child tell them their name? Why don’t they notice they are wearing the same clothes every day? Perhaps they are under a spell. Maybe they aren’t. But as the film takes increasingly dramatic turns, when lives are at stake, this narrative choice pops out.
There is also an underlying theme of child abuse that Chainey wants to coalesce into the proceedings. How it’s incorporated is subtle and thankfully not heavy-handed, but that means it’s also muting some of the emotional impact Chainey unmistakably wants it to invoke during the film’s climax.
Beyond the committed performances of Patel, McEwen, and Cook, as well as some exquisite cinematography from Andreas Johannessen and ethereal production design from Lucie Red, it’s the sound design of the movie that utterly haunts you. Some will describe it as high-quality ASMR, but that’s an ignorant and lazy take. Chainey, Reznick, and Dalt collaborate to create an immersive experience other filmmakers can only dream of pulling off. The idea you can undergo this auditory encounter without wearing headphones and just seeing the movie on screen is simply remarkable. It’s akin to a rollercoaster rider you want to jump on again and again.
This is also one of those movies where there is too much to potentially spoil. Too many details could hinder viewing the final act, which will have polarized reactions anyway. That being said, the child does warn Darcy. When explaining why they have rabbit traps all over the woods, the child demonstrates how you leave the rabbit a gift, but the rabbit has to want to take it. And, if they do, there are consequences. [B]
Check out the latest reviews from the 2025 Sundance Film Festival and The Playlist’s complete coverage from Park City here.