Rabbit Trap

Director: Bryn Chainey
Screenwriters: Bryn Chainey

Institute History

  • 2025 Sundance Film Festival

Description

When a musician and her husband move to a remote house in Wales, the music they make disturbs local ancient folk magic, bringing a nameless child to their door who is intent on infiltrating their lives.


Set in 1976, writer and director Bryn Chainey’s extraordinary debut feature invokes the eerie spirit of British folk horror, conjuring supernatural dread in a fecund Welsh forest. Obsessive avant-garde musician Daphne (Rosy McEwen) toils over reel-to-reel tape machines and oscillators in their cottage while her withdrawn husband, Darcy (Dev Patel), collects field recordings in the nearby woods. Their activities draw the attention of a mysterious young rabbit trapper (an unnerving Jade Croot) who beguiles them, disturbing their fragile peace.
Rabbit Trap casts a spell of haunted sensuality and submerged trauma through cinematographer Andreas Johannessen’s tactile 35mm images, and a synesthetic soundscape made in collaboration between composer Lucrecia Dalt and sound designer Graham Reznick. Patel and McEwen are quietly moving as the young couple, grounding this otherworldly fable with a portrait of a marriage sustained through fraught intimacy and restless creative collaboration.—Matt Cornell


Available in person only.



Screenings include closed and open captions.

Screening Details

Credits

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