Where to Watch Rabbit Trap
Discover where Rabbit Trap is available to stream, rent or buy across different platforms and countries.
Why I took it off the list:
I’m a big fan of both actor Dev Patel (The Green Knight) and folk horror, so a combination of the 2 proved irresistible to me. So, let’s dig in!
Review of Rabbit Trap (2025)
Rabbit Trap opens with a shot of undulating blue sound waves accompanied by a child’s voice. The child speaks of a shadow that has been “gifted many names. Goblin, demon, faerie.”
The voice then goes on to state that nature will not abandon these ‘children’ and “gifts them music heard only in dream. You can hear this music if you wish, but you must listen beyond fear, beyond understanding, beyond shame.”
It then instructs us to “listen to the soil. Go down into the dark and listen. For the Earth is a body, and the body is where your secrets live.”
After the title credit, we’re informed we’re in Wales in 1976, and treated to the stunning vista of a swarm of migratory birds looping and swooping over a desolate moorland. Recording the mighty sound the birds make is Darcy (Patel), one of our protagonists.
Back home in their cottage nearby, his wife Daphne (Rosy McEwen) listens to the results, mixing and honing the sounds to electronic music, until the power unexpectedly cuts out.
Daphne is frustrated, as she’s attempting to finish an album, something the couple has moved from London to rural Wales to accomplish. To cheer her up, Darcy produces a bottle of magic mushrooms, and the couple proceed to have a drug-fueled romantic evening.
During the night, Darcy has an ominous nightmare in which a sinister figure enters his room. Daphne can’t help but record the guttural rasping Darcy makes during the ordeal, but when she reveals this to him in the morning, he’s not happy she made the recording.
This strains the couple’s relationship somewhat, but Daphne apologizes, before asking, “Don’t you ever just want to dissolve into the Earth?.”
Later, Darcy heads out to continue recording sounds in a nearby forest, but he soon comes across a strange, distorted noise emanating from the ripples in a puddle. It only gets louder when he steps into a fairy circle made of toadstools, before he suddenly passes out.
Back at home, Daphne is transfixed by the recording, calling it ‘sublime’ and mixing it into one of her tracks. Soon, the couple are making love with the noises in the background, in a hallucinatory scene.
The very next day, Darcy catches a strange child (Jade Croot) watching the house and confronts him. He claims he was drawn by the music, says he’s a hunter, and offers to show Darcy his rabbit trap.
He meets Daphne, to whom he immediately forms a strong attachment. While guiding them around the woods, the child tells the couple local superstitions about faeries and that they can still be found if you know where to listen.
As time goes on, the child ingratiates themselves more and more into their lives, his behavior becomes stranger, and he begins to drive a wedge between the couple, who appear to be mentally unraveling.
Atmospheric with Strong Performances
As Rabbit Trap goes on, the storytelling becomes more cryptic and obtuse, but attention is held thanks to the 3 strong lead performances.
Patel is excellent as always, and holds the screen with his expressive gaze even in the quieter moments, though he also gets some scenes of intense drama to play out.
McEwen, so memorable as the devious Verity in the Bête Noire episode of Black Mirror, gets to play a softer character here, and comes across as sympathetic and emotive.
However, it’s young Jade Croot who makes the biggest impression as the mysterious child, even if her character’s nature might be easy to guess. She’s by turns impish and mischievous, melancholy and vulnerable, and somewhat sinister.
The cinematography is excellent, turning the forest settings into a otherworldly realm similar to the effect achieved in Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth.
And the production design is also commendable, particularly later in the film when the cottage undergoes an unexpected transformation.
Final score: 6/10
Rabbit Trap (2025): Worth Watching?
Yes, Rabbit Trap is ultimately light on horror and evolves more into a strange, supernaturally tinged family drama, but it’s always interesting, atmospheric, and well-acted.
