We think of fairies as cute and magical, but you’ll think differently after Bryn Chainey’s atmospheric horror, Rabbit Trap, which debuted earlier this year at Sundance in the Midnight section. Magnet Releasing scooped the film which leans heavily into Welsh folklore as it explores the human response to trauma.
Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen star in the film about a married couple in 1973, who move to a remote cottage in Wales to further their avant-garde musical act. While collecting field samples out in the wild, they accidentally disturb something ancient, drawing to them a mysterious wild child (played by Jade Croot), a rabbit trapper, who teaches them about the new environment but also disrupts their lives greatly.
The film received mixed reviews at Sundance, including from yours truly. While I appreciated the impeccable sound design and haunting atmospherics, the storytelling was vague and failed to pay off. That said, the production is masterful and it might be worth revisiting again in a theater with a top notch audio system.
SYNOPSIS: The film, which premiered out of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, follows a sound engineer (Dev Patel) in the Welsh countryside who stumbles upon a “fairy circle” that emits an unidentifiable frequency. His discovery coincides with the appearance of an otherworldly child (Jade Croot) who’s oddly eager to befriend the man and his wife (Rosy McEwen).
Rabbit Trap opens in theaters on September 12th.
