Caveat (film)

Isaac, an amnesiac drifter, is hired by his acquaintance Moe Barrett to look after his niece Olga. Living in a house on a remote island, Olga occasionally experiences catatonia without warning, putting herself at risk. According to Moe, Olga's mother trapped her father in the basement, causing him to go insane from extreme claustrophobia and kill himself. Her mother went missing after that. The job requires Isaac to wear a harness chained to the house, restricting his movement to specific rooms. Isaac observes Olga roaming the property with a crossbow and an eerie rabbit-drummer toy with human-like glass eyes.

After experiencing various supernatural phenomena, Isaac discovers the corpse of Olga's mother hidden behind a thin basement wall. Using the drummer toy as a dowsing rod, as the toy spontaneously drums whenever it is close to hidden entities or objects, he locates the body. Olga warns Isaac that Moe will not allow him to leave, revealing that Moe and her father murdered her mother. Moe intended to kill Olga's father as well and hired Isaac to trap him inside the basement. Olga calls Moe, who confirms the sequence of events.

Taking the key from the corpse, Isaac frees himself from the harness. Olga shuts off the power and tries to kill Isaac, but goes catatonic. Just as Isaac locks Olga in the harness, she comes to and wounds his leg with the crossbow. Isaac suddenly regains his memory. He remembered having second thoughts and trying to warn the old man via a note. Consequently, Moe pushed Isaac off a balcony, causing him to develop amnesia.

Navigating the crawl space, Isaac is briefly stalked by the corpse of Olga's mother. He ends up in the same room she was in, behind the thin basement wall. As he saws through the wall, the corpse eerily "stares" at him.

Moe arrives, enters the basement, and sees Isaac through the hole in the basement wall. Olga shoots Moe with the crossbow and locks the basement door. Moe attempts to lure Isaac out, suggesting they attack Olga together, while secretly preparing to strike Isaac with a wooden implement. Isaac's voice suddenly comes through the intercom, announcing he has already escaped. Startled, Moe drops his weapon and hides in the corner, where the corpse — having finished sawing through the wall itself — finds him.

Outside, Isaac frees a chained dog and finds Olga, standing at the doorway, still in the harness with the crossbow, looking at each other from a distance.

• Johnny French as Isaac^[3]
• Leila Sykes as Olga^[3]
• Ben Caplan as Moe Barrett, Olga's uncle^[3]
• Conor Dwane as Olga's father
• Inma Pavon as Olga's mother
• Charlie as Jed the dog

Filming took place in West Cork,^[6] on a budget of around £250,000, with funding provided by British producer Justin Hyne through his company HyneSight Films.^[7] According to director McCarthy, "My friend Sam White's family owns Bantry House where we filmed. Actually, the house was way too nice—it's so beautiful, for what we wanted for this film, so a lot of it is sets built outside."^[6] The toy rabbit featured in the film was acquired via eBay by McCarthy, who "always had an interest in wind-up toys".^[6] It was stripped of its fur and sent to costume and prop builder Lisa Zagone, who finalised its design.^[6]

Caveat premiered on 4 October 2020 at the IndieCork Film Festival in Cork, where it was the opening film.^[8] It went to screen at several other film festivals, most related to the horror genre, before releasing on Shudder on June 3, 2021.^[9][10]

The film was screened at the 2021 Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in Bucheon, competing in the Bucheon Choice Features section.^[11]

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 6.7/10. The website's critics' consensus reads: "An effective spine-tingler despite clear budget constraints, Caveat suggests a deliciously dark filmmaking future for writer-director Damian McCarthy."^[12] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on seven critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[13]

Sheila O'Malley of RogerEbert.com gave the film a score of three out of four stars, calling it "an impressive and often terrifying film [...] and a reminder of how much can be done on a low budget if one is inventive enough".^[3] Noel Murray, in his review of the film for the Los Angeles Times, complimented McCarthy's confidence as a director, and compared the film to "a gothic horror tone poem, with pungent notes of decay."^[14] Guy Lodge, writing for Variety, called the film "more intriguing than it is rewarding," but wrote that "there's enough tingly, tightly budgeted atmosphere and witty genre gumption [...] to make one wonder what McCarthy could do on a looser, more expensive leash."^[15] Leslie Felperin of The Guardian gave the film 3/5 stars, writing: "McCarthy plays a fancy cinematic game of hide the lady, swishing the narrative cards around adeptly and finding fresh ways to imbue the material with an incrementally increasing sense of unease."^[16]

Dan Stubbs of NME was more critical, giving it a score of 2/5 stars and writing, "It is, undoubtedly, a fine set of players on the chess board of horror, but none of them seem to be playing the same game. The mystery being uncovered misses beats left right and centre, even if the bunny drums like John Bonham, and you'll probably find yourself losing interest right when the action should be reaching its thrilling climax."^[17]

The film ranks at #27 on Rotten Tomatoes' list of Best Horror Movies of 2021.^[18]