CAVEAT (2020)

Studio:      Shudder
Director:    Damian Mc Carthy
Writer:      Damian Mc Carthy
Producer:  Justin Hyne
Stars:     Jonathan French, Leila Sykes, Ben Caplan

Review Score:

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Summary:

A drifter with amnesia accepts a strange job watching over a mentally ill woman, but is forced to wear a chained harness that restricts his movement throughout her dilapidated island home.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Moe Barrett hires his acquaintance Isaac, a drifter with amnesia, to look after his psychologically troubled niece Olga, an adult orphan who has spontaneous spells of catatonia, in her family’s dilapidated home on a remote island. Strangely, Moe requires Isaac to be locked into a sleepwalking harness whose chain restricts where he can move throughout the house. Upon being left alone, Isaac experiences seemingly supernatural encounters involving a painting and a drumming rabbit doll.

Isaac asks Olga about her parents. Olga confirms her mother went missing several months earlier. Prior to her disappearance, Olga’s mother tortured Olga’s father Ed by harnessing him in the locked basement. Driven mad from claustrophobia, Ed killed himself with a crossbow.

While investigating sounds in the cellar, Isaac discovers the corpse of Olga’s mother hidden behind a wall. Isaac phones Moe to report his discovery. Isaac also asks to leave. Moe promises to come to the house to take care of everything.

Isaac tells Olga he found her mother. Olga warns that Moe won’t allow Isaac to leave because Moe and Ed were the ones who killed Olga’s mother.

Olga dons a jacket that Isaac recognizes as having belonged to his brother Mike. Isaac becomes confused when Olga explains he left it there during a previous visit. Olga goes on to say that Moe hired Isaac to lock the door on Ed with the understanding that Ed’s claustrophobia would drive him to suicide. Isaac refuses to believe he would be a willing accomplice to murder.

Isaac and Olga call Moe, who confirms Olga’s story. Isaac asks Olga to call the police, but she refuses. Isaac realizes Olga and Moe can make him disappear since no one knows where he is.

Olga breaks Isaac’s finger when he tries reaching for the harness key. Isaac still manages to free himself by retrieving a second key from the neck of Olga’s dead mother.

Olga turns off the lights in the house and begins stalking Isaac with her father’s crossbow. During one of her sudden catatonia spells, Isaac locks Olga in the harness. Isaac then follows a basement tunnel to hide behind the wall with the dead body.

Flashbacks show Isaac arriving at the island home to lock Ed in the basement, but Isaac discovers someone else already locked the door. Having second thoughts, Isaac writes a warning that Moe plans to kill Ed. However, Isaac leaves the note behind and flees the house when he finds Ed bleeding from his head.

Isaac refuses Moe’s payment for the job since he wasn’t the person who locked the basement door. Because he found the warning Isaac wrote, Moe worries Isaac might expose his murder plot. Moe pushes Isaac off a balcony. Isaac survives, but the fall gives him amnesia.

Back in the present, Olga nearly discovers Isaac’s hiding place when Moe interrupts. Moe instructs Olga to go upstairs after discovering Isaac hiding behind the wall. Olga shoots Moe with a crossbow bolt and locks the basement door behind her.

Moe tells Isaac to come out so they can attack Olga together, although Moe actually prepares to kill Isaac. To Moe’s surprise, Isaac’s voice comes over the intercom to say he already escaped. With Moe confused about what else could cause the noises behind the wall, Olga’s mother’s corpse seemingly emerges to attack Moe.

Isaac makes it outside. Still leashed by the harness, Olga looks out at Isaac. Isaac and Olga stare at each other.

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Review:

Moe Barrett has an unusual proposition for his friend Isaac, a down-on-his-luck drifter suffering from selective amnesia. Isaac needs money and Moe needs someone to watch his niece Olga, an adult orphan whose psychological troubles sometimes spur spontaneous bouts of catatonia. Olga supposedly isn’t hard to handle though. Moe assures Isaac that in all likelihood, his weekend will be uneventful since Isaac and Olga will be alone in a dilapidated old house with no one around to disturb them.

That’s because Olga’s mother weirdly went missing several months ago and her father shot himself in the head with a crossbow. The rundown family home is also the only structure on a lonely little island, which Isaac really wished Moe had told him about beforehand since Isaac can’t swim.

There’s another caveat Moe conveniently left out before bringing Isaac to the house. Olga has a fear of people coming into her room, or coming close to her at all, so Isaac has to be locked into a sleepwalking harness whose chain restricts where he can go. Isaac balks at every bizarre “by the way” Moe adds to the job description, especially this one, but what choice does a desperate man have other than to say yes?

As suspense film setups go, “Caveat” comes at you with a right proper cracker. Like Isaac, pish-poshing viewers might look at the premise and think, “Oh, c’mon. This is ridiculous. What weirdo would willingly lock themselves in a harness, in a haunted-looking house, on an inescapable island with a brain-scrambled woman they’ve never met before?”

Much faster than one might think however, you readily buy into this peculiar concept because the isolated Irish atmosphere is so eerily intoxicating. A crumbling house with rust-stained walls. An indeterminate time period. Pained people with problematic backgrounds. Mesmeric music. “Caveat” seems to take place in a dreary limbo somewhere between vague reality and Silent Hill. Almost immediately the movie entices its audience to ignore disbelief so they can be swallowed whole by an uneasily hypnotic setting.

“Caveat” continues cranking up creepiness in small yet regular doses of dread as Isaac’s situation grows dangerously stranger. The Energizer bunny has nothing on the drumming rabbit doll that doubles as the film’s unofficial mascot. Isaac’s nerves are wracked well enough by tangible oddities such as this toy, not to mention Olga’s fits where she suddenly sits like a ‘See No Evil’ statue. Then echoing sounds of laughter, faint tugs on his chain, and a seemingly possessed painting suggest paranormal threats might be in play too.

“Caveat” travels a long way on the strength of richly cinematic atmosphere. However, momentum becomes stuck in some mud once most of the plot’s pieces are fully exposed. “Caveat” casually curves into its final act at a very low speed, and finds itself fighting to fill those minutes with meaningful scenes as a result. Aside from this skid where limited substance stretches so thin that the previously tense pace pops from repetitive dullness, “Caveat” otherwise moves with remarkable swiftness for a slow-burn creeper.

The only reason “Caveat” doesn’t win an unconditional recommendation is because its conclusion wobbles around on unstable narrative ground. As the mystery unfolds, your imagination writes a long list of devilish possibilities regarding what’s really going on. To a moderate degree of dissatisfaction, the murky truth the movie ultimately reveals doesn’t come close to being as intriguing as what your own mind mulls. After pouring the foundation for a uniquely unsettling thriller, “Caveat” strays into an angle better suited for arthouse interpretation than truly horrific implications.

I haven’t investigated the movie’s ‘Making Of’ backstory, but I’d believe it if someone said at least part of the script was improvised. “Caveat” can’t withstand much “refrigerator logic” scrutiny, as its story seems to change previously established plot points on the fly, and doesn’t hold up as tightly-tied fiction when the puzzle is finally put together.

Ignoring shaky late-stage storytelling, “Caveat” capably coughs up macabre moodiness and sinister suggestiveness like few low-budget fright films can. On somewhat of a shoestring, writer/director Damian Mc Carthy puts together a visually impressive chamber chiller with just three actors in one location without ever cheating viewers into feeling like they have to mentally make up for resource-restricted shortcomings. Once any dust of disappointment settles, “Caveat” still comes out near the top of the pack for Emerald Isle indie horror.

Review Score: 70

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