[Film Review] Caveat (2020)

For fans of psychological, dreary slow-burns, the last few years have been a veritable feast of debut features that have made brave choices of silence and subtlety. From indie flicks such as Matthew Holness’ Possum to big budget instant classics like Ari Aster’s Hereditary, it’s safe to say that the darkest parts of humanity are having their day in the sun. Joining the ranks last year was Caveat, a promisingly rank piece of headfuckery from Irish director Damian McCarthy.

Amnesiac loner Isaac (played with frightening intensity by newcomer Jonathan French) is offered a job watching over the niece of his landlord, Moe (Ben Caplan). Said niece, Olga (a languid but ominous Leila Sykes) has recently lost her father, is suffering from some form of schizophrenia and is not in a fit state to be left alone in the secluded family home. When Moe offers £200 a day for the cash-strapped Isaac to simply exist in the house, watching over Olga, who spends most of her time in catatonic stupor, it’s an opportunity that would surely be foolish to turn down. But, as the title suggests, the job is not as simple as it sounds - and the caveats are in fact multiple. For one, Olga’s home is on a secluded island in the middle of a lake – and Isaac cannot swim.

Furthermore, Olga’s fear of men means that Isaac must wear a harness to control his movements within the house. Tethered and bound, Isaac must battle his way through the labyrinthine darkness of the home and his own murky mind to solve the mystery behind his forgotten past – and why Olga is intent on carrying a crossbow around the place. The film’s oppressive presence is almost suffocating, and with clear homages to the works of David Lynch, Caveat plays with an ever-pervasive sense of dread, set in a place of decay where only darkness prevails. There’s also ambiguity over whether Isaac is being haunted by more than his own secrets - but it’s clear that something is toying with him. 

As Isaac drags his rusty chains like Marley’s ghost through the dilapidated house, Caveat delivers scares that are quiet and agonizingly tense. They start off as small examples of general ghoulish mischief and gradually grow like black mould, until the desiccated spectre haunting Isaac and Olga can no longer be ignored. 

Caveat is a movie that wants, needs and deserves your full immersion, the sound design in particular. The use of diegetic sound is sometimes so subtle it could be easily missed - wind howling, garbled screams through the intercom, warbled wailing and the tinny tapping of the toy rabbit’s drum, a threadbare abomination which seems to signal the presence of evil. What little music there is almost unbearably tense, with composer Richard G. Mitchell seemingly taking inspiration from the blares and drones of Akira Yamaoka’s Silent Hill soundtracks. The camerawork is as voyeuristic as can be - lingering in the dark, watching Isaac from corners and from the ends of corridors, always reminding us of some omniscient, malevolent presence waiting just behind the walls. 

In its final act, Caveat’s plot becomes ambiguous and foggy, crisscrossing over itself like Isaac’s chains, meaning a promisingly minimalistic tale becomes a little more convoluted than necessary. But when the secrets lurking in the shadows come to light, you may have to remind yourself to breathe as you (and Isaac) try desperately to piece together what has happened in this house - before it’s too late.

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