Caveat is a horror film from Damian Mc Carthy, who is making his feature length debut as a writer and director, and it follows a drifter named Isaac (Jonathan French), who is still recovering from an injury that has left him with some minor memory loss, and is in need of money. He ends up accepting a job offer from Barrett (Ben Caplan), to look after his niece, Olga (Leila Sykes), who in addition to having an affinity for her crossbow, is apparently dealing with psychological problems following the disappearance of her mother and the suicide of her father.
Of course, what wasn’t made initially clear is that the house in on a small island, which is a problem since Isaac can’t swim, and he is forced to put on a harness that is attached to a chain, which will limit where in house he can go. Isaac is desperate, so he goes along with it. However, as time passes, it seems that some other force is in the house with the two, and Isaac also slowly regains some of the memories, which helps piece together various connections he had in the past with both Barrett and the house.
Described in its most basic elements, Caveat is a standard haunted house film, one where someone comes into a strange, new place, and soon discovers a creepy history that manifests itself in unexpected ways. However, the film itself is by no means standard, as Damian Mc Carthy and his crew are able to craft a film that operates on its own terms, one that is weird, patient, and constantly keeping you on edge without using all the same basic techniques you’d see in any mainstream horror film like a barrage of jumpscares or a bombastic and deafening musical score that overplays each beat.
This is not an easy film to watch. Not because it’s super disturbing or features images that are purposefully revolting – though there are a couple moments that would qualify, but because the film is constructed in a way that leans heavily on atmosphere. Not only does the house itself – which we spend most of the runtime in – look incredibly decrepit, there’s a a muddy affect to the color grading; there’s a general unpleasantness that permeates the whole film. Adding to the uneasiness is the film’s very slow pacing combined with a droning, almost Lynchian sound design that adds a off-putting undercurrent for practically the whole film.
The film does eventually pay off a lot of what it sets up. Whether you are into it by then or not will largely depend on how much you’re willing to get on its wavelength. I personally found it a bit of a struggle at certain points throughout the film. While it has a fairly short runtime of an hour and 28 minutes, it feels nearly two hours with how it moves. If you have the patience for that mode of storytelling, you might find a lot of interesting stuff to dig into, and plenty of scary imagery.
Caveat is more of a mood piece than a traditional horror film, relying more on the power of its atmosphere than either maintaining intrigue with an intricate plot or creating an adrenaline rush. Damian Mc Carthy proves to make some strong and bold choices, and there’s an assured quality to those choices. It’s clear the filmmakers are not working with a ton of money and resources, and with those limitations, they’ve managed to make something really cool and effective. It’s definitely a labor of love. I would love to see what he does on a project with big money behind it. I can’t say I would recommend this to anyone, but if you want something that takes its time to really get under your skin, this is definitely not a bad option.
Caveat is now available on Shudder.