Some trailers whisper. This one hums—low, persistent, like it’s trying to plant roots in your spine. Magnolia Pictures just dropped the first official look at Rabbit Trap, Bryn Chainey’s feature debut and one of Sundance 2025’s more divisive entries. I saw it back in January—snow still in my boots from Park City—and while it’s not the best thing I caught there, I can’t shake the way it burrows into your head.
Set deep in the Welsh countryside, it follows married musicians Daphne (Rosy McEwen) and Darcy (Dev Patel) as they retreat from London’s noise to finish a new record. They’re chasing inspiration, maybe each other. Instead, they capture… something else. A sound no one’s heard before. It’s gorgeous, terrifying, and just slightly wrong—like a lullaby sung backwards.
The setup’s simple. The unraveling? Not so much. Chainey refuses the easy beats, letting the story slip from quiet domestic moments into full-blown woodland delirium. A strange young visitor (Jade Croot) arrives, and the boundaries between reality, myth, and paranoia start to fray. The pacing’s a risk—patient horror with sudden jolts—but it’s anchored by cinematography that feels both lush and claustrophobic. You start to notice the way moss creeps up walls, the way silence becomes a threat.
Produced by Elijah Wood, Daniel Noah, and others under the SpectreVision banner, Rabbit Trap feels spiritually adjacent to films like A Field in England or The Witch—folk horror that leans on mood and texture as much as plot. Some will call it pretentious. Others will call it hypnotic. Me? I’m somewhere in the middle: captivated by the atmosphere, frustrated by the chaos. Gorgeous. Grating. Gorgeous again.
Chainey’s ear for sound design might be the film’s most unsettling weapon. At Sundance, I watched people physically shift in their seats when that field recording played—like the audio was pressing directly on their sternum. That’s not nothing.
Magnolia will release Rabbit Trap in select U.S. theaters on September 12, 2025. It’s worth catching in a proper cinema, if only to let the sound swallow you whole. Just… maybe keep an exit route in mind.
What Sticks After the Trailer
Atmosphere over clarity
The trailer sells mood first, plot second—leaning into folk horror’s dreamlike unease.
Sound as a character
The mysterious recording feels alive, shaping the story as much as any actor.
Dev Patel in unsettling territory
Patel sheds charm for something sharper, more suspicious.
A divisive festival reaction
Mixed reviews at Sundance 2025 suggest this will split audiences wide open.
Magnolia’s calculated release
A September 12 rollout positions it for genre fans heading into Halloween season.
