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‘Rabbit Trap’ Review: Dev Patel Leads a Folk Horror Tale With Acoustic Flourishes That Fail to Stir Fears

Dev Patel stars as a curious sound recordist in 'Rabbit Trap,' a surprisingly straightforward Sundance premiere involving experimental music.

The duo are personable and share a cutesy romantic dynamic, but that proves immediately fragile as soon as Croot enters the fray, bringing an otherworldly energy that channels the withdrawn, monotone allure of Barry Keoghan in “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.” While the aforementioned scenes of Darcy collecting ambient sounds are a worthwhile introduction (à la “Upstream Color”), the film’s acoustic curiosities seldom translate visually. For a film in which experimental music — built from bits and pieces of nature, twisted and bastardized — plays such a central role, the overarching approach to “Rabbit Trip” is disappointingly straightforward, and surprisingly literal, despite its third-act transition towards magical, symbolic territory.

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