Caveat is an Irish horror film released in 2020.
The film follows Isaac, an amnesiac drifter who, desperate for money, takes up his landlord Moe Barrett on a job that consists of babysitting his niece, Olga, who has a habit of going catatonic at random intervals.
Sounds easy right?
Isaac learns almost immediately that the house Olga lives in is in the middle of a lake, which is a problem because he can’t swim. Further complications arise at the house when Isaac is told he has to wear a harness that’s connected to a chain leading into the basement, ostensibly for Olga’s peace of mind. Isaac, against all logic and needing the money, accepts the job only to discover that, yes, it is going to get worse.
Like, hunted with a crossbow worse.
The film stars Johnathan French as Isaac, Ben Caplan as Moe Barrett, and Leila Sykes as Olga.
Caveat contains examples of:
- Asshole Victim: It’s revealed fairly early on that Olga’s Mother was an abusive sadist who ended up getting killed for constantly triggering her husbands claustrophobia.
- Amnesiacs are Innocent: Isaac suffers from “partial amnesia” which means he doesn’t remember anything he may have done before accepting Moe’s job offer. So he’s quite perturbed when he’s told that he had a hand in her parents deaths.
- Body Motifs: Eyes. The rabbit toy has creepy realistic doll eyes, there’s an emphasis on peepholes and people watching each other, and the corpse of Olga’s Mother has perfectly preserved eyes despite being at least several week old.
- Creepy Basement: The basement is just as dingy and unpleasant as the rest of the house, but gets a special mention because it contains the corpse of Olga’s mother, which proves to be very important to the plot.
- Domestic Abuse: Moe tells Isaac that Olga’s parents are indisposed because her mother enjoyed triggering her fathers claustrophobia, which resulted in him killing himself after she locked him in the basement and disappeared.
- Hair-Raising Hare: The drumming rabbit toy is creepy as shit with a pair of doll eyes perched on top of an ugly worn looking fur body, and that’s not even getting into when it starts up drumming.
- Let's You and Him Fight: Barrett has set things up in a way that forces Isaac to contend with Olga on his own as a means of tying up loose ends regarding the murders.
- Minimalist Cast: There’s just 5 actors on this film, and two of them mainly appear in flashbacks.
- No Ending: Downplayed. While Moe gets what’s coming to him the movie ends with Isaac and Olga staring at each other with no indication of what will happen next.
- No Name Given: Olga’s parents are never named in the film, which is notable because they’re quite important to the plot.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Olga wields a crossbow against Isaac, which is also the same weapon used to kill her mother.
- The Reveal: Several throughout the course of the movie.
- Moe and Olga’s Father killed Olga’s Mother and stashed her in the basement for abusing Olga’s Father.
- The rabbit toy acts a dowsing rod for the location Olga’s Mothers corpse.
- Moe initially hired Isaac to kill his brother for unknown reasons, Isaac lost his nerve when he found him already bloodied and harnessed in the basement. Moe attacked him over this and that resulted in his amnesia.
