Caveat movie review & film summary (2021)

As Isaac explores his surroundings—as much as he can in the harness—he tries to interpret the weirdness of everything he sees, hears, and experiences. When Olga first appears, she's holding a gigantic crossbow, like Burt Reynolds in "Deliverance," and she's an intense presence, droning stories to Isaac about her parents, both of whom are gone. Her father was claustrophobic and recently committed suicide. Her mother was completely mad and has recently vanished. Olga has no nostalgia for her parents, and the few flashbacks we get of her childhood, galloping in on the present day scenes with nary a warning, are very disturbing, particularly since they unfold without sound.

Richard G. Mitchell's superb score pulses and sweeps underneath the action, making something as benign as opening a door into a hair-raising event. The score is not over-used. On the contrary: there are long periods where the music drops out entirely. The music's absence is almost as unnerving as its presence.

Sykes is offscreen for long periods of time, but you always feel her in the film, hiding in the rooms upstairs, lurking just outside the door. Her dissociated attitude and deadpan voice, even when wielding a crossbow, adds to her eerie affect. She is a legitimately frightening presence. And Jonathan French, making his feature-length debut, is a gentle thoughtful everyman, troubled by the blank slate of his mind, the holes in his memory, never sure if what he sees is reliable.

Mc Carthy shot "Caveat" on the proverbial shoestring, and this is in the film's favor. The darkness and long stretches of stillness create a palpable spookiness, a prolonged state of anxiety, without relying on any special effects, or quick-cut fancy camera moves. The film is nerve-racking, and a reminder of how much can be done on a low budget if one is inventive enough, certain enough in the story one wants to tell.

Now available on Shudder.

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