Caveat (2020) Review – A Masterclass In Micro-Budget Atmosphere And Dread

Welcome to Knockout Horror. We recently reviewed Damian McCarthy’s absolutely fantastic new horror movie Oddity. Today we are taking a look at his horror debut Caveat from 2020.

A creepy slow burn

Caveat follows the story of drifter Isaac (Jonathan French). Isaac was involved in an accident which left him with some significant brain trauma. As a result, he suffers from amnesia. Desperate for work, he takes on a well-paying job taking care of a woman.

The only catch is that the home is located on a remote island. It’s only accessible by boat, and the girl’s family has something of a complicated past. All of this is compounded by the woman’s psychological complications. This job might not be quite as simple as it seems.

Caveat plays out in a similar manner to Oddity. It’s a slow-paced movie that acts as something of a ghost story. It slowly unfurls and drip-feeds in revelations about the characters and their complex pasts. The movie takes place over a small period of time with flashback sequences interlaced to provide story exposition. For those of you who enjoyed Oddity, this is going to feel pretty familiar.

Made on a micro budget

This was McCarthy’s debut feature-length movie and, as a result, finding backers was tough. People aren’t keen to give money to young directors with a limited history. McCarthy did what he could with what little he had. The estimated budget here is around £250,000. I would imagine, in reality, the sum likely fell far short of this amount.

“This is a really good example of a director doing a lot with a little.”

McCarthy was lucky enough to be friends with a relative of the family who own Bantry House in County Cork. They allowed him to film the movie there which offered a fantastic location. The team built various sets to hide the actual beauty of the home. McCarthy even resorted to eBay to purchase some of the movie’s props.

The crazy thing is, you wouldn’t guess that this was put together on such a shoestring budget. Caveat is beautifully filmed, sets are fantastic in their dilapidated grossness, cinematography is brilliant and the acting is spot on. This is a really good example of a director doing a lot with a little. 

There’s an almost Silent Hill style rust and grot to the picture. Everything looks like it is actively rotting away under the character’s feet. It absolutely fantastic and you can practically smell the sets. Caveat is one of those movies that may stick with you more for the visual style than the story.

Slow moving but compelling enough

Much like Oddity, Caveat is a slow-moving movie. While it doesn’t quite share the same fantastic pacing as its horror relative, it’s still a compelling watch. The slow-burn story is, actually, fairly light on the ground to start with.

“Caveat is an extremely atmospheric movie and it needs every drop of it.”

We know nothing about any of the characters. There are only minor hints of the deeper history coming to fruition later on. The bulk of the early running time is carried by the creepy location and the bizarreness of the situation.

Caveat is an extremely atmospheric movie and it needs every drop of it. Things do take a long time to get going so we are heavily dependent on Isaac’s searching of the house, and the odd behaviour of its inhabitants, to keep us glued to the screen.

Once things get going, it is easy to stay engaged. There are just enough revelations to keep things feeling fresh and the pacing catches up quite a bit in the second half. It’s not perfect and some are likely to check out early. But slow-burn horror fans shouldn’t have any major complaints.

Legitimately creepy

The tight, self-contained story confines the characters to one small location but McCarthy does a brilliant job extracting every ounce of creepiness out of it. There are some noteworthy horror moments here, as well, aside from the, obviously, freaky-looking rabbit toy that plays host to some excellent scares.

There are a couple of scenes that just have you wincing at the thought of them. One scare in particular stands out as a moment of brilliant, uncanny makeup work and performance acting. There are a couple of scenes here that may just stick with you, especially if you are easily spooked.

“One scare in particular stands out as a moment of brilliant, uncanny makeup work and performance acting.”

I am grateful to McCarthy for not relying on jump scares to throw the viewer off base, as well. It’s always refreshing. Acting is excellent, throughout. Jonathan French has some real stand-out moments, especially when tasked with relating his character’s pain and fear. Leila Sykes was equally capable, making for quite a complex horror character that I kind of wish we had more time to learn about.

There are some issues with drag it down

It would be remiss of me not to point out some of Caveat‘s issues. As mentioned earlier, pacing is a problem. This takes a long time to go anywhere and will definitely lose viewers here and there. I think there is the chance that Caveat might divide people a little, as well. I feel as though some will enjoy the slow pace and lingering tension of the first half, only to be disappointed by the somewhat lacklustre ending and, perhaps, slightly awkward fitting plot revelations, with the other half having the opposite opinion.

There are a number of plot holes, throughout. Characters seem a bit dumb, at times. Once the story has given up its secrets, there’s a solid chance that you may find said secrets to not actually be that interesting or compelling. There is a distinct sense of some of the plot being underdeveloped and, perhaps, the characters being poorly fleshed out.

There’s a lot of ideas here and many of them simply aren’t well put together or well structured. You will probably be left with questions that there are simply no answers to. Something which can make the entire experience feel a bit unsatisfying and, perhaps, even a bit frustrating.

I can’t shake the feeling that some of the stuff here was done purely because the idea was creepy, without actually having a reason for why it was done or what caused it. Still, as a first effort, the issues are really minimal.

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Horror is a genre that thrives thanks to indie film makers and low budget creators. At Knockout Horror, we firmly believe that every movie that we review deserves a fair fight. That's why we grade on a curve. Our star ratings are all about context, judging a film on what it achieves with the resources it has.

A 4-star rating for a scrappy indie horror made for $10,000 is a testament to its ingenuity and raw power. A 4-star rating for a $100 million blockbuster means it delivered on its epic promises. We don't compare them side-by-side; we celebrate success in every weight class, from the back-alley brawler to the heavyweight champion. Please keep this in mind when considering star ratings.

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