My Review of Caveat (2021)

 

Written And Directed by Damian McCarthy

Moe: "I don't see what the problem is. This is a job. Every job has a uniform."

Isaac: "That's not a uniform. It's a leash, and I'm not putting it on."

I thought it was time for some Irish horror this month and during the last two days, I watched the movies from Damian McCarthy. Needless to say that I preferred one over the other but both managed to intrigue me.

For this debut film from McCarthy, there was a man named Isaac (Johnny French). Hes got amnesia and he's a bit of a drifter. He's also been suckered into a job by his landlord, Moe Barrett (Ben Caplan). It's the kind of job that Isaac should've turned out. 

I mean, looking after Moe's niece, Olga (Leila Sykes) seemed simple enough but the girl was prone to catatonic attacks and for some reason, Isaac had to wear some harness that limited his mobility. Oh and he was stuck on a remote island. He definitely should've said no to this job.

Looking after Olga resulted in strange things happening rather quickly. It didn't take Isaac long to figure that Olga's mother (Inma Pavon) was murdered by her father (Conor Dwane) and Moe. Isaac also ringing the latter was also something that he shouldn't have done. 

I do think where the movie succeeded a bit more was the gradual reveal of Isaac's true relationship with both Olga and Moe. Isaac spent most of the film not remembering a past event, only for the reason why Moe wanted him looking after Olga to become clearer. After all, Isaac was responsible for the death of her father.

It's a good reveal and there's an interesting enough cat and mouse with Isaac, Olga and Moe as the three fight for survival from one another. Saying that, the movie did end on something of a frustrating note.

- The movie went to a few film festivals before it ended up getting released on Shudder.

- There's a dog in the movie that fortunately made it out of the movie alive.

- Isaac brought no supplies for a job that was going to last for five days.

- Chronology: The movie was filmed in West Cork and it's clearly meant to be set in Ireland in the present day.

For a debut horror, I'd say that Caveat was a modest start for writer/director Damian McCarthy. The ending was a letdown but mostly everything else prior to that worked well enough. 

Rating; 6 out of 10