Caveat's Most Confusing Moments Explained

"Oddity" director Damian Mc Carthy's 2021 horror film "Caveat" is a living nightmare. Perhaps the best way to understand it is to accept that it may — at least partially — be taking place in a dream. Its bizarro internal logic and unusual conceits feel like something that might happen only in the subconscious, perhaps hinting at a greater drama taking place out in the waking world. 

The film follows a character named Isaac (Johnny French) who is hired by Moe (Ben Caplan) to babysit his niece, Olga (Leila Sykes). Olga lives in a rotting, ramshackle home out on a distant island shrouded in mists. The layout of the house is labyrinthine and illogical, replete with narrow corridors and rooms that don't seem to have any doors. This is not a good film for people with claustrophobia.

Isaac is allowed to explore the house, but can only go so far as a tether on his back allows him; when entering the building, Isaac is outfitted with a special, irremovable harness with a large chain attached to it. The chain reaches all the way through the house and leads to a heavy weight in the basement. Isaac spends the film dragging the chain around behind him. 

Olga, meanwhile, stalks around the house with a crossbow and a creepy rabbit toy with lifelike glass eyes. The rabbit toy will automatically begin playing its drum when it is in the vicinity of ... a secret. She eventually tells Isaac that he has amnesia, and that he was once hired by Moe to lure Olga's claustrophobic father into the basement, where he took his own life.

Some of this may not be able to be "explained" in a conventional sense, but it may be worth looking through "Caveat" to find a valid interpretation.

There is a palpable series of definite events in "Caveat" that one can lay out explicitly, even if the film takes place in a surreal dreamspace. We'll have to set aside the eerie, haunted house for the time being, and first lay out what seems to be definite. A lot of these facts are laid out in a montage at the end of the film. 

Moe and Isaac were once friends, and Moe seemingly had a contentious relationship with his brother, Olga's father. A short while ago, Moe hired Isaac to lure Olga's father into the house's basement, hoping that the claustrophobia would drive him mad and lead to his suicide. Isaac, however, had a change of heart, and decided not to go through with Moe's plan. The basement door was unexpectedly locked. Moe became angry at Isaac's inability to finish the job, and he pushed Isaac off a balcony. Isaac, who had arrived drunk, hit his head and became afflicted with amnesia. In the present day, both of Olga's parents are dead in the house. Her father's body is in the basement, and her mother's corpse is hidden in a wall.

It's never actually explained how Olga's mother and father died. One might be able to infer that Moe killed them, but that's never stated explicitly. One might also feel that Olga killer her parents, and that their ghosts now stalk the house, seeking revenge. Regardless, Isaac is not guilty of any crimes. Indeed, the eerie rabbit toy seems to be there as a protector, to warn him of danger, be it from ghosts, Moe, or Olga herself. 

It's also never explained how the rabbit toy (which looks like it could be a cousin to the deranged-looking rabbit from "Donnie Darko") can sense danger, or why it drums when danger is near. 

There is a motif of eyes and eyeballs throughout "Caveat." Isaac is always being watched. The creepy, realistic glass eyes of the rabbit toy are certainly part of this theme, as it can "see" where there is danger, fear, and ghostly wrath. There is a scene late in the film where Isaac is locked in a basement room with the corpse of Olga's mother, and her eyes seem to follow him as he walks around the room, looking for an escape. Even after he puts a knit cap over the corpse's head, a hole mysteriously appears in it, allowing the body to keep staring. 

One might also take note of a large, scary, Margaret Keane-like portrait hanging on the wall of the misty manse. The dark eyes of the girl in the portrait seem to be the eyes of the house itself, staring at Isaac accusatorially.

Thematically, the house in "Caveat" seems to be attacking Isaac with its own hate. This was a house knotted up by abuse, visualized literally. There was murder and resentment among the family, and Isaac was swept up in their murderous B.S. 

At the last minute, Isaac tried to escape, but wasn't able to. His resultant brain fog is visualized as literal fog, and the maze-like house has yet to untangle itself; Isaac is still caught in the family's abuse-stained labyrinth. Isaac's Minotaur is his lingering connections to Olga's family's hate and abuse and murder.

At the end of the film, Isaac finally breaks out of the house. He sets a leashed dog free, symbolically unhooking his own leash to Olga and Moe. He looks back into the house and sees Olga wearing the tethered harness. She will never escape. 

He did.