Damien Mc Carthy’s Oddity stunned the world when it premiered at this year’s SXSW film festival. Here at Dread Central, we couldn’t get enough of the film, writing in our four-star review, “This is a pitch-perfect tale about supernatural revenge, gross men, and freaky wooden men. Prepare to be scared.” Oddity did indeed scare, so much so, it easily elevated itself to one of the year’s scariest, if not the scariest, horror releases. It’s not the first time Damien Mc Carthy managed to terrify, however, with his directorial debut Caveat remaining an unsung and unusually terrifying supernatural fable, despite being broadly overlooked when released in 2020. The great news is that Mc Carthy’s Caveat is streaming free on Shudder, so if you’re looking for more after Oddity, give Caveat a chance. Apologies for the nightmares in advance.
Per Shudder: In an abandoned house on an isolated island, Isaac accepts a job looking after his landlord’s niece, Olga. But there is a catch. He must wear a leather harness and chain that restricts his movements to certain rooms in order to protect Olga’s extremely frail mental state. Once left alone, Isaac makes horrific discoveries in the house that trigger a deeply buried, traumatic memory.
Fun Caveat fact. I was actually first introduced to the film by a friend of mine who usually isn’t all that interested in horror movies. However, they caught Caveat at the Berlinale Film Festival and immediately told me it was one of the scariest things they’d seen in a while. Naturally, I had to check it out as soon as I could. When I did, I echoed those same sentiments. Caveat is the real deal.
While Damien Mc Carthy’s Oddity is a more assured outing than Caveat, his directorial debut yields many of the same themes, and Mc Carthy confidently flexes his horror muscles, crafting classic scares cobbled together from familiar elements. Like Oddity, you can trace a lot of Caveat to a clear horror origin, but when the material is managed this well, familiarity doesn’t matter all that much. I’m too busy cowering behind a blanket, too terrified to see what Mc Carthy plans to scare me with next.
In our interview with Mc Carthy following Oddity’s release, the filmmaker even expanded on the origin of Caveat’s signature, terrifying rabbit, noting, “The rabbit in Caveat, a lot of that was inspired by the old Jim Henson film Dream Child from the 1980s. There’s the Mad Hatter party and I mean, the rabbit in that is terrifying.”
What do you think? Are you a fan of Caveat? How does it compare to Oddity? Let me know over on Twitter @Chadiscollins.
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