60
Metascore
7 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 75RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyRogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyCaveat is a masterpiece of understatement for a title, and a witty opener to Damian Mc Carthy’s directorial debut, an impressive and often terrifying film, taking place almost solely in one location, with two people trapped in a moldy dimly-lit house.
- 68Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganPaste MagazineNatalia KeoganWith a tight 87-minute runtime, Caveat would have made for a perfectly lean chiller had it opted to maximize the claustrophobia inherent in literally chaining the viewer to one terrifying location for the entirety of the film.
- 67IndieWireDavid EhrlichIndieWireDavid EhrlichCaveat exists in a liminal space between genres, which is fitting for a film about the skeletons that might hide inside the walls of an old house. However, Mc Carthy’s mix-and-match approach reveals the story’s need for a more solid foundation.
- 60The GuardianLeslie FelperinThe GuardianLeslie FelperinThe final endgame is a little unsatisfying, but this is a very interesting debut for McCarthy.
- 60Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayLos Angeles TimesNoel MurrayCaveat is like a gothic horror tone poem, with pungent notes of decay.
- 58The Film StageJared MobarakThe Film StageJared MobarakThe visuals ooze creepiness, even if the payoff doesn’t arrive until the very end.
- 50VarietyGuy LodgeVarietyGuy LodgeMc Carthy serves up a generically foreboding premise and pulls off several efficiently traditional jump scares in this variation on a haunted-house formula, but it’s the shape-shifting mind games of his own narrative that most unnerve the viewer, as seemingly fixed plot points of who is under threat — and when, and why, and so on — keep darting out of sight.