“Caveat”, the Irish film from 2020 with Damian Mc Carthy directing in his directorial debut, is quite a mind-bending sequence to follow. A horror movie that could have gone one or many ways. Thanks to its complicated psychological storyline and so many plot holes it leaves behind. It often seemed like half of the story is left for the audience to decide. Go do it your own way and form what you think fits right anyway. However it may be, we are here to answer the hook and crook of the film and getting Caveat, and its ending explained right.
Caveat stars Jonathan French picking up the role of an individual suffering from memory loss. He accepts a simple babysitting job that pays well but turns out he has called himself in for his own funeral. Does he manage to escape? What does the house he is babysitting at reveals about him? What’s in the basement? Furthermore, what was the toy at the beginning tells about. All will be answered but first, let’s dive into Caveat and its story, then we will get its ending explained.
Caveat Plot Summary
Caveat opens up in a grimy scary house. We see a girl wandering alone with a fox drum-banging toy. It seems like she is trying to find something with that and finally comes towards a door. That’s where the toy starts playing. So she carves the door with a circle. That’s where the movie cuts, and we meet our first main character Issac somewhere else. He is suffering from Amnesia for a year and trying to connect the dots of his past life. Amidst this, a man named Barrett, who claims to be his friend in the past offers him a job.
Barrett wants Issac to take care of his nephew Olga who lives all alone in a grimy house. Yes, it’s the same grimy house from the beginning of the film. So coming back to the nephew, her father committed suicide, whereas her mother went missing. With Barrett paying a good amount, Issac agrees to the job. But the conditions were quite weird about the place.
First of all, the house is on a kind of Island with waters surrounding it. Also, Issac can’t swim, and it worries him. Second, Olga has some psychological problem which often turns her into a maniac if someone enters her room. So Issac is required to wear a harness locked to a chain which may avoid him from going there. Despite denying the conditions, Barrett convinces him to agree.
What follows is a bullet train of revelations. An entity following Issac, then Olga wandering the house with a crossbow. Also, the weird history of Olga’s parents and Issac finally observing the fox drum-banging toy. The last one leads him to the same door we come across at the beginning of the film. Looking through the hole, Issac finds a dead body hiding behind, which supposedly is of Olga’s mother with a crossbow on its neck.
Caveat Ending Explained
What Does The Fox Drum-Banging Toy Tell?
The Fox Drum-Banging Toy or whatever you want to call it has been a center of attention for the initial part of the film. Olga uses it to detect something while Issac observes her using her on the first occasion he talks to her. He also saw the same toy in one of the pictures at the house that creeps him out. The reason he couldn’t sleep at the place at all. Plus, let’s not forget the entity that Issac believes is following him. Keeping all that in mind, Issac figured out that if anything weird happens, the toy starts playing. Meaning, if there is some bad energy around, the toy stares right in its face. The same thing led him to discover the body of Olga’s mother, which he now believes is killed by none other than Olga herself.
Who Killed Olga’s Parents?
As mentioned above, Issac earlier in the film, saw Olga wandering with a crossbow in the house for no reason at all. She also told her the story of her parents and what went down. Her father was claustrophobic, while her mother was crazy. She tortured her husband. But one day, she disappeared while her father somehow got locked into the basement and committed suicide. So the first person he would suspect would be Olga, but there is a lot more to this story owing to what her mother did to them.
Although Issac, with the help of a phone in Olga’s room, which he cant enter but manages to grab his hand on it with a hole from other room calls and informs Barrett. Next to that, Olga agrees to give her clarification on the story and who killed her parents. She reveals that her father and uncle Barrett killed her mother. Not only this, but even Issac was there a year ago and helped them in this process. She shows him a red jacket of Issac’s brother, telling him he left it the last time he came here. This leads Issac to make Olga call Barrett to clear the confusion. Also note, this is quite a plot hole that needs an answer. You will find out by referring to Issac’s past, lets’s answer it.
Issac’s Past
Calling Barrett made the story more complicated when he revealed he hired Issac to kill Olga’s parents. So before Issac lost his memory, he was a criminal. Issac realizes he is trapped, and although he can’t get him out of the harness, he remembers the same key to be around Olga’s mother’s dead body’s neck. He grabs the key and leaves only to find out it’s dark, and he can’t swim over. So he returns and manages to lock Olga instead and sleeps in her room.
The night was really uncomfortable as Issac met with a harsh truth of his. Now he starts picking up his past piece by piece. It revealed in the past that Barrett did hire Issac. Revelation stops amidst Olga’s attack, but Issac escapes and hides in the bathroom, and remembers more of his past. He realizes he did come to the house, but instead of killing, he came to warn. That’s when he left the jacket, and that’s when he discovered Olga’s father Ed’s body in the basement. He informs Barrett, but he doesn’t care as long as the family is dead. This leads Issac to confront him on how he can let his brother die. To keep Issac’s mouth shut, Barrett pushes him off the building, and this is how he lost his memory.
Also Read: The Shining Ending Explained: How Is Jack Linked To The Hotel?
Did Issac Manage Escape?
With Olga hunting and Issac hiding in the bathroom manages to find a door that opens towards the ending of Caveat. This is a passageway that leads him to the basement where the body is. Amidst this, even Olga comes to the basement to retrieve an arrow and dawn breaks. Barrett comes to find Issac and sees him trapped in one of the rooms of the Basement. But before he could help him, Olga attacks and locks both of them in. Barrett asks Issac to carve the door out so that they could both take care of Olga. But he is preparing to kill Issac.
That’s when one of the calls hit. Barrett hears Issac stating he escaped the house and is near the lake looking for him. The one coming out of the door is none other than Olga’s mother, who probably kills Barrett. Issac later comes across Olga out there. But without revealing if she kills him or lets him go, Caveat closes on this ending.
Plotholes To Answer
Well, Caveat and its ending to be explained comes with a few things that don’t make sense. Most importantly, who killed her parents as mentioned above. We never really get clarification on exactly who killed them. Issac hired by Barrett, doesn’t see it as morally correct, whereas Barrett doesn’t care how his brother died as long as he is dead. The explanation could help in many different ways, but the most fitting answer would be that Barrett and his brother, as in Olga’s father actually killed the mother in the first place.
This could go two ways, either she is crazy or the sanest mind here. From the looks of it seems like Barrett or anyone from the family would benefit a lot from the deaths. Meaning they might be rich or carrying out some really big business. Even illegal where the mother might not agree with the practices. Barrett and Ed might have worked together, and when Ed’s wife found out, she trapped her husband. Thus resulting in murder. Lastly, when Ed might have not able to bear the death, Barrett might have hired Isaac to finish the job.
Who trapped Ed in the basement remains a mystery? Probably he accidentally got himself in, or it could be Olga punishing her dad for killing her mother. Like we saw in the movie, she went everywhere punishing everyone involved in this. But coming to Issac, if she knows the truth that he tried to make things right, she even might have let him go in the ending sequence. But if she doesn’t, probably even Issac met his end. It’s up to you to decide.
Also Read: No Sudden Move Ending Explained: The Document And Deals
