She becomes intermittently unresponsive, and starts wearing a self-made rabbit mask that she refuses to take off when Sarah asks.

While Mia's behaviour becomes more erratic, Sarah starts hallucinating, her nightmares grow more intense, and the rabbit bite on her hand becomes infected.

Peter arrives at the house, where the family photos have been smashed and Sarah has been drawing on the floor in a fugue state.

Australian author Hannah Kent had been thinking of writing a novel based on a true story about a Scottish child who remembered a past life, and she started researching similar incidences.

[5] In December 2021, Snook was announced as on board the project after Moss had to pull out due to scheduling issues as STXfilms was no longer involved in the film.

[7] Principal photography took place on location in Waikerie, in the Riverland region of South Australia,[2] and Melbourne, Victoria.

[1] Shortly after, Netflix acquired distribution rights to the film in all territories excluding the Benelux, Portugal, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Nordics and Taiwan, releasing it on 28 June 2023.

But for genre fans, every beat is so familiar that the film feels like the ungodly creation of an AI that was tasked with blending Repulsion (1965), The Babadook (2014), Relic (2020), Hereditary and even last year's Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Nanny.

Searles said that the film was "moody and atmospheric" and "easily builds tension and dread", but "keeps hinting at depth that never comes.

He added, "The saving grace that makes Rabbit maybe worth seeing is an unkempt Sarah Snook, who goes into full, well, Babadook and Black Swan and even Repulsion territory in the movie's final throwdown.

[18] Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times said that the film "delivers a succession of initially effective frights before devolving into Run Rabbit Run Rinse Repeat", but added, "I was glad to see it in a packed Park City house regardless, happily sandwiched between two friends whose nervous giggles, along with Snook's characteristically arresting performance, were more than enough to keep me in my seat.

"[19] Damon Wise from Deadline Hollywood described the film as "effective but perhaps overlong" but with "a poetic resonance" that makes for a "nightmarish essay on action and consequence, not to mention the isolation and travails that come with single parenthood".

Wise said the film "deliberately overlap[s] notions of reality and abstraction", and praised LaTorre and Snook's performances.