Trap (2024) Warner Bros./Horror-Thriller RT: 105 minutes Rated PG-13 (some violent content, brief strong language) Director: M. Night Shyamalan Screenplay: M. Night Shyamalan Music: Herdis Stefansdottir Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom Release date: August 2, 2024 (US) Cast: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, Jonathan Langdon, Alison Pill, Mark Bacolcol, Kid Cudi, Russ, Marnie McPhail.
Rating: ***
The career of filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan has seen its share of ups and downs. His previous film, last year’s apocalypse-maybe thriller Knock at the Cabin, is one of the latter. His latest work, the psychological thriller Trap, is one of his better recent efforts. It’s pretty good, but it still doesn’t reach the level of his twisty ghost story The Sixth Sense.
Josh Hartnett (Oppenheimer) stars as Cooper, a father taking his 13YO daughter Riley (Donoghue, Wolf Like Me) to a concert featuring her favorite pop singer Lady Raven (M. Night’s daughter Saleka). She’s excited to be seeing her favorite singer up close and personal. Dad just likes spending time with his kid. He notices there’s a heavy police presence in and around the venue. He asks a friendly T-shirt vendor (Langdon, Run the Burbs) what all the fuss is about. He tells Cooper confidentially that the concert is really a trap set up by the FBI to catch a serial killer known as “The Butcher”. They received a tip he’d be there.
The info the feds received is good. The Butcher is in attendance. It’s Cooper! But you already know that from the trailer, right? A sociopath with mother issues, he’s smart, controlled, organized and extremely dangerous. He sees the trap as a challenge. While Riley enjoys the show, he looks for a way out past the police and feds guarding every exit. The plan, devised by FBI profiler Dr. Grant (Mills, The Parent Trap), is to question every man at the concert. Cooper does everything he can to make sure he’s not questioned. He comes up with some pretty ingenious things.
Trap is at its best when M. Night keeps the action confined to the arena. When he does, it’s a fairly taut thriller. It’s less so in the third act when it moves to another location. That’s when it starts to fall apart with a series of developments that become increasingly unbelievable. By the end, it even borders on silly with all the tricks Cooper pulls to evade capture. I wasn’t buying any of it, yet I was strangely entertained by it. Even so, it’s disappointing M. Night couldn’t maintain what he had going on up until a certain point.
In the lead role, Hartnett does a very good job. I was never all that impressed with his acting, but he’s gotten better over the years. In Trap, he shows a certain playfulness while he looks for a way to escape the trap set for him. He has this sly smile that sets people’s mind at ease while he gets useful information out of them. True, he gets a little OTT near the end, but he never looks like he’s not having fun.
In her first major film role, Donoghue has natural screen presence as a teen excited to be in close proximity to her favorite pop star. Like the other young girls in attendance, she knows all the words to all the songs. She’s so taken with Lady Raven, she barely notices her father’s odd behavior. Saleka, a pop star herself making her acting debut, has a pleasing voice. Like a lot of teen idol pop singers, her character’s songs are disposable. However, she does play a crucial role in the later goings-on. One could argue she’s the heroine of the picture. Mills, on the other hand, is an odd bit of casting. I’m wondering if M. Night cast her as an inside joke, a reference to her role in that other “Trap” movie, you know the one. Speaking on inside jokes, look for a poster for The Watchers, the horror movie written and directed by his other daughter Ishana, in one scene.
While I doubt that Trap will ever be regarded as a classic, it’s still good enough to earn a pass mainly based on Hartnett’s commitment to his role. He’s having fun, that’s true, but he never treats his character as a joke. The story M. Night tells is a good one. It’ll hold your interest throughout. Don’t go looking for any big scares or crazy final plot twists. He doesn’t do that this time. It’s nice to see he doesn’t always resort to the same trick.
