Movie Review: Trap

M. Night Shyamalan has been on a bit of a roll lately, churning out reliably creepy small scale horror films that have leaned into his strengths as a filmmaker while downplaying his weaknesses. His last movie, Knock at the Cabin, actually wound up being one of my favorites in his entire body of work, so I was intrigued to see him handling a more straightforward “cat and mouse” style thriller. Unfortunately, Trap was a disappointing misstep, proving little more than a passable way to kill some time.

If you’ve seen the trailer you already understand the gist of the story. Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to see her favorite singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan), in concert as a reward for getting a very good report card. Upon arrival, he notices that there is an exceptionally large law enforcement presence and so he befriends a t-shirt vendor named Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) from whom he learns that the FBI and local PD are working in conjunction to catch a notorious serial killer known as “The Butcher”, who they are convinced will be in attendance at the show. Since it was revealed in all the marketing, it’s not a spoiler to tell you that they are correct, the murderer is in the building. What they don’t yet know though is that it is Cooper.

Now aware that he is being hunted, Cooper begins to try and plot his escape while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy for his daughter. As he finds each of his options blocked however, he becomes more and more distracted and Riley starts to suspect that something is up. At every turn, tools that can assist his efforts to stay ahead of the law are basically handed to him enabling him to always able to stay one step ahead of noted FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), who is leading the search. Even in a stadium though, there are only so many places to hide, and Cooper can feel his pursuers drawing closer and closer to discovering him.

On its face this isn’t a bad idea for a thriller, even if the basic premise is kind of ludicrous. And Josh Hartnett is game to play a role that requires him to switch between hokey “dad joke” energy and cold-blooded sociopath, often in the same scene. It’s a shame then that there are so many glaring flaws in the overall execution. As I already mentioned, Cooper is constantly gifted useful tools with minimal or any effort on his part and so it rarely feels like he is in any real danger. This would be at least a little bit understandable if the character came across as charismatic, but Shyamalan’s stilted and clunky dialogue removes any chances of that. That too would almost be forgivable, as Cooper is obviously insane, but almost everyone speaks in ways that feel odd and unnatural.

Still, Shyamalan knows how to construct a scene and does generate some genuinely suspenseful moments, aided by Herdís Stefánsdóttir’s tense, string-laden score. But what initially feels like a thoughtfully planned-out puzzle box, filled with potentially interesting ways for Cooper to escape or cause mayhem instead winds up taking a pretty straightforward path that is actually filled with bizarre plot threads that lead nowhere. Perhaps he was aiming to create the feeling players of the popular video game series Hitman experience as they explore a space and encounter a variety of characters and situations that they can then use to execute their mission, but that works in the game because you can come back again and again and see where every strand leads whereas here their inclusion just feels baffling and unfulfilling.

Having cast his daughter in the role of Lady Raven and making sure to highlight the actual concert more than is probably necessary, it feels like this entire endeavor was concocted as a way to jumpstart her music career. If it was, at least she is a talented singer and pop songwriter (though her acting rarely rises above serviceable). Depending on your musical tastes, the soundtrack may actually be the most memorable thing about Trap, and from the vantage point of this being a longform music video it’s actually pretty good. As a movie however…. well, I doubt anyone will be desperately searching for the exits but they likely won’t be too eager for an encore either. ★★