“30,000 fans. 300 cops. 1 serial killer. No escape.”
A father named Cooper takes his teenage daughter to Lady Raven’s concert, the biggest pop star in the world. What could go wrong?
Unbeknownst to Cooper, the FBI has discovered that a notorious serial killer, the Butcher, will be attending the concert and has constructed an elaborate scheme to apprehend the Butcher at the concert. As it just so happens, Cooper is the Butcher. Now, he must find a way to escape the locked-down stadium without being caught and exposing his alter ego to his family.
Pitched as Silence of the Lambs meets a Taylor Swift concert, Trap is the latest M. Night Shyamalan thriller released in the summer of 2024 and is currently streaming on Max. Making $82.5 million off a $30 million budget, Trap was buried under other summer blockbuster hits such as Deadpool & Wolverine and Inside Out 2, each of which grossed over a billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Despite not having the largest commercial success, Trap is one of the most entertaining 2024 summer releases.
M. Night Shyamalan is one of the most polarizing and ambitious figures in Hollywood. Starting off to a hot start in his directing career, he wrote and directed The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs in a three-year timespan from 1999-2002. All of these films were commercial and critical hits, and in 2002 Shyamalan was even titled “The Next Steven Spielberg” by Newsweek magazine. However, after the success of these three movies, Shyamalan lost his touch and started releasing box office and critical bombs in the late 2000s, including Lady in the Water, The Happening, and most notably The Last Airbender. These flops put Shyamalan in “director’s jail” for numerous years, meaning that movie studios would not finance or produce any of his ideas. Nonetheless, after his self-financed hit The Visit in 2015, Shyamalan’s career has seen a resurgence, and he has continued to make solid, low-budget thrillers including Split, Knock at the Cabin, and now Trap.
While Trap is not Shyamalan’s most technical or clever movie, it stands out as his most amusing and lighthearted work. The film was advertised as an edge-of-your-seat horror/thriller, but it feels more like a crime drama infused with several comedic elements. Most of the comedy comes from Josh Hartnett’s portrayal of Cooper, specifically when Cooper attempts to be a normal suburban father. Josh Hartnett gives a phenomenal performance where he can balance the roles of a psychotic serial killer with an awkward father taking his daughter to a pop concert. This does result in some offbeat and eccentric dialogue, but it adds to the bizarre character and the comedic elements of the film.
The cinematography in Trap is stunning. The shots successfully make the viewer feel that they are at this crowded and chaotic concert and also make the viewer feel like they’re trapped in Cooper’s confined space. There are especially breathtaking shots with the concert’s lighting that mimic how Cooper feels internally about his situation.
People have criticized Shyamalan for his overcomplicated stories and massive plot twists, many of which fall flat. Trap, on the other hand, is a refreshing straightforward thriller, and while there are numerous twists and turns, there is no huge twist at the end that ruins the rest of the movie. Trap avoids a major plot twist and tells the viewer Cooper’s secret from the start. You know that Cooper is a monstrous killer who deserves to be locked up, but it’s enjoyable to watch Cooper and the FBI play cat-and-mouse and see how long Cooper can evade the FBI and find a way out of the trap. The movie also starts by showing that Cooper is a good father who provides for his family, and this adds an extra layer making the viewers decide if they should root for Cooper to escape or get caught.
The biggest controversy of this movie was that M. Night Shyamalan cast his daughter, Saleka Shyamalan, as Lady Raven. There are extensive scenes of Saleka singing as Lady Raven, and she eventually becomes a key character in the plot. Many have criticized her singing and acting abilities, and see it as an act of nepotism with M. Night Shyamalan attempting to force his daughter into becoming a Hollywood star. Although her performance as Lady Raven doesn’t stand out, Saleka Shyamalan gives a solid performance, and with the core theme of the movie being family, it doesn’t feel out of place for M. Night Shyamalan to cast his daughter in this project.
Trap is nowhere near a masterpiece or Shyamalan’s best film, and there are far too many plot conveniences and absurd decisions that drive the plot. Most of the characters lack common sense, and there many genuinely irrational moments in this movie. It feels as if while writing, Shyamalan ran into dead ends and couldn’t come up with ways for the plot to progress, so he took the easy way out and spelled out what was going on for the audience. For example, Cooper finds out that the concert is a trap because a worker blatantly tells him. This scene feels like lazy writing and a simple solution for Cooper to find out the situation. Instead, the worker could have hinted that something “big” was happening, and Cooper could’ve slowly realized what it was. This would’ve added more suspense to the movie and it would’ve been rewarding for the viewer to realize what was going on instead of being told the answer. Also, by the second half of the film, the original tone and premise of the movie shift, and at that point, the film starts to spiral out of control. The second half isn’t bad, but the film starts off on its highest note then progressively gets worse.
Overall, to enjoy Trap, the viewer must be willing to go along with the ride and embrace the film’s logic. The movie is not for everyone, and it certainly is not a thought-provoking movie with complex messages or themes, but it delivers a wild and fun ride with humor and thrills.
7.5/10
