By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
M. Night Shyamalan has a long history of making hit or miss films, and this one misses in a big way. “Trap” is his latest thriller and is a departure from his usual horror with that supernatural spin, instead sticking to a more straightforward format. Unfortunately, he turns a decent premise into a slow-paced snoozer for the entirety of the first half of the film that never recovers.
Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is just an average dad taking his teen daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a sold-out concert of her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan), but Cooper has a dark secret. He lives a double life as a notorious serial killer called The Butcher, and he will stop at nothing to keep the two lives separate from each other. As Cooper and Riley settle in for a fun concert experience, he quickly notices a heavier than usual police presence.
FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills) has caught wind that The Butcher would be in attendance, so she formulated a trap to capture this monster. With hundreds of police and FBI agents covering every exit of the arena, Cooper’s façade as a doting father begins to crumble as he seeks a weakness in the trap before the concert is over. The Butcher’s endless supply of cunning and confidence is put to the test in a drawn-out game of cat and mouse.
Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, famous for his creative thrillers like “The Sixth Sense” or “Signs,” generates a film that’s more akin to some of his worst creations like “Old” or “After Earth.” The entirety of the concert venue plods at an agonizing snail’s pace that by the time something interesting happens it’s far too late. As a result, the only suspense that is generated is the anticipation of it finally coming to a merciful end and releasing the audience from this awful “Trap.” However, Shyamalan feels compelled to incorporate brutally obvious twists that surprise no one to drag out the unfulfilling climax.
Making matters worse is the haphazard approach to setting up the scenario of trapping a serial killer at a concert venue, forcing ridiculous plot points that defy reality. Whether it’s the ignorance of police procedure, character over-sharing to an eye-rolling degree, or just plain lack of fundamental logic, Shyamalan creates a painfully unrealistic sequence of events that resists basic common sense. Even the cinematography, which has always been one of M. Night’s strengths, is off-putting with camera panning as a clearly designed ploy for clever reveals, instead resulting in mocking head shaking from the audience. As hard as it may be to believe, “The Watchers,” directed by Ishana Shyamalan (M. Night’s daughter), which came out earlier this summer, was slightly better than this film, but the bar is very low.
Starring actor Josh Hartnett makes a commendable effort to lift this sloppy script, and he is certainly the only bright spot in an otherwise brain-numbing disaster. He does a fine job of masking his character’s sociopathic psychosis behind a layer of suburbian dad that raises the hair on the back of the neck when that mask slips to reveal the evil within. Hopefully, this does not derail his recent career resurgence.
The rest of this cast was not up to the task, nor had the talent to overcome the poor writing. Hayley Mills, who ironically played the identical twins in “The Parent Trap” back in 1961, provides an uninspired performance as the FBI profiler who carelessly over explains important details over a handheld radio. Then there’s the debut of Saleka Shyamalan, another of M. Night’s daughters, whose amateurish acting is cringeworthy and will hopefully never be attempted again. Nepotism is not doing M. Night any favors.
This is a sad attempt of M. Night Shyamalan trying to imitate himself and failing miserably. If “Trap” doesn’t lull you to sleep within the first 30 minutes, it will surely disappoint you with the forced and obvious twists and nauseating amount of flawed logic. Don’t let yourself fall victim and allow this shoddy production to ensnare your time and money.
This movie earns:
