NOW IN THEATERS! Where M. Night Shyamalan shines is in exploring intriguing plot ideas: a boy who sees dead people, an alien invasion, and even superheroes. Where Shyamalan often fails is in the execution. Does Night’s thriller Trap represent a comeback?
We open where we always open in Philadelphia. Firefighter Cooper (Jash Hartnet) is taking his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to see her favorite singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan), in concert. As the pair walk through the arena, Cooper notices that there is a heavy police presence, and they are randomly pulling men out of the audience for some unknown reason.
When Cooper and Riley go out to purchase a t-shirt from worker Jamie (Jonathan Langdon), he tells Cooper that the cops and FBI are there to trap the serial killer known as The Butcher. We quickly learn that led by the world’s top profiler, Dr. Josephine Grant (Haylie Mills), they are going to detain every man in the arena to find the killer.
It’s pretty easy to guess that Cooper is the Butcher. He needs to figure out how to get out of the arena without revealing his identity, without disappointing Riley on the most fabulous night of her life, and while keeping his “public” identity intact. Trap now becomes a cat-and-mouse chase.
When I first saw the trailers for Trap, I was excited. The idea of a serial killer trying to escape an elaborate and extensive trap set by the FBI while tethered to his daughter, who is none the wiser, is intriguing. I was all in going in. Oh boy, does this movie disappoint.
“…tells Cooper that the cops and FBI are there to trap the serial killer known as The Butcher.”
The most exciting part of the movie is the setup—getting the pieces in place and seeing Cooper’s mind work out how to escape. Then, we are treated to a concert by Saleka Shyamalan. The music is not bad, but I’m too old to appreciate the Swiftian music of the youth. As the story progresses, it becomes a straight-out cat-and-mouse chase with concert footage intertwined. Shyamalan
The biggest problem with Trap is that it changes protagonists throughout the film. Cooper is the first protagonist because the story is told from his perspective. We see him get information from random encounters, we see his current victim in a kill room, and we see him trying to navigate the situation with his daughter in tow. Then, we shift to another character’s perspective, turning Cooper into the antagonist.
Trap then falls into the progressive trope of “man bad…woman good.” It’s so on the nose here. Yes, we also get girl boss moments when the female protagonist turns from a mild-manner female protagonist into a 007 super agent. I’ll just say the new trope of using social media to solve the crime (or part of the crime) is not working, especially here.
The biggest missed opportunity is not using the profiler, Dr. Grant, in any meaningful way other than as a plot device and a moment to expose in a way that’s meant to be profound but comes off as a poorly written word salad. Shout out to Haley Mills. Her presence was pure member-berries, and I was eating them up. What we needed was to see her profiling skills at work, but apparently, they only needed the person to be around to lend gravitas.
Trap had the potential for a thrilling cat-and-mouse game but ultimately fell flat. While the setup is intriguing, the film quickly loses steam, becoming a muddled chase interspersed with concert footage. Shyamalan’s latest effort disappoints, struggling with inconsistent perspectives and underutilized characters—here’s hoping his next project brings the comeback we’ve been waiting for.
"…becomes a straight-out cat-and-mouse chase with concert footage..."
