Trap and all the images you see in this review are owned by Warner Bros Pictures
Directed by M Night Shyamalan
We all know Shyamalan’s decidedly mixed filmography, but as bad as his movies were in the late 2000s and early 2010s, he’s been on a sensational upswing since The Visit and Split. Sure, not everyone like Old and Glass, but there’s no denying that his post-After Earth career has been far more interesting than most of what came before. Does his upward momentum continue with this simple bottle film set at a concert? Let’s find out!!
Cooper (Josh Hartnett) is such a great dad that you believe his World’s Greatest Dad mug is telling the truth, and what better way to prove your dad-bonafides than by taking your daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert for her favorite pop star (Saleka Night Shyamalan)? Sadly, this turns out to be a very bad decision, and not just because of all the screaming tweens, but because this concert is one big trap to catch a serial killer whose been prowling the streets of Philadelphia for years and also happens to be our number one dad. It doesn’t take long for Cooper to put the pieces together, and he starts looking at every corner of the building to see if there’s a way to escape their clutches while also keeping his daughter from learning his dark secret; at least not until the encore and a visit to the merch stand. Will Cooper find a way to keep himself out of jail and his family whole despite the dragnet slowly closing in around him? How does someone like this keep such a terrible secret from everyone he loves, and what will he do when his dark half and his family life start intertwining? Do you think he ever gets the two of them confused?
I couldn’t tell you how Shyamalan feels about his earlier work, but the arc of his career reads as someone trying to balance their ambition with their raw technical talent, and it’s only been the last few years that he’s found a sense of stability between them. This is perhaps his straightforward idea yet, but in keeping things simple, he’s managed to turn in one of his most interesting movies to date. On the surface, it’s a simple thriller about a criminal trying to outmaneuver the authorities, but Shyamalan has a unique approach to it that sets it apart from its peers. Much like how American Psycho was not interested in romanticizing the monster, this has little regard for the trappings of the genre and uses as little of it as he can get away with to instead give us a family drama. The thing about Serial Killer fiction is that they’re much closer to soap operas than they are to traditional horror movies. There’s an inherent indulgence as the protagonist lives outside the norm of acceptable society, and we can enjoy a vicarious thrill in being there when they wallow in their vices. Where this movie finds its unique niche in the genre is that it manages to get across tension and heartache without gore or even much in the way of violence, and by stripping away so many of the typical serial killer tropes, the tragedy that we’re creeping towards ends up feeling much more relatable. This is only half the trick, however, as Shyamalan is not simply giving us a very neat and presentable monster to root for. You could have told this story with a much less deviant premise with the dad’s crimes either being lower stakes or by replacing the cops with straightforward bad guys, but the fact that he’s a serial killer makes all these mixed emotions so much messier to parse through and sets us up for a heart-wrenching third act that feels inevitable yet still surprises you with a few important choices that elevates this above a typical thriller. Despite its title, it’s not a series of clever diversions or ingenious subterfuge to get around the obstacles in his way; it’s a character study of a guy whose chickens are coming home to roost and what side of him comes out on top when put under that kind of pressure, and it’s a standout in its genre for going in that direction.
A lot of this could have easily gone off the rails, and admittedly Shyamalan can’t help but throw in a few of his more obnoxious tropes in there, but it’s a testament to the filmmakers that it all comes together as well as it does. Shyamalan loves working with actors, but his scripts can often be a mess, which leaves them floundering to find the right tone. The simplicity of the premise in this gives a sharp degree of focus and purpose to the direction, which is certainly to his benefit and keeps him from indulging too much. Still, a lot of credit has to go to Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue who turn in great performances and have a genuinely sweet rapport with one another. Hartnett’s not trying to go big and wacky with it like a lot of other actors would, and that’s for the best as his unassuming nature is what makes his character feel that much more real to the audience, and since so much of the movie relies on him being front and center, a small tilt in the wrong direction could have been disastrous.
The only issue I had with the movie was the trap itself. Perhaps there’s a bit of bias here given the media I’ve consumed, but I’ve seen every episode of Dexter, and he would have gotten through their checkpoints without a second thought. While I’m not sure exactly what would have sold me on it, what’s presented is an overly simplistic plan and there’s simply no irrefutable evidence that would have pointed to him specifically and no one else at the arena. By the halfway point there’s enough that you can at least buy into his paranoia about the situation, but with everything else in the movie firing on all cylinders from the get-go, it was a bit disappointing that the premise itself was lagging behind.
Shyamalan’s films have always had more than a few similarities to the works of Alfred Hitchcock, and in this he taps into a lot of what made those movies so iconic while still leaving his indelible mark on the final product. A middling or even outright bad Shyamalan movie tends to be a lot more interesting than plenty of other movies that make it to theaters, but fortunately this is neither one of those, as it’s a great movie in his catalog. Its ambitions are a little too small for it to reach the height of his best work, but for what he’s trying to accomplish, he manages to pull it off with aplomb. I highly recommend checking this movie out if you get the chance, and I’m encouraged to see Shyamalan continue to grow as a filmmaker by making smaller scale features with straightforward premises. Then again, if he wants to take another big swing for the fences, well, he’s earned it as far as I’m concerned. I’m certainly onboard to see him tackle a Marvel movie or something, but even if he falls flat on his face again, he’s shown that you can never write him off for good, and there’s something admirable in that. Just don’t make a sequel to The Happening, okay?
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