Trap

Director: M Night Shyamalan
Starring: Josh Harnett, Saleka Shyamalan, Ariel Donoghue, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills
Distributor: Warner Bros
Runtime: 105 mins. Reviewed in Aug 2024
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan

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Rating notes: Sustained threat and coarse language

The film tells the story of a man, who accompanies his daughter to a concert given by a pop star. He realises that the event is a trap by police to capture him.
This American psychological thriller is written, directed and produced by Indian-born M Night Shyamalan, who was raised in the US. Shyamalan has a highly distinctive approach to horror movies and was responsible for the brilliant thriller The Sixth Sense (1999), which was about a child psychologist whose patient claimed he could see and talk to the dead. Typically, Shyamalan employs supernatural plots with surprise endings that keep the viewer guessing. He is also a master for portraying what might be regarded as ‘believable’.
In his distinctive visual style, Shyamalan routinely injects humour and suspense into his scenarios. The main character in this film, Cooper (Hartnett) takes his teen daughter Riley (Donoghue) to see her favourite singer Lady Raven (played by Shyamalan’s daughter, Saleka). Riley is excited and contagiously exuberant about what lies ahead, and she has no idea that others, including the police, think her father is a serial killer who has been dubbed ‘The Butcher’. [We soon learn that he is indeed a serial killer who, while enjoying time with his daughter, is also holding a victim hostage.]
During the concert, Cooper excuses himself to go to the bathroom, and, on the way, he sees a heavy police presence throughout the theatre, and concludes the police and the FBI are there for him.
This film has more of a ‘crime’ look than a supernatural one, which is unusual for Shyamalan. The crime drama adds a horror touch to the concert experience which Shyamalan cleverly satirises as a Taylor-Swift performance, that offers something that can be distractingly enjoyed. Solid tension is built up in the film by viewers not knowing what Shyamalan will deliver next. The film concludes with a scary account of family dynamics that have created a brutal monster.
In the film, suspense is more significant than violence, and not a great deal of blood is spilled, but the movie impressively captures the mood for which Shyamalan is famous. This is not a gore-filled film, but one that deftly delivers its horror touch in recognisable Shyamalan style.