Since 2015, M. Night Shyamalan’s movies have been a roller coaster of the good, like Split and (mostly) Glass, and peak weirdness, like Old. Trap is probably the most mixed bag of his recent films. It has a solid premise and some effective sequences, but it is also full of his bizarre dialogue that sounds like an alien pretending to be human and some ludicrous plot beats, especially in the back half.
Josh Hartnett stars as Cooper, who is, as revealed in every piece of marketing, secretly the brutal serial killer known as The Butcher. He hides this half of his life from his family, including his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue), who he takes to a concert for Riley’s favorite artist, pop superstar Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan). Cooper soon learns that the police and FBI know that The Butcher is in attendance at the concert and have set a trap to try to catch him, although they don’t know what The Butcher looks like. Cooper has to try to outsmart and outmaneuver the authorities while trying not to tip off Riley that something is wrong. It’s a juicy setup for a movie, and the movie does have some effective sequences that show off Cooper’s cleverness, like sabotaging a snack stand or stealing a police radio, but they are undercut by Shyamalan’s writing and his apparent note to Harnett to go completely over the top at almost all times. There’s no sane universe where Cooper’s mannerisms and reactions wouldn’t make him seem like a psychopath, but in this universe, that allows him to charm and blend in without notice. It’s also unavoidable that this movie seems to primarily exist as a commercial for Saleka, who performs multiple songs throughout the movie. It feels like Shyamalan wanted to make a concert movie for his daughter, but they had to Trojan Horse it under the guise of a thriller. Later in the movie, Lady Raven becomes a pivotal player in the plot, taking things from an already ridiculous level to another level. If the movie had allowed Hartnett to be more subtle and play a mix of charming and creepy and he wasn’t hindered by absurd dialogue, this would have a solid and entertaining thriller. It also should have stayed completely at the concert venue because when (mild spoilers) it switches locations in the third act, things start to go off the rails.
As mentioned, Josh Hartnett could have done a great blend of creepy and charming if not directed to be a psychotic cartoon character speaking like an alien learning English. It speaks volumes that the best sequences are when Cooper isn’t talking and is silently plotting ways to cause chaos and avoid capture. Alison Donoghue fares the best with M. Night’s bizarre dialogue, possibly because she’s a teenage girl losing her mind at a concert, and she and Hartnett have a solid father/daughter relationship and chemistry. Saleka is fine, but none of the songs from the movie are memorable and feel like generic pop and her non-singing acting isn’t particularly great. Hayley Mills plays FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant, who is leading the hunt for The Butcher, but she’s wildly underused and barely has any interactions with Cooper. Lady Raven is more pivotal to Cooper’s final fate than Dr. Grant. If Cooper and Grant had more of a cat and mouse back and forth, possibly over the police radio, it would have done a lot to make Trap a more effective thriller. Alison Pill plays Cooper’s wife, Rachel, but doesn’t have much to do and seems like a waste of someone as talented as Pill.
Trap is reasonably entertaining and effectively tense at times, but the Shyamalan quirks of ridiculous dialogue, cartoonish characters, and bizarre plot beats undercut the seriousness and keep it from rising to the potential that the premise has. It’s less strange than Old, but it doesn’t reach the level of something like Split or the best of Shyamalan’s original run in the late 90s.
