It’s a TRAP! Now, imagine me with a giant squid head. IT’S A TRAP!!!

I love Admiral Ackbar, but that’s beside the point. 

Trap, the new film from M. Night Shyamalan, features the excellent Josh Hartnett as Cooper, a man who just wants to take his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to a concert fronted by her favorite artist Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). Oh yeah, he’s a serial killer called The Butcher, and the concert is the bait to catch him. Almost forgot that part. D’OH!

Trap is characterized as a horror mystery on IMDB. However, it’s somehow neither. It’s a thriller, observing the caged rat as he tries to squirm free. It has a crime-caper quality to it as you try to envision how he’s going to escape, hopefully with his daughter in tow. 

This movie is engaging and tense. I was riveted from the opening credits to the closing, but I can’t say I was scared or disgusted. Perhaps the most horrific aspect about Trap is that, at least for the first hour, you are somehow rooting for the serial killer…

Story

How sweet (or potentially embarrassing, depending on your point of view). Cooper takes his teen daughter Riley to the Lady Raven extravaganza. Think of how you would feel if you had the opportunity to see Ariana Grande or Taylor Swift, but instead of your friends, you had to go with your embarrassing dad! 

But it’s not about you. It’s about your father, who is, unbeknownst to you, a notorious serial killer who has become trapped with nowhere to go when the police descend on the arena. As soon as Cooper discovers the authorities are on to him and it’s only a matter of time before he’s unmasked, he resolves to escape. 

Will he deviously devise a ruse befitting of Harry Houdini, or will he be caught or killed? Or even worse: will Riley find out he’s not the perfect, yet embarrassing, father he pretends to be!

Yes, that’s worse! Don’t test me!

The Good

I’ve never seen Josh Hartnett turn in a bad performance. There may have been some, but I’ve not seen them! Trap is no different, and he plays a different type of role here. Somehow, he makes the audience care about Cooper, a psychopath who, aside from his family, doesn’t care who he hurts to achieve his goals. There are some chilling moments where you can see the metaphorical wheels turning in his head, deciding what pragmatic but despicable action he’s going to take. Hartnett should be in more things.

Lady Raven is an absolute delight, played by Saleka Shyamalan, the daughter of director M. Night Shyamalan. Nepotism is what it is, but on this occasion, it worked out in a very special way. Not only is Raven’s music written and performed by the actress, but she shows off some serious acting chops in the second half of the movie. Saleka’s music only complements the more atmospheric score from Herdís Stefánsdóttir.

The tone is also bang on. Once I accepted Trap was not a horror film and was much more like a serious Catch Me If You Can or an Inside Man, I loved how it built as you watch a dangerous man become increasingly desperate. What would he do next, and who would he involve in his plans? Stakes increase throughout the film, and there is barely a dip in quality in its 1hr 45min run time.

The Not So Good

My main qualms with Trap are some of the story details. 

The police are dumb. No doubts about it: they’re as thick as two short planks. They have this amazing psych profile from the renowned Dr Grant (Hayley Mills), and each time they run into Cooper, WHICH IS MORE THAN ONCE, they barely look at him with a side-eye. You’d be at least a little suspicious of a tall white dude who looks dead inside, even if he is accompanied by a screaming teen!

There are also some “THERE’S NO WAY” moments. There’s no way… he got out of that situation without anyone seeing. There’s no way… security let him through without a quick once over. THERE’S NO WAY… they’d let superstar singer Lady Raven anywhere near strangers at this gig. Make it make sense! However, aside from one scene, these questions arose following the end of the movie, so it wasn’t a distracting experience. 

Lastly, I just wanted a bit more murder. Why are you looking at me like that? You know what I mean. It’s marketed as a horror, which it isn’t, but it is about a serial killer! Is it too much to ask for a little bit of blood and guts? Or a bit of asphyxiation or a bludgeon to the head? For a movie about a psychopath, there’s precious little disregard for human well-being. It’s a little disappointing.

Summary

I put Trap on my 10 Horror Movies You Can Still Look Forward to in 2024 list in June. However, I was wrong. In retrospect, this was not a horror film. Trap is a cat-and-mouse story about a serial killer’s quest to stay free. A serial killer who, unfortunately, is fairly non-violent, judging by what is shown in this movie. Yes, he’s dropped a body count before the film starts, but I’m still longing for a death or three. 

But that’s my problem, not the movie’s. 

Trap is engaging and tension-filled. Its cast does a tremendous job of making me care about these characters, especially Cooper and Lady Raven. I hope to see both Josh Harnett and Saleka Shyamalan in many more projects to come. 

And, as for the often divisive M. Night Shyamalan and his often memed affinity for twists? Well, this movie was lacking one I could really put my finger on. There were surprises here and there but nothing which makes you re-look at the whole movie from a completely different angle. However, not every movie needs an earth-shattering reveal, and this one certainly didn’t. 

I’d put Trap in Shyamalan’s hit list rather than the miss column. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.