Trap

Movie Name: Trap
Year of Release: 2024
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Alison Pill, Haley Mills, Jonathan Langdon, Mark Bacolcol, Marnie McPhail, Kid Cudi, Russ, Marcia Bennett
Genre: Crime, Horror
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
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Synopsis and Review

M. Night Shyamalan's more recent prolific output continues, with "Trap" being the latest of his endeavors, following last year's well received "Knock at the Cabin". "Trap" focuses its narrative on Philadelphia firefighter Cooper Abbott, whom we first encounter taking his daughter Riley, to a concert featuring one of her idols, Lady Raven. The arena is packed, but Cooper notices the space is filled with police officers, including SWAT and even FBI agents. While trying to get a swag tshirt for his daughter, he learns from one of the vendors that the whole police parafernalia is in reality an attempt to catch a dangerous serial killer who has been operating in the area, since the investigation team has uncovered that the killer would be in attendance. As it turns out, Cooper is indeed the killer, and he starts realizing that his options of escape are diminishing by the minute. Not trying to raise any suspicions with his daughter, he invents excuses for his frequent exits, as he tries to collect more information on how he can evade the situation. He finally finds what he expects to be an exit strategy, when he speaks with someone from Lady Raven's team, and lies about his daughter being a leukemia survivor. She gets brought onstage, all the while Cooper is assessing his next steps. 

"Trap" starts off strongly with a premise that is fairly straightforward. The entrapment of the entrapper, in this particular case, of a methodical serial killer, who has been impossible to capture. M. Night Shyamalan manages to perfectly set up the entire situation, briefly introducing the characters, and slowly peeling away of who Cooper is, never revealing too much. The central villainous character is always presented as a cordial and affable individual, trying to escape the net that is being set on the perimeter in which he is located. However as the film moves on to its third act, that's sadly where the plot loses some of its impact and momentum, since much of the claustrophobia is lost, and some of the scenarios and interactions the director chooses to stage start losing both its authenticity and edge. Some of the plot options end up damaging the epilogue of the feature, which up to that point had been taut and impeccably staged (a bit like Wes Craven's "Red Eye" for instance). The film also suffers from the fact that most of the supporting characters have very little dimension to themselves, particularly Alison Pill's Rachel (the wife) and even Haley Mills' Dr. Josephine Grant (the profiler). Josh Hartnett's Cooper himself, could have been further realized as a character, however the whole attention devoted to Lady Raven's character (played by the director's daughter, Saleka Shyamalan), takes away from the far more interesting character introductions that keep occurring. The cast is solid, with Josh Hartnett in particular balancing a fine act of being both warm and affable, while also being cruel and menacing. The only exception to the overall cast performance is sadly Saleka Shyamalan, who fails to bring the pop star to life with conviction and with a distinct personality.  The production team is solid, with highlights going to Sayombhu Mukdeeprom's cinematography, Herdis Stefansdottir score, and Debbie DeVilla's production design. It's a watchable, but not memorable endeavor from this gifted storyteller.