By George & Josh Bate
Director M. Night Shyamalan burst onto the scene with his surprise-hit The Sixth Sense, for which he was nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Director (all at the age of 29). It was an impressive start, and one that continued with other well-received projects like Signs and Unbreakable. Somewhere along the way, Shyamalan’s films became more divisive, with many not enjoying some of the ending twists that the director included, and for which he became known.
In recent years though, Shyamalan has made a bit of a comeback from low points like The Last Airbender, helming successful and well-received films like The Visit and Split. Last year, he released Knock at the Cabin, a film that didn’t resonate with everyone, but also deviated from the director’s signature style with its lack of a groundbreaking third act twist. After Knock at the Cabin, Shyamalan is back with Trap, a breath of fresh air into the serial killer psychological thriller genre. Trap follows a family man named Cooper (played by Josh Hartnett), who takes his daughter to a concert for Lady Raven (played by director Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka Shyamalan), a popular artist with a massive following akin to Taylor Swift. After getting to the concert, it is revealed that there is more to Cooper than meets the eye: he is a serial killer. More specifically, he is The Butcher, a serial killer with a penchant for dismemberment, who law enforcement are desperate to catch. Cooper soon discovers that the concert he is attending is an elaborate trap designed by law enforcement to catch The Butcher (aka him!). Desperate to evade capture, Cooper goes to great lengths to keep his identity a secret while attending the busy concert.
Trap is the latest addition to the long-running serial killer subgenre of psychological thrillers, a genre that has featured the likes of Se7en, The Silence of the Lambs, and, most recently, Longlegs. With his new film, Shyamalan proves that this genre still has something new to offer, even after some attempts and variations. Unlike Longlegs, Shyamalan isn’t particularly aiming to frighten his audience with Trap, instead prioritizing a cinematic experience that will get your heart rate up and your eyes locked to the screen. And, with this goal, he certainly succeeds.
With Trap, Shyamalan has penned a story that matches his style of filmmaking perfectly, even down to some of his often criticized quirks. The contained setting, which uniquely is increasingly claustrophobic due to the number of people attending the event, aids in making Trap as thrilling as possible. Additionally, Shyamalan has opted to frame many shots in his more recent films with a “point of view” format. A prime example of this would be directly from the first trailer for this film, in which Josh Hartnett speaks with an employee at the concert (and subsequently became a popular Internet meme).
The POV style works perfectly for the script that Shyamalan has written, which centers firmly on the point of view of Cooper as he attempts to wriggle away from trouble. This is dissimilar from Shyamalan’s Split, in which the director had a heightened male figure at the center of things, but told the story from the perspective of a more likable and grounded character in Anya Taylor-Joy’s Casey. Trap lacks an equivalent to Taylor-Joy’s character, which means the audience is adopting the perspective of Hartnett’s serial killer character. As such, Shyamalan ensures that the audience feels the palpable anxiety and dread that Hartnett’s character undergoes in the film. This perspective changes in the third act, pivoting away from Hartnett’s perspective toward another character. While it is understandable why this perspective change occurs, it is interesting to speculate how Trap would have unfolded had it stuck to telling a story solely from the serial killer’s point-of-view.
With a story centered so heavily on Cooper, much of the success of Trap relies on the performance of Josh Hartnett. The Penny Dreadful and Oppenheimer actor isn’t known for playing villains, but he embraces the role in full here, tapping into a side of his acting rarely seen before. Trap is firmly Hartnett’s movie, just as Split was for James McAvoy. Hartnett’s ability to switch from a mild-mannered father to a ruthless serial killer, sometimes within the same sequence, is fascinating and makes for a thrilling watch. Hartnett also perfectly captures the unraveling of his character over the course of the film, as he becomes more and more threatened and out of his comfort zone as the police move ever closer.
Hartnett does well in delivering some of Shyamalan’s dialogue, which can be notably clunky and unnatural at times. Awkwardness or stiffness lightens up when considering that Cooper is, after all, a serial killer, and one that can be understandably a little odd in interpersonal interactions. Beyond Hartnett, though, some dialogue still feels awkward and unnatural, which, at times, takes one out of the story being told. Despite this issue, Trap propels at such a breakneck pace that there is never much time to linger on an awkward or cringe-worthy moment.
Trap lacks the kind of signature third act twist that has become synonymous with Shyamalan’s films. In this sense, Trap is similar to Shyamalan’s last effort – Knock at the Cabin – in being imbued with a consistent unpredictability throughout, rather than all building up to some massive twist before the credits roll. The edge-of-your-seat intensity Shyamalan cultivates with this film goes hand-in-hand with a remarkable unpredictable from scene-to-scene. It always remains unclear who, or what, Cooper will run into next as he tries to desperately avoid detection.
VERDICT: 8/10
Trap marks another success in this third phase of M. Night Shyamalan’s career as the director rises firmly above a mid-career slump. Unfolding like The Silence of the Lambs taking place at a Taylor Swift concert, Shyamalan’s latest is a shockingly entertaining thrill ride, the kind of film that you can’t take your eyes off of for one moment. Filled to the brim with palpable intensity and anxiety, Trap triumphs from a stellar lead performance from Josh Hartnett, who brilliantly plays the two opposing sides of his complex character. Awkward dialogue and some quirks often found in Shyamalan’s films take one out of the film and, in turn, hinder the immersion it is going for, but the fast-paced story and relentless intensity largely make up for these issues. Trap shows that the long-standing genre of serial killer movies still has something new to offer, while also highlighting Shyamalan’s continued singular repertoire for crafting edge-of-your-seat psychological thrillers.
See where Trap ranks in our ranking of every M. Night Shyamalan movie from worst to best below….