TMS Movie Review: Trap

(Warner Bros)

“What you see is what you get” could have been the slogan for M. Night Shyamalan’s film career up until the last few years. Put a pseudo-shocking twist at the end of a supernatural horror or psychological thriller with some wooden acting and unnatural dialogue and you have an M. Night movie. But lately he’s been dialing back on the twists and turns, for better and for worse. While a predictable cliché in his repertoire, abandoning the trope has now actually made his movies closer to bland. His new release, Trap, is neither suspenseful nor boring, and mostly reminds you of everything polarizing in the filmmaker’s reputation.

At a sold-out stadium concert for pop sensation Lady Raven (Saleka), an extensive team of SWAT and FBI agents are surrounding the building when the head of a secret operation, Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), equates that their wanted serial killer will be attending the show. At the same time, suburban dad Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) have tickets and are enjoying the day bonding watching Riley’s favorite music artist. Alison Pill co-stars as Cooper’s wife and Riley’s mom, Jonathan Langdon plays a merchandise vendor who clues Cooper in on the planned ‘trap’ for the murderer, and Marnie McPhail appears as the mom of one of Ariel’s classmates also at the concert.

(Warner Bros)

The trailers for Trap make it look like the whole story takes place at the venue, which would have honestly made the film more interesting than what we got. Once the killer is very obviously revealed to be Cooper, we get the usual expository schlock and gimmicks from MNS in between Saleka’s [Shyamalan’s real daughter] own music playing as the movie’s full soundtrack. The final 40 minutes outside of the stadium just retreads the usual thriller genre beats we all know. Unfortunately, it’s a good thing Saleka is more interested in music as well, because her acting leaves a lot to be desired once she becomes a legitimate character involved with the plot. Mills is majorly underutilized as the profiler after Cooper [definitely not a coincidence the original star of David Swift’s The Parent Trap (1961) is cast in a movie about a parent trapped in a location]. Some people are treating Trap as more of a comedy to make up for the stilted dialogue and Hartnett’s performance—whom you have to assume is at least intentionally portraying this role humorously with how on the nose his acting is here. The problem is that everyone else is playing their parts completely straight, so the tone is inconsistent, especially outside of the concert.

I did laugh a few times at the ridiculousness and there is a very amusing cameo by rapper/actor Kid Cudi. But anyone going into an M. Night Shyamalan film these days should already be aware of how their mileage will vary with the execution.