Trap (2024) Movie Review

Trap (2024) Movie Review
I’ve talked time and time again about the turbulent career of M Night Shyamalan. Love him or hate him, there is no denying his incredible success spanning almost four decades. Recently, Shyamalan has opted for a scaled back approach to his releases, teaming up with horror auteur and producing juggernaut Jason Blum on his releases ‘The Visit’, ‘Split’ and ‘Glass’, leading to a wonderful relationship with distributor Universal Pictures, who released all of the above as well as ‘Old’ and ‘Knock at The Cabin’. However, a new first-look deal has seen Shyamalan now partner with Warner Bros. in both a producing and directing capacity. This year alone Shyamalan has produced his daughter Ishana Shyamalan’s feature-length, directorial debut ‘The Watchers’ and the highly underrated ‘Caddo Lake’, directed by Logan George and Celine held (who worked with Shyamalan on his show ‘The Servant’ on Apple TV Plus) now streaming on Max or Binge here in Australia. Amongst these producing credits, he also found time to write and direct a new horror feature, ‘Trap’, starring Josh Hartnett, Arial Donoghue and his youngest daughter Saleka Shyamalan.  
The film follows a father and firefighter Cooper (played by Hartnett) Riley (played by Donoghue) and his teen daughter attend the pop concert of Lady raven (played by Saleka Shyamalan) only to realise they've entered the center of a dark and sinister event, to capture the butcher, a notorious serial killer currently on the large. Little do Lady Raven and Riley know, Cooper is the Butcher… Shot mostly from Cooper’s perspective, he must traverse the tens of thousands of concert attendees to escape the concert, without his daughter being any wiser to his true identity and sinister double life. The film proved to be a massive success both critically and commercially, grossing an impressive $82 million at the worldwide box office. As a fan and fierce defender of Shyamalan, I was going to see this no matter what the critically and audience reception was of the film and I’m happy to report it’s a lot of fun!
‘The Trap’ benefits from his setting. Whilst the concert venue is quite large and sprawling, filled with people, the setting still manages to feel small, isolated and the perfect place for a serial killer to hide in plain sight. Whilst its premise required the audience to suspend disbelief often it feels like Shyamalan is completely aware of the absurdity of the situation. The further the logic of the situation bends, the more entertaining it becomes, with the humor taking control and leading to some truly entertaining set pieces.
Another key element of making this entire film work is the dedicated and overly charismatic turn from Josh Hartnett as the titular serial killer Cooper. Hartnett has, had a recent resurgence with roles in ‘Oppenheimer’, ‘Penny Dreadful’, ‘The Bear’ and now a lead turn in ‘Trap’. He is really wonderful here and reminds the audience why he was such a big deal in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He carries the film, showcasing his charisma and acting chops, once again providing himself as one of the best comeback stories of the past decade.
‘Trap’ isn’t a perfect movie, but it is never dull. It’s always entertaining and that is due to the self-awareness from M Night Shyamalan and the star power of Josh Hartnett. It’s fast-paced, fun and an all-round crowd pleaser. If you’re looking for something fun this spooky season, than look no further, ‘Trap’ has you covered. Pick-up your copy today on DVD or Blu-Ray from Sanity today. You won’t want to miss it.
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Christopher Pattison wrote this blog post for Sanity. See more from Chris here