4K Ultra HD™ Review: M. Night Shyamalan’s “Trap” Is A Lackluster Thriller That Never Manages To Thrill

A father and his teen daughter attend a pop concert only to realize they’ve entered the center of a dark and sinister event.

In 1999, director M. Night Shyamalan exploded onto the film scene with “The Sixth Sense,” a supernatural dramatic thriller that took the world by storm, turning its star, Haley Joel Osment, and its writer/director into immediate household names. The film went on to gross over half a billion dollars and even managed to secure six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, a rare feat for a picture flirting with the horror genre. The twist is historic by this point, and I won’t spoil it here for the small handful of people who may have missed the film and managed to avoid spoilers and the twist is what Shyamalan came to be known for with the films that followed. Given the wild success, everybody was ready to see what Shyamalan would do next, and it would depend on who you ask to hear if those expectations were lived up to or soured.

I myself am an avid Shyamalan defender. He’s a director who is obviously passionate about his work, an extraordinary storyteller, and a unique artist in an industry where, increasingly, so much seems to be a regurgitated version of something else. “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” and “The Village” are all remarkable pieces of work, and even when he began to misstep with “The Lady in the Water,” he still managed to pull off a unique fairytale for adults that while perhaps didn’t live up to his previous work, still managed to fascinate. And that’s the thing with Shyamalan; whether or not I enjoy his latest effort, he’s never short of fascinating.

Enter “Trap.”

After the aforementioned “Lady in the Water,” Shyamalan became the source of groans and snickers when his name appeared before a film. He had a string of critical and commercial failures, most notably his adaptation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “After Earth,” the disastrous father-son vehicle for Will Smith and Jaden Smith. But with the success of “The Visit” and the absolutely incredible “Split,” Shyamalan’s name was somewhat respectable again, and even if the audience’s anticipation never got back to what it was in his prime years, a new Shyamalan release tended to be met with cautious optimism.

The premise behind “Trap” is fascinating and gave me something to look forward to. Loving father Cooper (Josh Hartnett) brings his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to the highly anticipated concert of popstar Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). It turns out there’s a serial killer called The Butcher (creative, right?) on the loose, and through some set of circumstances, the police have grown aware that he’ll be attending Lady Raven’s concert. The catch? You guessed it. Cooper is The Butcher, and the rest of the evening will see him trying to evade the law. Unfortunately, the premise is about as good as “Trap” manages to be.

“Trap” starts out with promise, establishing a strong and believable relationship between Cooper and Riley, and for those who have ever attended a concert, Shyamalan builds the hype nicely and captures that excitement that comes with seeing an artist you love perform a live show. The concert itself is shot nicely, for the most part, and Saleka Shyamalan is believable enough as a pop sensation. The problem is that it never really manages to build once the tension starts.

Cooper is portrayed as a smart, methodic killer, but every step of his “make it up as he goes” plan goes off without a hitch, with no sense of danger ever making itself present. There’s never any doubt that his next goal will be accomplished, never any fear of him being caught, never any interaction that makes the viewer feel engrossed in a compelling story, but instead never lets us forget that we’re simply watching a movie where the writer has set up a scenario in which his leading character must get from point A to point Z. And when finally there does come a moment that promises to provide us with that much-needed tension, Cooper gives himself away far too easily for a killer who is supposed to be so cunning.

When we are finally taken to Cooper’s home and meet the rest of the family, we do have one stunning moment of dread and tension that is over all too soon and never feels realistic, which would be fine in the suspension of disbelief if Shyamalan wasn’t clearly so desperately aiming to keep the audience on the edge of their seats.

I’ve always been a fan of Josh Hartnett, and I’m thrilled that these last several years have seen him treated with the respect he has always deserved as an actor. He is the driving force behind this film and makes it watchable, imbuing his character with more depth and humanity than it was written to showcase. He is excellent as a menacing killer who will occasionally forget his situation to beam over his daughter, whom he genuinely loves. His remarkable performance makes you longingly wish it belonged to a better film. Alison Pill makes a surprise appearance as Cooper’s wife and is excellent as always, and it’s certainly interesting to watch her and Hartnett across from one another doing their best with what they have to work with.

Unfortunately, outside of these strong performances, there’s really no redeeming quality to “Trap.” Again, the concert scenes are well shot, but the rest of the cinematography feels extraordinarily amateur for a studio film or even for a poor indie, which brings me to what I believe is “Trap’s” root problem: Shyamalan was too focused on making a vehicle to showcase his daughter’s musical talent than he was on creating a compelling film, and it shows.

Shyamalan is a director who has earned respect, and I will still eagerly await what he does next, but “Trap” goes beyond being a disappointment. It would be near unwatchable if it weren’t for its strong performances.

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