Trap (2024)

In Concert With a Serial Killer

or

"Take Your Daughter To Work" Movie
 

M. Night Shymalan hits the nail on the proverbial head calling his new thriller Trap and then doubles, triples and quadruples down on it in an obsessive way that he's never done before, with layers and layers of traps for the the film's central figure, who has to find ways out of them, even though to do so, will only keep him trapped in an endless cycle that he is unwilling to free himself of—he is compelled to repeat the cycle over and over again.

 

Well, to paraphrase the old saying, when one trap closes, another one opens.

 

Cooper (Josh Hartnett, in a tour de force performance that is entertainingly mercurial) is a good dad taking time off work as a fire-fighter to treat his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to the hottest ticket in town for her good grades. Riley, you see, is obsessed with pop-phenom' Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan, the director's daughter) and Dad's managed to get tickets right on the floor. Riley couldn't be more excited.

Which is why she doesn't notice that Dad's a little distracted. Concerts always have tight security, but the police presence for the Raven concert seems to be amped up a little bit and Dad can't help noticing. So, once they've got their seats secured, Dad starts to disappear for awhile—with a protective "Don't you move. Stay here."—to do some reconnaissance. Seems that all the cops and security are there because it's suspected that the local serial killer "The Butcher" is going to be attending the concert—yes, it seems strange that the authorities would be so certain of that and a good length of the movie will be spent in "plausibility mode" doubting it, but writer-director Shyamalan does manage to plug that plot-hole and rather neatly. The concert-goers—except for one individual—are entirely oblivious of this circumstance, thinking that it's just the usual security detail.

That one individual is "The Butcher" and it just so happens that Cooper is the guy they're looking for. He spends his absences from the concert, checking the exits, making distractions—there plenty in a busy concert-hall, gathering information, and making in-roads with the security staff. By the end of the concert, by grace and guile, he will have secured a staff badge—gaining him entry to employee spaces, the password to identify security staff and has even managed to lift a police radio, so he can listen in to alerts. Seems like he has the advantage.

But, he doesn't. He's still stuck at a concert with his daughter (who doesn't know his secret) in a loud, thronging fortress, that is person-by-person, questioning the adults in the hall looking for their quarry. "Trap", indeed.

He's trapped because he's in a maze of a concert-hall, surrounded by armed security, but also because he's trapped by the presence of his daughter in the situation, and by his own need to keep the roles of good parent/serial killer separated. It takes an awful lot of artful dodging, lying, subterfuge, and slight of hand to keep the predicament he's in from closing in on him. At the same time, he keeps checking his phone—he has a potential victim locked up in an abandoned fire-trap and the remote ability to kill the guy with carbon monoxide. Then, things start to escalate when the FBI shows up.

The thing of it is, we're trapped, too. As a helpless audience-member*, we're stuck at looking at the movie from "The Butcher's" perspective—the same way we're left with Norman Bates after the murder of Marion Crane in Hitchcock's Psycho, the only difference being that we find out quickly that Cooper is "The Butcher" and we still follow with interest, albeit conflicted. We're stuck in his situation, and it could be extraordinarily claustrophobic were there not another show going on the full time—Lady Raven's concert.

Say what you will about the obvious nepotism—I certainly did in the title—but, at least Saleka Shyamalan is talented and obviously heavily influenced by Beyoncé, and it does provide a distraction from the constant tension of Cooper's obsessive paranoia. Besides, what Dad wouldn't give their daughter their own Eras tour?

If the movie has a failing, it's that it can't sustain the suspense, that it has to open up in order to fully resolve the situation...and then doesn't resolve it in ways that really do strain credulity. If there was any film of Shyamalan's** that could have wrapped things up neatly and cleanly with a certain amount of resonance, it's this one, but for some reason the film-maker could not help not ending the movie satisfactorily, which is strange as Shyamalan made his career by finishing his movies with a gut-punch.

 

So, what you get is a strange amalgam of concert film and suspense thriller with an extraordinary performance by its lead. And one of the better Shyamalan films in years. 

* "Helpless?" You bought a ticket, friend-o!

 

** I'll bet you're wondering if Shyamalan does his customary extended cameo. I was wondering myself when the movie had gone a considerable length without showing up. "Where's Night?" I found myself thinking...only to discover that he showed up in the very next shot.