According to M. Night Shyamalan, the premise of his latest feature boils down to a simple question: “What if The Silence of the Lambs Did it happen at a Taylor Swift concert?
It’s a creative concept, but trap One reference is more informative than the other. The film is a concert film for Shyamalan’s daughter, musician Saraika, and Josh Hartnett’s riveting performance wraps up a middling thriller.
trap
bottom line
Rarely scary, sometimes suspenseful, always silly.
release date: Friday, August 2
Throw: Josh Hartnett/Haley Mills/Alison Pill/Saleika Shyamalan/Kadi Kid/Ali Donoghue
Director and screenwriter: M. Night Shyamalan
Rated PG-13, 1 hour 45 minutes
trap It opens with dad joke machine Cooper (Harnett) and his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) at a concert for pop star Ms. Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) . The stadium was packed with active teenagers, some waiting outside hoping to catch a glimpse of the singer emerging from her trailer, others practicing one of Ms. Raven’s popular dances in the lobby.
Riley had been having trouble with some friends at school and she seemed particularly excited. She led her father through the parking lot where they parked, eagerly joining a group of girls dancing near the concession store and marveling at the merchandise available for purchase. This would be a typical concert scene if there weren’t a large number of police patrolling the venue and guarding every entrance.
With the help of Jamie (Jonathan Langdon), an amusing merchandise supplier, Cooper learns that Ms. Raven’s show is a sting operation. Federal agents and local authorities are working to catch “The Butcher,” a serial killer whose number of victims has recently reached double digits. Cooper becomes increasingly nervous as Jamie reveals details about the business, including the special code words employees must use in front of the Butcher.
For those of you who really hate spoilers, now is the time to stop reading. (Just know that you should stick around for the fun end credits.) Anyone who’s seen the trailer knows that Cooper is a wanted fugitive, but that’s just the first twist.
Shyamalan’s trap There are more tricks than recent products, e.g. Knock open the hut, but they were more of the raised-eyebrow type than the surprised type. After Cooper collected the initial intelligence, trap It becomes a suspenseful cat and mouse game. The first half of the film is concise and entertaining. Working with cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, Shyamalan gleefully experimented with off-kilter shots and negative space, rendering the arena into a booby-trapped maze. The director effectively puts us in Cooper’s perspective, leading us to chart our own escape route.
For a while, it was exciting to see Cooper outwit the establishment, and Harnett was a big part of that. His performances are sly, often hilarious and subtle. He is introduced as an anxious father, but then his idiosyncratic behavior—obsessive attention to detail, struggle to control his jaw muscles, the strain of his smile—turn into signs of more vicious violence. As Cooper sneaks into private areas, chats with arena staff and plans a getaway, one can see how his charm and humor make him the perfect suburban husband to his wife Rachel (Alison Pill) and their children. The father is also a notorious murderer. Harnett convincingly balances Cooper’s dual identities: a serial killer whose relief comes from dismembering his victims’ bodies, and a father trying to give his daughter the world.
Shyamalan might understand Cooper’s latter wish. first half trap Betraying the greater interests of the director. Shyamalan’s daughter Saraika wrote, produced and recorded the entire album for the film, which adds a haunting dimension to composer Hédis Stefansdóttir’s score. Many of Saraika’s songs are presented in their entirety, and much of the film’s opening is devoted to seeing her strutting around the stage in elaborate costumes or imitating the moves of her backup dancers. These moments also serve as a study in star power in the age of social media. The glow of raising your phone in the air to record a moment, viral choreography, and a dangerous community of devoted fans are all explored at some point.
There are so many different threads, trap Try to keep its momentum going. The repetitive nature of Cooper’s chase weakens the stakes, and the side quest with Lady Crow ultimately feels less important than it should. At the end of the second act and the end of the third act, trapWhile the direction is stylish, it inevitably loses some of its edge.