If you’re the type of watcher who needs their cinematic experience to be a realistic one, M. Night Shyamalan’s newest is not your bag. For the fans who don’t mind an uncanny valley- right this way. Stunting a Shyamalan classic feel, Trap barely walks the line of believable. In an entertaining and campy manner, it pokes fun at audiences inability to unplug for a fun, extremely fictional story.
As a long time fan of M. Night’s stories, and his (self-proclaimed) strongest soldier, I’ll admit that the film could have used a little more ridiculousness to break up the realism to a more comfortable point, like we’ve seen through the conclusions of Split or Old. Free parking at a Taylor Swift-level pop-star concert doesn’t count. Yeah, right.
Trap stars one of horror’s legacy hotties, Josh Hartnett. The film follows Cooper, a dad treating his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to floor seats at Lady Raven’s (Saleka Shyamalan) sold out concert. It’s a classic cat and mouse chase with a pop cultured Gen-Z font that’s interestingly relatable to parents struggling to find the perfect work-life balance.
Josh Hartnett Is Your Daddy
Hartnett, our high school heartthrob, has gained an incredible scowl to match what may be his best ever performance. Shyamalan’s direction forces a strong lighting focus on our main character’s face to sell Hartnett in a sinister role we’ve never seen before. While trapped in a stadium filled with young, bright eyed fans, a permanent shadow is cast over Cooper. This both hides and highlights his quick exchanges between proud supportive dad, and volatile serial murderer refusing to face the end of his killing spree. It’s rare to catch the whites of his eyes before his twitching brow or suspiciously waning smile.
The Shyamalan empire is on the rise with his eldest, R&B singer Saleka cast as Lady Raven, and Ishana, making her directorial debut earlier this year, both before the age of 30. With what we know about Shyamalan, and from what we’ve seen in Trap, Cooper mirrors M. Night on his quest to maintain the balance between being a good dad, and continuing his unconventional career of bringing insane stories to the big screen. It couldn’t have been easy to describe to his young daughters that what he does during the long stints of time away from the family, is for the survival of his creative career.
What Kind Of Trap Is This?
From his equally unique and questionable mind, Trap is not Shyamalan’s best work, but it’s also far from his worst. You might find some missed opportunities for a more shocking twist. The pacing stays consistent to a fault, making a 105 minute run-time feel more like 125. Much like the rest of his catalog, I suspect viewers may check-out during the abysmal nature of the third act, and that’s okay. What we can’t deny is what Trap also shares with the majority of the Shyamalan backlog; it’s an undeniably unique and original story that goes big, cares little about plot holes, and more about highlighting character nuances, strong performances, unique lighting, and comedic beats.
This time, an original, super catchy tracklist written and performed by Saleka (which you should download immediately), with features by Russ as “Parker Wayne”, and Kid Cudi as “The Thinker”, is added on top. After his performance in X, I would expect more than just a brief guest appearance from Kid Cudi, but who can refuse a classic M. Night cameo?
For a well-known name in the game for over three decades, Shyamalan is long past the age of having to prove himself. Fans of horror were blessed with dark and often straight edge stories like The Sixth Sense, Signs, and The Village many years ago. At this point, we’ve got to let the guy have his fun, and that’s exactly what Trap will bring to audiences willing to suspend their disbelief.
