M. Night Shyamalan’s Most Lighthearted Movie Yet

Midway through M. Night Shyamalan’s latest thriller, Trap, a young girl is chosen to dance onstage with her idol, a singer named Lady Raven, played by the director’s daughter Saleka. The lucky attendee is understandably nervous, but a stage manager reassures her, saying, “It’s not about being good, it’s about having fun!”

This line serves as guidance for viewers familiar with Shyamalan’s work. Viewers might expect a horror film with a pivotal plot twist that will either chill them, like in The Sixth Sense, confuse them, like in Lady in the Water, or make them laugh at the absurdity, like in The Village. But Trap more often encourages its audience to laugh with it. Shyamalan pitched the story as “if The Silence of the Lambs happened at a Taylor Swift concert,” a premise that sounds both terrifying and like a twisted joke. The film is, therefore, sillier than it is scary, with the story transitioning between sinister and loony elements, aiming to deliver delirious fun rather than just “good” cinema.

One of the core reasons the film works is Josh Hartnett, an actor experiencing a career resurgence after his role in last year’s Oppenheimer. In Trap, Hartnett stars as Cooper, a father taking his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to the Lady Raven concert. However, Cooper is also revealed to be a serial killer known as “The Butcher.” The concert is a setup by authorities to catch Cooper, who must find a way to escape without raising any suspicions, especially from Riley.

Hartnett’s portrayal makes Cooper fascinating to watch, as he slips between his dual personas with ease. He oscillates between bonding awkwardly with Riley and outwitting SWAT teams. As Cooper realizes the difficulty of escaping with his daughter, Hartnett infuses Cooper’s every move with palpable nerves. His smiles become forced, his lies more complicated, and his stance stiffer—enough for Riley to sense something is wrong.

Hartnett’s performance unlocks the film’s unique charm. Trap may have massive plot holes, but it’s far from mindless. Shyamalan effectively unnerves and tickles his audience when the film remains in Cooper’s perspective. To a serial killer like Cooper, what’s normal to everyone else is unnatural and sometimes hilarious. He takes pleasure in maneuvering through the concert crowd and setting up distractions to delight himself while disturbing others. His stilted dialogue and strange pauses imply that ordinary people are too slow for him to engage meaningfully with. The result is a film that’s oddly funny, right down to a mid-credits scene meant for laughs.

Cooper’s misleading jaunts into restricted areas and back to Riley are akin to a heightened version of the infamous restaurant scene in Mrs. Doubtfire. The plot twists and turns in unexpected directions, making it clear that Shyamalan is having fun with his creation.

Like other recent films by Shyamalan, Trap extracts mundane fears about parenting from its ludicrous story. Cooper’s psychopathy stems from a strained relationship with his mother, yet he manages to be a good father to Riley. He is furious that his life as The Butcher interferes with Riley’s enjoyment of the concert, especially after she had been ostracized by her friends. Trap suggests that while parents have unique insights into their children, they can’t control everything that happens to them or always prevent harm.

However, this poignant message feels somewhat underdeveloped as the film progresses. The suspense surrounding whether Cooper will get caught overshadows the suspense about Riley’s relationship with her father unraveling. This imbalance might leave some thematic elements feeling undercooked.

Shyamalan once described the chaos of Lady in the Water, one of his most critically derided films, as “jazz.” This description could apply to Trap as well. It’s a disorderly project filled with seemingly off-key, atonal beats that might alienate those expecting conventional horror scares. Yet, it also builds to a cohesive whole, making the film’s peculiarity gratifying at this stage in Shyamalan’s career. At its core, Trap is unmistakably Shyamalan. A film about a serial killer that turned out to be endearingly ridiculous—how’s that for a twist?

Source: Warner Bros.