M. Night Shyamalan is one of the most divisive filmmakers of the past 30 years. After achieving breakout success in the late ’90s and early 2000s with acclaimed thrillers like The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs, his reputation began to sour following the releases of largely critical failures like The Village, Lady in the Water, and The Happening. In recent years, Shyamalan has experienced a late-career resurgence writing and directing modestly budgeted, high-concept thrillers (see: Split, Old, Knock at the Cabin). He remains, however, one of Hollywood’s most polarizing directors.
You need look no further than the reception to his latest film, Trap, for proof of that. The serial killer thriller was both embraced and tossed aside in equal measure when it hit theaters in early August. Some were quick to share their praise for the film’s technical craftsmanship and perfectly pitched lead performance, while others dismissed it based on Shyamalan’s consistently stiff dialogue and its absurdly twisty third act. Now, several months later, Trap is officially streaming on Max.
You shouldn’t let the film’s divisive reception stop you from giving it a chance, either. For all of its flaws, it is a refreshingly gutsy thriller — one that isn’t afraid to take huge swings or be playful. Shyamalan has never made another movie, in fact, that feels as keyed into his own Hitchcockian sense of dark humor. Once you realize and accept that, Trap becomes a whole lot more fun and entertaining.
A subversive cat-and-mouse thriller
Trap follows Cooper Abbott (Josh Hartnett), a firefighter, husband, and father to two kids who secretly moonlights as a merciless serial killer known as “The Butcher.” When Trap begins, he has already kidnapped his next victim and has taken to intermittently monitoring his hostage’s status through a camera feed on his phone. Cooper is forced to step away from his murderous secret life, however, in order to accompany his unsuspecting daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to an Eras Tour-esque concert for her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan).
It’s only shortly after Cooper has arrived at the concert’s arena venue that he realizes he has unknowingly walked into the middle of a — you guessed it — trap. The FBI somehow received word that the Butcher would be in attendance at Lady Raven’s concert, and its agents are intent on interrogating every man at the venue who fits the Butcher’s profile. All of this is economically and methodically established within Trap‘s opening 15 minutes, and the film then spends the rest of its runtime tracking Cooper as he tries to make it out of the concert without catching the FBI’s attention or alerting Riley to the truth of what’s going on.
Cooper’s efforts to escape justice prove to be alternately brilliant, chaotic, nerve-wracking, and deeply, darkly funny. Unlike most of Shyamalan’s films, Trap doesn’t revolve around one central twist. The thriller instead mines all of its entertainment and shock value out of trapping its protagonist in a seemingly inescapable situation and simply following him as he tries to break out of it nonetheless. It’s a subversive take on a typical cat-and-mouse thriller — one that knowingly and explicitly forces its audience to question their own allegiance to Cooper as he proves himself increasingly ruthless and, therefore, more deserving of the fate he’s trying to avoid.
A Hitchcockian construction
Trap has less in common with Shyamalan’s other films and more with cockeyed Alfred Hitchcock thrillers like Rope and Suspicion. Its connection to Rope, in particular, is undeniable. Like that 1948 classic, which follows two killers who decide to hide a body in their living room before hosting a dinner party, Trap places you in the same shoes as a murderer and forces you to watch in tense anxiety as he tries to hide himself and his criminal alter ego under a thin veneer of normalcy. Shyamalan is, however, even more of a sensationalist than Hitchcock, and so he pushes his latest narrative construction up to the very brink with several third-act twists that stretch the already loose credulity of Trap‘s story.
Not all of the film’s left turns come across as smoothly as Shyamalan would like. The director’s half-hearted attempts to psychologize his charming killer also land with repeated thuds. Like Rope, though, Trap has a pitch-black comedic spirit that shines through in its final 20 minutes and makes it easier to accept some of its more absurd leaps in logic. Shyamalan remains one of the most daring and skilled visual craftsmen of his generation as well, and he directs Trap with a level of playful artistry that is contagious.
This is Shyamalan at his most fun, carefree, and macabre. His latest offering is an ingenious thriller that doesn’t take itself, its characters, or its story too seriously. It holds your attention so easily that you almost take the craft on display throughout it for granted. That’s OK, though. Trap doesn’t want to do anything more than entertain you, and it effortlessly does just that. It’s a great way to spend a Friday or Saturday night — especially now that it is streaming just in time for Halloween.
Trap is streaming now on Max.
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