Trap (2024)

Trap (2024)

4/10

 

Starring          

Josh Hartnett

Ariel Donoghue

Saleka Night Shyamalan

Hayley Mills

Alison Pill

 

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

 

The first 50 minutes of this movie are nothing short of amazing. Halfway through its runtime, you can feel the impact of M. Night Shyamalan’s superb writing and directing, and I was glued to my sit blown away by his work. If the story had ended there (in the first 50 minutes) when the protagonist has a one-on-one with Lady Raven (the make-believe famous singer played by Shyamalan’s daughter) this movie will be written down as one of the best films of the 2020s. But sadly, it continued further than the first 50 minutes and it all went downhill, from intriguing to unrealistic fantasy style directing. Even though getting that close and being left alone with a famous singer (in the realm of like Ariana Grande) seemed implausible, I was willing to overlook it. Unfortunately, the second act didn’t just strain beyond realism, it shattered it entirely. The movie just went off the rails and became annoying.

As the confrontation with the killer unfolds, it feels like Shyamalan simply ran out of ideas. The sequence where the protagonist works with Lady Raven is outrageously far-fetched and reeks of lazy writing. The final act, sadly, is downright appalling. For Shyamalan, a filmmaker with such a stellar reputation, to craft such an underwhelming conclusion feels almost surreal. It’s painfully obvious he didn’t want to kill off a particular character, but the contrived execution was insulting. No way would an officer avoid shooting someone who attacks one of their own in such a matter, killing them as it seemed, and the officer had a gun pointed and looked more helpless than the person fighting for their lives. This scene is also an example of bad directing.

The movie centers on a serial killer who takes his daughter to a concert featuring Lady Raven. There, he notices an overwhelming police and FBI presence and quickly realizes they’re hunting him, even though they don’t know his face, they were able to deduce from clues that he will be at this concert. His suspicions lead him to mingle with the staff, asking harmless questions to earn their trust while figuring out how to escape unnoticed, all without alarming his daughter.

The first half skillfully builds tension as we watch him manipulate those around him, keeping his family together while staying a step ahead of law enforcement. But once the second half begins, the movie loses its way. The narrative collapses under the weight of absurdities and illogical decisions.

As much as I loved the thrilling first half, the disappointment of the second makes it hard for me to recommend this film. It starts strong but ultimately lets the audience down. A really missed opportunity.