Trap Review

“You know the Butcher? That freakin' nutjob that goes around just chopping people up? Well, the feds or whatever heard that he's gonna be here today, so they set up a trap for him. This whole concert? It's a trap.” – Merchandise Vendor.

If you’ve seen the trailer, you might well be dismissive, convinced that you’ve already seen the entire plot of the movie. The trailer does, after all, establish the identity of the serial killer, baited into a trap. But this is an M. Night Shyamalan film and as such, your assumption would be wrong. Shyamalan is a master of his craft as a writer/director and his skills are showcased to an awesome level here.

The basic concept which we glean from the trailer, is that the police and FBI are after a pretty prolific serial killer, and have arranged, as bait to trap him, a pop concert to lure him in. Thus cornered, they can apprehend him. Okay, simple conceit there. All of that, as I said is in the trailer. But there’s more to it, as you can expect from the director of The Sixth Sense, Signs, Unbreakable, Old, Split, Glass, A Knock at the Door and The Happening.

This film is inspired by (but not based on) a true event, where in 1985. Law enforcement officials caught a total of 101 fugitives in a convention centre having lured them in with the pretence of offering free NFL tickets, in a sting called Operation Flagship. So, with this in mind, Shyamalan took the premise of combining that event with Silence of the Lambs and setting it in a Taylor Swift concert. So, the resulting film is largely based in a concert, where the songs are actually themed around what’s happening onscreen. This is all pretty much on a subliminal level and never made overtly obvious. The songs in question were written by and performed by Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka Night Shyamalan in the role of teen pop idol Lady Raven. Talent runs deep in that family, obviously. But let me stress, this movie is NOT a musical.

Josh Hartnett stars as Philadelphia fireman Cooper, who’s doing the “great dad” thing of taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a Lady Raven concert. (All of us dads have been there, right? My dad/daughter concert experience was at a screamo concert that might have cost me my hearing.) For all his nice guys, ordinary dad outer shell though, Cooper is a serial killer and even now has a poor victim tied up in a basement with a device that he can activate from his phone to kill him with carbon monoxide if he’s caught. Nobody suspects. But the authorities are closing off all the entrances and exits, determined to put a stop to his reign of terror.

So that’s enough plot – and spoiler free. Nothing you won’t have seen in the trailer.

A thing I loved about the movie, and it ties into Harnett’s performance which I reckon to be one of his best to date, is that despite knowing he’s a serial killer, he comes across as so likeable, so ordinary. A trait also shared by real life serial killers Dennis Rader and Ed Gein among others. So much so, that as an audience, our sympathies veer toward him and we don’t want him to get caught. His manner of keeping up with what the Feds are doing and thwarting their attempts in a cat and mouse game, his various manipulations to stay one step ahead, without his daughter suspecting too much keep the film moving, even if they can be a little far-fetched – they’re always entertaining.

It’s a thriller more than a horror movie. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that if Alfred Hitchcock was still around, this is exactly the kind of film he’d be making. Shyamalan certainly displays a touch of his style here and that’s the highest possible compliment coming from this particular Hitchcock fan. Shyamalan’s talent seems to be growing with every film.

Recommended.

Rob Rating = 9