I’ve been a fan of the majority of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies since his breakthrough with “The Sixth Sense” in 1999.
So, naturally, when I saw the trailer for “Trap,” I made sure to mark it on my calendar to review for our readers.
While I don’t want to spoil anything about the film for you, I have to say that the movie is beautifully shot and you can see the subtle shifts in Cooper Adams as he tries to escape his fate.
Plus, you notice how he starts blurring the lines between his serial killer impulses and thoughts and just being a suburban father – it seems like just the right amount of eeriness that adds more thrills to the film.
Trap is a 2024 American psychological thriller film written, directed, and produced by M. Night Shyamalan and starring Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, Jonathan Langdon, Mark Bacocol, and Alison Pill.
The movie is rated PG-13 for some violent content and brief strong language and comes in at 105 minutes long.
Cooper Adams (Hartnett) takes his teenage daughter Riley (Donoghue) to pop star Lady Raven’s (Shyamalan) concert as a reward for her good grades, notices the unusually high police presence around the concert venue.
He learns from a merchandise vendor named Jamie (Langdon) that the FBI plans to catch a serial killer known as “the Butcher” at the venue with knowledge that the Butcher is in attendance.
Cooper is revealed to be the Butcher himself, secretly checking footage on his phone of his latest captive victim Spencer (Bacolcol) chained up in a basement somewhere.
Cooper then steals Jamie’s ID card and learns the passphrase that will identify him as an employee, using the card to gain access to a back room and steal a radio.
Hearing a woman predicting his movements over the radio, Cooper sets off an explosion in a food stand’s kitchen and uses the chaos to access the roof.
That’s where he learns from a police officer that the manhunt is led by FBI profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Mills).
Confused by Cooper’s behavior, Riley asks him to stay with her when he returns to their seats.
She talks about being chosen as Lady Raven’s “Dreamer Girl”, who gets to dance on stage with the singer and also gets backstage access.
Cooper then believes that’s going to be the only exit that isn’t covered by the police.
Cooper lies to Lady Raven’s uncle that Riley recently recovered from leukemia, getting her selected to be the “Dreamer Girl”.
However, after the concert ends, Cooper learns that police are also guarding the backstage exit.
He privately reveals himself as the Butcher to Lady Raven, threatening to remotely kill Spencer if she does not escort him and Riley out in her limousine.
She complies, but asks to come to Riley’s house rather than dropping the father-daughter duo off near their parked car.
And that’s where things start to unravel for Cooper – though it does make the movie tempo pick up, too.
Overall, I fully recommend this flick as long as you aren’t taking your kids to a concert any time soon.
