M. Night Shyamalan, known for his supernatural plots and twist endings, has received ambiguous reactions for Trap, the newest addition to his extensive oeuvre. The film features Josh Hartnett who plays the role of a serial killer, dubbed as The Butcher, and also, Shyamalan’s daughter, Saleka, who wrote, produced, and performed all the songs in the film, as pop sensation Lady Raven. Hartnett’s character, Cooper, takes his daughter to a pop concert, trying to win her favour, only to realise that it is a set-up to catch the deranged killer known for hacking his victims to pieces, who happened to be Cooper himself. 

Shyamalan opened up in an interview with Empire, saying that his idea for the film was, “What if The Silence Of The Lambs happened at a Taylor Swift concert?” It is loosely based on Operation Flagship, a real-life sting operation in 1985, where US Marshals offered NFL tickets to lure and trap fugitives. The plot is full of twists but at one point loses all plausibility and becomes too far-fetched, which has led to mixed reviews from critics. However, Josh Hartnett’s performance steals the show as he plays one of his career’s best roles.

What are the critics saying?

Trap, which ranked at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, does not offer a lot in terms of storytelling but is a carefully constructed thriller. A review from The Playlist reads, “The plot is rather ingeniously straightforward, at first, but the fraught journey of a father and killer trying not to upend and upset the carefully constructed delusional fabrication of his life — and how the two identities crash into each other on one fateful day — is exhilaratingly multifaceted.” Cooper takes his teenage daughter Riley to a pop concert in Philadelphia. However, his attempts at being “Dad of the Year” go astray when the show turns out to be a cat-and-mouse chase between a maniac who dismembers his victims, and the FBI.

Reviewer Mary Beth McAndrews writes, “Shyamalan opts for his typical allusions of shocking violence rather than showing it explicitly. The harder Cooper tries to hide, the more off the rails the narrative becomes, and honestly, it has no interest in ever getting back on the rails.”

Is the Shyamalan twist satisfactory?

Graeme Tuckett from Stuff.co.nz is of the opinion that “Shyamalan has at least learned one new trick in the last couple of years. Rather than saving the nonsensical twist in the plot for the last few minutes of the film, with Trap, Shyamalan gets the “surprise” out of the way early.” On the other hand, Rodrigo Perez from The Playlist claims, “Calling what happens in Trap a twist might be a misnomer… [It] shapeshifts, and the drama slithers ominously shedding its skin, becoming a brand-new creature on its own and a true-anxiety-riddled rollercoaster at that.”

Josh Hartnett’s stellar performance

Trap’s disappointing plot and storytelling are compensated by Hartnett’s versatility of playing the goofy, embarrassing father, while also working as a cold-blooded serial killer. A review from Dread Central marvels at Hartnett's talent saying, “Hartnett is in almost every frame of Trap and he devours the scenery. Since the audience is in on his little secret, his subtle facial expressions are rendered all the more devilish and almost charming. Shyamalan and Hartnett make sure to never have us necessarily sympathize with Cooper, but they do make it obvious why someone like him can get away with violence like he does.”

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