Review #282: Trap (2024)

Gabe's Supplemental Horror Review #5 - Trap (2024)

This is a difficult movie to begin talking about, because of the nature of twists in movies. And since this is an M. Night Shyamalan movie, most people are going to go into this expecting a twist, and to mention the twist (or even the existence or absence of a twist) could obviously be considered a spoiler, so I'm sure you can see why I'm a bit apprehensive even trying to figure out where to begin.

I will be bringing up the (absence or existence of a) twist later in the review, so fair warning especially because this movie is relatively new. 

Without any spoilers, I'll try to do my best: this is a good film. It looks great, the acting is great, the tension is great. The cinematography was chilling and unique, with a specific head-on perspective used whenever the main character is putting on his "dad face" that never failed to catch me off guard. The pacing is phenomenal, the characters were likable and believable, and Josh Hartnett knocked it out of the park in every scene. There were times where things felt a bit convenient, like everything just happened to go the way that the main character needed it to, but compare this to a movie like John Wick where the main character is more of a force of nature rather than an average human and accept that you're along for the ride, with the goal of seeing how they overcome each of the roadblocks that get set before them rather than actually wondering whether they're going to succeed or not. In a more traditional horror film I could see that being disappointing or annoying, but this isn't a traditional horror film.

I'm going to get into spoilers now so if you don't want that, just know that I give this movie an 8/10 Hamilton Pass Codes and I highly recommend you go see it.

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Spoiler Break

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Okay. Now that we're past the spoiler break, here's the thing: I really don't think there's anything to spoil about this movie. I mean, like I said earlier, this movie isn't about whether or not the hero is going to succeed- this movie doesn't even really have a hero- it's just 105 minutes of Josh Hartnett tearing through every obstacle in his way. But, as I said at the very beginning, the nature of twists in movies makes this very difficult to talk about. Because if you watch even a single trailer for this film, it seems clear what it's about: Hartnett plays a dad who took his daughter to a concert, and the building is surrounded by SWAT members because they got word a serial killer, The Butcher, was going to be at the concert. And, by all appearances, Hartnett IS the Butcher, and he spends most of the movie trying to find a way out of the building.

But.... then you realize it's a Shyamalan movie. The filmmaker renowned for his twists makes a movie whose trailer (seemingly) gives away the entire premise. What could be the twist, you wonder? Maybe Hartnett isn't the serial killer. Maybe he's trying to get out of the building for some other reason. When I started the film and five minutes in they have him dip away into a bathroom stall so he can watch a livestream of a dude chained up in his basement, I thought, "Okay, so he IS the serial killer. Except... maybe he's a different serial killer? Could it be that there's two serial killers, and you find out right at the end that he's not the one they're looking for?" So it kind of added an entire level onto the film, with me trying to figure out ways to explain why he's acting the way that he is if he isn't The Butcher, which was fun.

But, ultimately, he IS the Butcher. He outright says it about 2/3 of the way into the movie. I guess the "twist" (if there even is one) is that the movie keeps going after that point, with Lady Raven taking on the role of the "hero" trying to expose him. And then some more stuff happens, there's sort of a tiny little twist about ten minutes before the end, and then a little "gotcha!" twist at the very very end. So I really don't know what was or wasn't supposed to be "The Twist", or if this movie should even be considered to have one in the first place. So if you go in expecting "The Twist" and you don't get it, it can be disappointing.

It's for this reason that I think Shyamalan's name on a poster can really be a liability at this point in his career. Twenty years ago he was making his name off of his twists, and a basic premise could be overlooked if you saw that name on the poster because you knew it would turn out to be something more. But in this case, if his name was completely absent, you'd still have a perfectly good movie, and nobody would go in assuming there would be a significant late-stage twist. 

But... how many people paid to see this film specifically because of Shyamalan's name?

I don't know. And I'm kind of rambling. I guess what I'm trying to say is, this movie didn't live up to my (assumed) expectations but it did live up to being a great film. I kind of wish I didn't know it was a Shyamalan movie before seeing it, but here we are.

Overall Rating: 8/10 Hamilton Pass Codes

Truth in Fiction: According to M. Night Shyamalan, the plot was inspired by the Washington D.C. "Operation Flagship" sting operation on December 15, 1985, which was organized by the U.S. Marshals Service and the Metropolitan Police to lure wanted fugitives to the Washington Convention Center under the pretense of free tickets. It resulted in 101 arrests, one of the largest and most successful mass arrests of fugitives by U.S. law enforcement!