I Feel Conflicted About Trap

Stop reading if you don't want spoilers that were revealed in the trailers for "Trap." You've been warned.

I don't think it needs to be said that modern Hollywood has a problem with originality. For as much cheesiness and campiness as old Hollywood contained, modern movies come with modern problems, and a lack of originality is one of those problems. We are subjected to a seemingly endless drink-from-the-firehose deluge of sequels and reboots, and even if some of them are anywhere from decent to great, this model does tend to bring up some problems. Studios like new dogs doing old tricks because it promises to make them money by piggybacking off of an existing IP, and they couldn't really care less about the actual quality of the film so long as they are seeing green and a lot of it. Now, I do think it needs to be said that recently, as in the last couple of years in particular, I've seen something of a backlash to this model, and we've been getting a steady-enough stream of original films. Think stuff like A24's filmography. Given, the actual quality of these movies does tend to differ from project to project, and differ wildly at that. However, original films are still original films at the end of the day, and when you watch a lot of movies, it's always fun to watch something new. So, one wild day during finals week in late April, I stumbled upon a trailer for a movie called Trap. It looked interesting, had been written and directed by the famed M Night Shyamalan, and was affiliated with the official Warner Bros YouTube channel, and so I clicked on it. And that was when my perspective on movie trailers was forever changed. Now, this article will discuss an absolutely wild twist that was revealed in both the movie and its promotionals, so if you don't want this twist spoiled, go watch the trailer and then come back to finish the article if that is your heart's desire. Okay, moving on. Trap follows a man named Cooper and his daughter, Riley, as they attend a pop concert for the world-famous music superstar Lady Raven, who is played by Saleka, M Night Shyamalan's daughter. Cooper notices that there is an incredibly high presence of very heavily armed police at the concert and asks a vendor named Jamie about it. As it turns out, the entire concert is an elaborate ruse by the cops to catch a serial killer called the Butcher, who the cops had heard would be attending. And now for that signature Shyamalan twist:

Cooper is The Butcher.

If that's not a subversion of genre tropes, I don't know what is. So anyways, I just got out of a screening of Trap tonight, and I wanted to give my thoughts on the movie now that I've seen it. And if you perceive that I may have been hyping the movie up to you, I hope it doesn't disappoint you when I say that, despite it having some interesting aces up its sleeve, Trap isn't a very good movie. And that kind of pains me to say because while I recognize that it's a flawed film, I actually really found myself liking it, so this is going to be a conflicting review for me to write. I think that the first criticism I want to level at this film has to do with the actual construction of its plot. The film's story lacks a lot of momentum and meanders around like nobody's business. It isn't really in much of a hurry to go anywhere in particular, so it doesn't end up getting anywhere at all until too much of the film's runtime has elapsed. It's an hour's worth of solid material rattling around in an hour-forty-five-sized bag, and it's honestly really annoying that Shyamalan couldn't come up with perhaps even one more subplot to make this already-short movie earn its runtime. Ironically enough, there are some minor subplots in this film, and they're still not enough to make the film work, and actually create more problems. There are essentially two movies going on here: one is Cooper attempting to escape the arena, and that was a really interesting story. The other movie has to do with Cooper's daughter, and while, for better or worse, this particular arc takes a back seat for a decent portion of the film's runtime, it is still placing itself in direct competition with what this movie's priority should have been: Cooper. At points, I came to the conclusion that the script would have been well-served by cutting Riley entirely, and instead focusing on Cooper, his methodology, his mindset, and his ploy to escape.

Speaking of Cooper, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about the characters in Trap. The performances aren't really much to write home about, and oftentimes, they can even feel a little bit phoned-in, and this is kind of a shame because if Shyamalan had focused more on his characters instead of being impressed with his concept (which is admittedly really impressive), this movie could have been a lot better than it actually turned out to be. Now, not everything in the realm of the characters in Trap is gloom and doom. Josh Hartnett's initially dull performance as Cooper eventually blooms into a darker flower as we gradually become more aware of the monster that he is, and his character gets good enough and menacing enough by the end of the film to give us a genuinely tense climax that contains some really creative setpieces in regards to the sound design. Also, Cooper is actually really smart, and for all the flaws in this movie, it was really satisfying to watch him play a mental game of chess with the officers who are trying to catch him, and in particular with one highly intelligent serial killer specialist who has been deployed with the cops to root out the infamous Butcher. If the entire film had been about this back-and-forth between Cooper and the cops, this movie would have been stronger, and I wish that Shyamalan had been willing to kill his darlings and commit fully to his concept instead of trying to accomplish more than his concept was able to do for him.

Now, I think that the big selling point of this film is definitely its concept, which I've discussed pretty thoroughly, and I do want to acknowledge that it's a really cool concept. One, er, narrative trap that Trap never succumbs to is being boring, because, for all of its flaws, it's a genuinely fun and entertaining movie, and for a lot of people, that will be enough. I had a ball watching this movie, even if it might not be high art, and I can recommend it to you if you're looking for a date night thriller that won't force you to think too deeply. And all of that said, I'm still having some trouble settling on a final verdict for this film, and I figured that writing down the conclusions that I have settled on might help me to do so. I left the theater telling myself that I wanted to hate this movie, but I just couldn't do that. On the one hand, the problems on just about every level of this film are absolutely glaring. Trap is a messy, disorganized project that contains mediocre acting, but on the other hand, it's an original film with its own distinct identity that is actually entertaining. It's genuinely a breath of fresh air amidst a sea of remakes and reboots of varying quality that too often steers into negative waters. It might not be a good movie, per se, but it's unlike anything I've ever seen before, and so I have a hard time delivering a negative verdict on it, because I honestly enjoyed this movie for what it was. If we give this movie a little bit of time, I can easily see it becoming something of a cult classic, and if it does eventually attain that status, I'll honestly be happy for it. And parents of kids who would be interested in watching this movie will probably be relieved to hear that, despite some of the film's edgy subject matter and its somewhat unsettling decision to make a serial killer the main character, Trap is ultimately a pretty restrained flick in regards to its content, with a couple of brief exceptions that are a tad jarring, but nothing out of the range of an easy PG-13 rating. But of course, I'm not reviewing the film's moral merits. I'm here to deliver a critical verdict, and my verdict is this: it might be a bad movie, but Silence of the Lambs at a pop concert?

What a concept.

Trap - 5/10

1 John 3:11-12