Shyamalan Nights: Trap

Lady Raven's latest concert could be the next Altamont or Woodstock 1999, because Cooper Abbott bought a ticket. People often die around him, because he is a serial killer. Somehow, an FBI profiler figured out he would be at the concert, so she floods the arena with police. However, the killer will be extremely dangerous when cornered, so collateral damage is highly likely in M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, which screens tomorrow as part of a retrospective of the hot-and-cold director’s work.

While conceived as a Hitchcockian thriller breaking out amidst a Taylor Swift concert, Saleka Shyamalan’s songs are frankly more appealing. She is also surprisingly forceful portraying the fictional mega-popular idol, Lady Raven, in key dramatic scenes. Abbott’s daughter Riley is a huge fan, so he bought floor tickets to celebrate her good grades and apparently as consolation for some bullying she has endured. Seriously, if anyone should be able to [permanently] handle a snobby mean girl, it ought to be Abbott. Maybe later.

Currently, he has Spencer, his latest victim, stashed in one of his lairs. The police are desperate to catch Abbott, so they have taken Lady Raven and the stadium staff into their confidence. Time is running out for poor Spencer and Abbott has some nasty tricks up his sleeve to keep his hunters off-balance.

It turns out working for the fire department is helpful for a serial killer, because you know about all the buildings that have been abandoned after failing fire inspections. That is a rather clever detail from Shyamalan. Abbott’s firefighter profession also adds a further ironic layer. Everyone loves firemen, because they are protectors, but Abbott betrays that public trust, as well as that of his family. (Indeed, Shyamalan shrewdly paired Trap with Hitchcock’s Shadow of Doubt, which also exposes a hidden monster to an unsuspecting family member.)

There is plenty to criticize in other Shyamalan films, but casting his daughter Saleka as Lady Raven should not be reflexively dismissed as nepotism. Her songs certainly fit the setting and she really delivers in the second half, when Lady Raven suddenly becomes personally ensnared in the manhunt drama.

Hartnett is sufficiently creepy as Abbott, but not beyond what we generally expect in these serial killer-next-door characters. However, Hayley Mills (yes, from The Parent Trap) brings a wonderfully steely presence as Dr. Josephine Grant, the profiler. Yet, the biggest surprise comes from Allison Pill, who is really terrific appearing in the third act, as Rachel Abbott.

Frankly, Syamalan sets viewers up for a certain kind of movie, but then suddenly takes the action in a very different direction. Yet, it is a sure-footed instance of zigging instead of zagging. Trap is never truly shocking and it lacks Shyamalan’s 11^th hour game-changing twist, but that might be a blessing.

Regardless, it is a tense and propulsive thriller. Shyamalan keeps things relatively simple, which pays dividends. It also features three very good performances from women that could not be more different tonally. Recommended for fans of the filmmaker and the thriller genre, Trap screens tomorrow (8/24) and Monday (9/1), paired with Shadow of a Doubt, at the Walter Reade Theater (and it streams on HBO Max).