Trap - A Brilliant and Wild Thrill Ride
Warning: This will contain Spoilers for Trap. So click away if you don’t want anything spoiled for you
A father named Cooper (Josh Hartnett) takes his daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to a Lady Raven concert (Saleka Shyamalan), where he doesn’t realized that the whole concert is, well, a trap because the police forces are out there to hunt a serial killer that’s attending to the concert, and that serial killer is Cooper himself.
Now I don’t about you, but I’m a big M. Night Shyamalan fan. I’m mean if you have been following my letterboxd account and I recently just did a binge of all of his films before Trap came out, but doing the binge just reminds me of how incredible of a filmmaker he really is. Sure he does have his share of stinkers in his filmography (tho to be fair, nearly every filmmaker have a least one stinker in their filmography), but to me his good/great works outweighs the bad and it’s all thanks to his ability to brings out the most interesting approaches in making very real and inmate stories about people dealing with the horrors and the unknowns within their lives (both internally and externally) and trying to live a better and peaceful live despite of it, and often tell these stories through conventional genre like storytelling. Which is shown in the best of his works such as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, Knock at the Cabin, and my personal favorite of his The Village. Not to mention that he’s one of the few filmmakers out there pushing for more original and unique films to hit in the mainstream crowd of film studios, which a rarity to see now these days, and thus make him not only one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, but one of the most creative and most unique directors working today.
So anytime he releases a new film, it’s always an exciting feeling to wittiness and experience on the big screen, and I’m happy to report that Trap is both another amazing addition to M. Night’s body of work, and one the most insane thrill rides I’ve had in quite sometime. And that’s without seeing a single trailer for it, which did help made the experience a lot better. But let’s discuss some more about it, shall we.
To start up, the concept of this film is brilliant. Having a concert being a literal trap to capture a serial killer is simple enough, but allows for Shyamalan to execute it in such creative and unique ways that makes us the audience to be fully engaged with the film at hand. By having the focus on Cooper trying to get out from being caught by the police while attending the concert and also spending time with his daughter at the concert, we are following into his perspective throughout that first half of the film (key emphasizes on the first half) as he tried to allow those two personalities not get in the way into each other amidst the chaos that’s surrounding him and the numerous of acts that shows off his psychopathic side, such as pushing a drunk woman down the stairs, causing a mess in the kitchen, and so much more. This allows for so much great uses of tension and suspense to be unravel as you learn more about Cooper’s intentions to cover his tracks while the concert is taking place, even in the moments where things might seem calm and relaxed with Cooper enjoying the concert itself and him interacting with the people around the concert arena. Which shown through the excellent editing by Noëmi Preiswerk that allows the pacing to keep in it’s intense state of mind, and the stunning cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom that gets us both close into Cooper’s POV with close ups, medium shots, and even a split diopter shot that made me scream when I saw it, but also allows for wide shots and dynamic lightings and colors for the concert sequences to be shown as well.
Now following through Cooper’s perspective is interesting enough on its own, but it can only work if you have a great leading performance that conveys that perspective effectively, and oh boy did Josh Hartnett absolutely knocked out the part with his performance. He was able to pull off the two personas Cooper had in the film so perfectly, with his more cool dad like vibe when he’s around Riley at the Lady Raven concert and his more vicious and cruel psychopath persona when he’s trying to hide himself as the serial killer that he’s trying to run the police force from. There are so many little details that Hartnett pulled off through his various facial expressions and maneuvers of his speech whenever he’s in different situations that only get more sinner as the film switches from his hitman like persona to cover his tracks in the first half to seeing his true intentions of who he is and the danger he imposed on those who tried to threaten him in the second half, and as we follow Cooper as the film progress, we’re invested into who Cooper is as a character, even if we don’t agree with his actions and he the ways he goes about them, and I don’t think this would have been successful if Josh Hartnett didn’t convey the two sides of Cooper’s coin so perfect and so engagingly (which he did), and easily gives one of my favorite performances of the year.
Hartnett’s performance in this is also attached to the way he conveys the dialogue so well. Now one of the most common complains that has been attached to towards M. Night Shyamalan as a filmmaker is that his dialogue is bad and doesn’t come off as natural in the way a real human would talk. This is very present in all of his films in some way or form, including Trap. I mean sure, sometimes the dialogue doesn’t come off as natural, but that’s more intentional considering that Cooper is not a normal function person because of his serial killer persona and he’s trying to act like a cool dad when he’s around his daughter with him saying cringe like slang to say to embrace her, but also switches to have his speech be more concern and uneasy to him being hunted down and covering his tracks of being the killer. The dialogue in Trap is not only a purposal stylistic choice from Shyamalan that gives every line a sense of meaning and purpose, but also Hartnett sells it so well that you buy into the un-natural dialogue so well and still be engaged with everything going on in Trap.
The whole concert set up is also incorporated very well into the film as well. Like Shyamalan went out of his way to really make it feel like you’re apart of the concert in every sense he can. From the way the stadium is filled with tons of extras and background actors interacting with Lady Raven’s performances like you would see in a real concert, to the way people in the concert would go nuts during the performances, to the staging of Lady Raven’s appearance that harkens to the likes of pop stars like Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, Billie Eiish, and Taylor Swift, to even having Saleka Shyamalan writing and performing her own songs (which you could argue it’s nepotism, but whatever) adds a sense of realness into what’s like to be in a real concert (plus the songs are a banger). Not to mention M. Night also cleverly adds some commentary about the popularity of pop stars and the large influence they can have with the audience they attracted whatever it’s on social media or in a stadium like setting, which is shown in a funny line where Cooper knowledge how big Lady Raven is and her fanbase could be a cult (not related to discussion to a certain artist who people said that her fanbase is like a cult) and when Lady Raven uses her social media to spread awareness about a situation that she’s in. It’s incredible how the two central concepts of this film interlock with each other so seamlessly and not ultimately loosing any form of focus.
But things really turned into something wild and insane as we reached to the second half of the film and not gonna lie, this is where I believe the film went from really good to freaking incredible.
Basically the film switches over its setting from having take place at Lady Raven’s house to have it take place at Cooper’s house after he told Lady Raven that he’s the killer thats attending the concert and why there’s tons of police forces literally trapping everyone in the concert and is threatening her to let them out safely without the cops knowing what’s going on, otherwise he will kill the person he’s kidnapped from the tip of his phone. Through this framing deceive, this makes the second half so gripping and so intense that I was in the edge of my seat while watching it. Not only in the sense where the film switches its focus from having being told from Lady Raven’s perspective and how she’s been feeling uncomfortable about Copper’s true intentions after he invited her to his house and trying to escape it (which I should add that Saleka Shyamalan is also very good in conveying the popstar like persona she played in the first half and the more concerning victim trying to get out of the situations she’s in the second half), but we also see how more evil and mentally insane Cooper is with the way he tried to escape from the cops and how his family are staying away from him after finding out that he’s a serial killer (especially that incredible scene towards the end where the wife, Rachel called the police about Cooper being at the concert), and I was loosing my mind in the best way possible to see how Shyamalan staged and played this whole section that I was gripped into everything that’s going on during this second half that I left the big exhale after it was all done.
The second half of the film also highlighting some of the themes that M Night. wanted to explored in Trap. Themes such as abuse, honesty, victimhood, trauma, and the unhealthy mental state that can affect a person who’s been abused as a child and lead them into the person they trun out today. As Cooper is a victim of his mother’s abuse when he was a child and thus lead him to dawn the Butcher persona that he’s adapted into his mental state as an adult. Which is even expanded to his physical state where Copper grows into an animal like creature that has a lot of physical baggae under neath as he’s being tased by the cops after seeing an a vision of his mother that made him breaking down after failing to kill Rachel because she suspected him of being The Butcher (which may I add that Allison Pill is great for the limited screen time she received). While I think some of those ideas could have been explored better if it was given more time to shine, I love how Shyamalan took similar themes and exploration of the broken and hurt that’s present in so many of his other works and apply to it to a hateful and harmful character like Cooper and make us understand his mental state and why he goes out and kill people, even when we don’t agree with it at the slightest. Also side note, for a moment I thought this would take place in the same universe as Unbreakable and Split after seeing Cooper’s animal like behavior being unleashed as he’s being teased, but I guess it wasn’t the case.
Any issues I had with the film is I wished some of the core themes were given more time to explore and fleshed out before we head over to the second half of the film, and I do think it does have multiple occasions where I thought the film would end, but it didn’t and I feel like it could have ended at certain points. But otherwise, not too much to complain about this film.
So overall, Trap is probably the most divisive film of the year. With the overall reactions from critics and film fans being split on whatever this film is good, bad, or just okay. Well based on this review, it’s no surprise that I absolutely loved Trap, and it’s one of my favorite films of the year so far. You can call me an M. Night fanboy all you want (which I’m kinda am, even tho I recognize that he has some stinkers in his filmography), but I love the many directions this film went to not only with it’s narrative and setting, but the way he presents that in such an thrilling, insane, and wildly engaging way that kept me entertained and gripped throughout the entrie run time. On top with giving a career defending performance from Josh Hartnett, a banger soundtrack, stunning filmmaking, and a grip of realness that made you believe you’re apart of this film as well. That’s a rarity to see in a film now these days, but hey, that’s the power of M. Night Shyamalan for ya. If you want thrilling fun time, then this film will do just the kick, and whatever M. Night has in store next (which in a recent interview, he said he had 3 or 4 films in his notebooks coming up soon, let’s goo!), I will be there day one to see it. It’s Trap Summer indeed.
Oh and stay during the mid credits for a really funny bit. That’s all I got left to say.
Final Rating: 9/10 - Truly Amazing
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