BRUCE R. MILLER Sioux City Journal
If you’ve seen Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, you know the idea of safety emerges at some point.
With thousands in the arena, it’d be a nightmare if, say, some threat appeared. A serial killer?
That’s writer/director M. Night Shyamalan’s nightmare scenario.
In “Trap,” he sends a father and daughter to a Philadelphia arena where they’re going to see her favorite artist, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan), a Taylor type who has an endless concert with ample opportunity for ticketholders to leave their seats.
There are so many breaks you wonder if anyone is left in the arena. Dad (Josh Hartnett), though, is looking for a way out (aren’t all dads?). He chats up the merch guy, gets his ID, checks into the employee lounge and discovers there’s a plan to trap the serial killer, called “The Butcher.”
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Why a guy named “The Butcher” would go to a concert (in the afternoon, no less), is anyone’s guess, but it means fewer men to search on the way out.
Early on, we get the suspicion Hartnett’s Cooper Adams could be hiding something. He makes those “V for Vendetta” faces every now and then and constantly comes up with excuses to leave daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) alone.
Sure enough, there’s reason for dad to devise an exit strategy.
Hayley Millsturns up as an expert who knows how serial killers act. She advises plenty of people (mostly with her back to the camera), then becomes a player in the final third of the film.
Shyamalan has plenty of plotholes where this could fall in. Riley, for example, gets a chance to go on stage as the “Dreamer Girl.” But if she hadn’t been picked, dad’s next moves would have to be rethought.
Similarly, when hegets in proximity to Lady Raven, Cooper becomes one of those pests every singer must hate. He keeps asking for more and even gets a moment alone with her in her dressing room. From experience, we can tell you this WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. No matter who wants a private conversation, there’s always a handler nearby.
Still, that sets up the escape route and brings “Trap” to the Adams home where much transpires like an installment of “Scream.”
Hartnett doesn’t really fit the Anthony Perkins mode, but he gets more lines here than he has in countless other films. He’s good at pivoting but he’s also good at making a child cringe. When he goes over the line, “Trap” becomes a typical horror film with “Sixth Sense” pretensions.
That Shyamalancreated that original “a-ha” movie only serves to enhance the disappointment with this one.
It keeps its suspense going for a good hour and then it becomes like a concert with too much “new” music: Bring the hits, not the potential misses.
Of note: Saleka Shyamalan wrote the songs she sings and could land one on the charts if producers pushed it enough. She gives us a sense of what a Taylor-esque singer must be like and isn’t afraid to reach out and touch, even if that touch could be lethal.
Movies in a minute with film critic Bruce Miller
Movies in a Minute: "Abigail"
Movies in a Minute: "Civil War"
Movies in a Minute: "Monkey Man"
Movies in a Minute: "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"
Movies in a Minute: "Late Night With the Devil"
Movies in a Minute: "Snack Shack"
Movies in a Minute: "Cabrini"
Movies in a Minute "Dune: Part Two"
Movies in a Minute: "Drive-Away Dolls"
Movies in a Minute "Bob Marley: One Love"
Movies in a Minute: "Lisa Frankenstein”
Movies in a Minute: “The Greatest Night in Pop”
Movies in a Minute: "Poor Things"
Movies in a Minute: Best Actress nominee Sandra Huller
Movies in a Minute: "Mean Girls"
Movies in a Minute: "Anyone But You"
Movies in a Minute: "The Color Purple"
Movies in a Minute: "The Iron Claw"
Movies in a Minute: "Wonka"
Movies in a Minute: "May December"
Movies in a Minute: "Wish"
Movies in a Minute: "Next Goal Wins"
Movies in a Minute: "The Marvels"
Movies in a Minute: "The Holdovers"
Movies in a Minute: "Five Nights at Freddy's"
Movies in a Minute "Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour"
Movies in a Minute: "Killers of the Flower Moon"
Movies in a Minute: "The Exorcist: Believer"
Movies in a Minute: "Fair Play"
Movies in a Minute: "Expend4bles"
Movies in a Minute: "A Haunting in Venice"
Movies in a Minute: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3"
Movies in a Minute: "The Equalizer 3"
Movies in a Minute: "Blue Beetle"
Movies in a Minute: "Gran Turismo"
Movies in a Minute: Mid-year wrap-up
Movies in a Minute: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem"
Fans in Mumbai celebrate new Rajinikanth movie
Movies in a Minute: "Haunted Mansion"
Movies in a Minute: "Barbie"
Movies in a Minute: “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”
Movies in a Minute: “Joy Ride”
Movies in a Minute: “Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny”
Movies in a Minute: “No Hard Feelings”
Movies in a Minute: "Elemental"
Movies in a Minute: “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”
Movies in a Minute: “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
Movies in a Minute: "The Little Mermaid"
Movies in a Minute: “Fast X”
Movies in a Minute: "Book Club: The Next Chapter"
Movies in a Minute: “Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3”
Movies in a Minute: "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret."
Movies in a Minute: "The Covenant"
Movies in a Minute: "Renfield"
Movies in a Minute: "Air"
Movies in a Minute: "Dungeons and Dragons"
Movies in a Minute: "John Wick Chapter 4"
Movies in a Minute: “Champions”
Movies in a Minute: “Creed III”
Movies in a Minute: “80 for Brady”
Movies in a Minute: "Challengers"
Movies in a Minute: "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes"
Movies in a Minute: "The Fall Guy"
Movies in a Minute: "The Blue Angels"
Movies in a Minute: "Summer Camp"
Movies in a Minute: "Jim Henson Idea Man”
Movies in a Minute "Bad Boys: Ride or Die"
Movies in a Minute: "Inside Out 2"
Movies in a Minute: "Thelma"
Movies in a Minute "A Quiet Place: Day One"
Movies in a Minute "Maxxxine"
Movies in a Minute "Despicable Me 4"
Movies in a Minute: "Deadpool & Wolverine"
Movies in a Minute: "Twisters"
Movies in a Minute: "Trap"
Movies in a Minute: "It Ends With Us"
Bruce Miller is editor of the Sioux City Journal.
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