A Review of “Trap (2024)”

M. Night Shyamalan has been on another recent surge of just disappointing movies. Glass (2019) was a disappointing sequel, Old (2021) had some of the worst written dialogue ever and Knock at the Cabin (2023) was incredibly bland. All of them had extremely great concepts but was pulled down by the story. Trap (2024) is another great concept with a serial killer trying to escape a concert surrounded by cops. Is this finally a hit or another to add in his disappointing entries?

Firstly, Josh Harnett is phenomenal as the main lead. He manages to convey layers of depth to his character from his performance alone. Josh is absolutely convincing as a serial killer but also a loving man who cares about his family. Not only that, but he can deliver the expected poorly written lines from Shyamalan with such charisma that it actually feels natural. This actor alone was carrying the movie!

I would also say the first half of this movie was very engaging. The cat and mouse games as he plans ways of escaping was such of the most enjoyable moments. There were some very tension-filled scenes that definitely kept me on the edge of my seat as you felt like he was on the verge of getting caught. Shyamalan also continues to give great cinematic shots with some terrific cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom with his use of lighting in the concert.

However, the second half of this movie takes a huge nosedive in quality. The movie starts to lose a lot of its charm and starts to become insanely stupid. Characters start doing things that no humans would ever do. Things start happening that would make no sense when you think about it logically. All the tension-filled and fun is just completely gone in the second half and the movie just isn’t enjoyable anymore.

I was also annoyed by the blatant nepotism from the director. His daughter, Saleka Night Shyamalan, plays the singer in this film and she is given way too much screen time. There are so many scenes where it is just her singing for 2 minutes straight and just padding the movie for no reason. This would be mildly acceptable but then he starts giving her a bigger role in the second half and she just isn’t a great actress. The movie has some pacing issues with scenes dragging too long and it definitely overstays its welcome in the final act. Could easily cut this movie by 10 minutes.

Overall, it is an improvement over his previous film Knock at the Cabin (2023) but again, not by much. I still appreciate him as one of the few directors who still deliver original and unique movies. However, he needs to execute these better because Trap (2024) continues to be another dud from him.

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