'TRAP' : Tuesday 6th August 2024.

I saw the M Rated 'TRAP' this week, and this American psychological thriller film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan who made his breakthrough with 'The Sixth Sense' in 1999 and which he would follow up with the likes of 'Unbreakable' in 2000, 'The Village' in 2004, 'The Visit' in 2015, 'Split' in 2016, 'Glass' in 2019, 'Old' in 2021 and 'Knock at the Cabin' in 2023. This film cost US$30M to produce, has so far grossed US$25M and has generated mixed or average reviews since its release in the US and here in Australia last week. 

The film centres on a serial killer Cooper Adams, dubbed 'The Butcher' (Josh Hartnett) who attends a Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) concert with his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue). Arriving in plenty of time before the concert gets underway, Cooper observes a large Police presence at the stadium and asks a merchandise vendor Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) the reason for the higher than normal Police activity. Jamie tells Cooper that the FBI plans to catch a serial killer known as 'the Butcher', having learned that he will be in attendance, and Jamie asks Cooper not to divulge to anyone where he got his information from as it's a closely guarded secret. 

Cooper excuses himself from Riley to visit the toilet where it is revealed that he is the Butcher while secretly checking footage on his phone of his latest captive victim, Spencer (Mark Bacolcol), chained to a pole in a basement somewhere. He steals Jamie's employee ID passcard and learns the supposed secret codeword, Hamilton, that will identify him as an employee, using the card to gain access to a back room where a Police briefing is taking place, and in the process stealing a Police radio.

Over the radio he listens in on a woman predicting his movements, so Cooper sets off a diversion in a food outlet and uses the ensuing chaos to access the roof, where he learns from a Police Officer that the manhunt is led by Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), an FBI profiler who has a successful track record in tracking down other criminals. 

Confused by Cooper's behaviour, Riley asks him to stay with her. She talks about being chosen as Lady Raven's 'Dreamer Girl', who gets to dance on stage with the singer and receives backstage access, which Cooper believes has the only exit not covered by the Police. Cooper lies to Lady Raven's uncle (M. Night Shyamalan) that Riley recently recovered from leukemia and therefore winning the sympathy vote and resulting in her being selected to be the 'Dreamer Girl'.

Following the end of the concert, Cooper observes that the Police are also guarding the backstage exit. In the privacy of Lady Raven's dressing room, he reveals himself as the Butcher to her, threatening to remotely kill Spencer if she does not escort him and Riley out in her limousine. She complies but asks to visit Riley's house, where she is met by Cooper's unsuspecting wife Rachel (Alison Pill) and Riley's younger brother Logan (Lochlan Miller). Lady Raven stalls for time by explaining the FBI operation to the family, unsettling Cooper by describing Grant's profile of him as someone with maternal issues and obsessive-compulsive disorder. She also explains that the Police discovered details about the Butcher's attendance at the concert via a torn ticket receipt left in a vacant house that was reported anonymously. 

Before leaving at the behest of Cooper, Lady Raven offers to sing one last song using the family piano, accompanied by Riley. Upon finishing the song, Lady Raven steals Cooper's phone and locks herself in the bathroom with Cooper frantically banging on the door demanding she gives his phone back. She gets scant details from Spencer, as he was blindfolded, about where he was taken and livestreams it to her fans, one of whom finds and rescues him. She outs Cooper to his wife, Rachel, and he locks his family upstairs while Lady Raven texts her driver to contact the Police. 

Cooper attempts to drive off with Lady Raven, but his family, having escaped their temporary captivity upstairs, distracts him long enough for her to escape. The Police arrive and Cooper exits the house through a secret tunnel leading to the neighbours property. He then disguises himself using a SWAT uniform and drives the limousine off with Lady Raven handcuffed to a railing inside the car. After he reveals his identity she unlocks the window, manages to break the railing free and draws a mob of fans to stop him so the FBI can catch up. Cooper meanwhile changes into a fresh set of civilian clothes and flees the scene.

Cooper returns home and confronts Rachel who confesses that she had suspected that he was the Butcher and was the one who left the receipt in the vacant house for the Police to find. Cooper decides to kill her and then himself, but Rachel persuades him to at least share some leftover pie made for Riley. After Cooper admits his hatred for Rachel in causing him to miss seeing his children grow up, he realises Rachel drugged the pie with crushed pills from his tool bag, leading him to hallucinate his mother expressing pride in him for feeling real emotion. The hallucination is actually Grant, impersonating Cooper's mother to calm him down, and he is then tasered several times by SWAT officers as he walks up to her. As he is led away in hand cuffs, he stops to pick up Riley's bicycle on the lawn outside and stand it upright and shares a tearful embrace with her before being loaded into a Police van. As it drives away, Cooper retrieves a bicycle spoke from his sleeve that he secretly took when adjusting Riley's bike and unpicks the lock on his cuffs, laughing to himself.

'Trap' plays out over about six or seven hours from the point where Cooper and Riley jump out of their car having parked up very conveniently close to the concert venue to the point post gig where he is arrested, cuffed and carted off in the back of a Police van later that night. Right from the first ten minutes or so we know that Cooper is 'The Butcher' and that there is a covert Police sting operation afoot to ensnare him, so from this point forward all bets are off, and instead Director and Writer Shyamalan opts for a more traditional cat and mouse game, while sacrificing his trademark twist at the back end. Hartnett is well cast as the mild mannered yet fractured family man harbouring a deadly double life, but the rest of the cast are largely one-dimensional. Make no mistake this is a concert film in which M. Night allows his singer-songwriter daughter Saleka to perform centre stage, write the songs and also score her first screen acting role, all wrapped up in a thriller that in reality is thin on thrills and spills. You can easily forego the price of your cinema ticket and wait for 'Trap' to come out on your local streaming service.

'Trap' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.