Thriller Max Serial Killer Secretly one of the best movies of the year

According to Jonathan Klotz
| Published 1 day ago

M. Night Shyamalan has been the butt of jokes since “I see dead people” became the hottest movie quote of 1999, but with his latest films, it’s clear the director is starting to laugh with the audience. Old a bit unclear if the humor was intentional or if it was just his over-stretched sense of style over substance, but this year Shyamalan made it clear he was in on the joke. Trap is outwardly a psychological thriller, but it also has a stylish language and a sense that everyone involved knows how stupid the movie is, and as a result, it’s one of Shyamalan’s best films.

Serial dad

He has just started his well-received tour OppenheimerJosh Hartnett stars as Cooper, a Philly firefighter who takes his daughter (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert by Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night), which turns out to be a trap to catch The Butcher, a notorious serial killer known for he left piles of body parts around town. It’s not a spoiler that Cooper is the Butcher, a revelation that in any other movie would be the third-act a turning point, but in Trapit’s the revelation of the first act, and the film is all the better for it.

Once Cooper realizes he is trapped inside the arena, Trap starts playing as a dark comedy version a The Flintstones episode where Fred has to be in two places at once and lie to Wilma (or for other 90s kids Boy meets the world episode where Cory and Shawn watch Vader in a wrestling match during Topanga’s party). Cooper, a dutiful dad, tries to keep his daughter happy while trying to break free in increasingly absurd ways, from sneaking onto the roof to pushing a woman down the stairs. The star push is exactly the moment when it is clear that finally M. Night Shyamalan winks at the camera.

Hayley Mills, star of the 1961 film A trap for parents (Get it? Cooper is a parent… trapped….), plays an FBI profiler who helps provide the most absurd moment of an already absurd film when Cooper gets his hands on a police radio. As Mills reaches for the fire alarm as a distraction, he explains how the Butcher will likely create a distraction by setting off the fire alarm. Thanks Trap I’m already making it clear that this isn’t a movie to be taken seriously, it’s a silly moment that works.

Nothing in this movie should work

I wish an actual trap sequence was triggered Trap was slightly longer, really only because Hartnett does an amazing job of slowly falling apart at the seams while trying to hold himself together for the sake of his daughter. That and when it ends, the movie focuses on Lady Raven and Cooper’s home life, which still has some wonderfully silly but wonderful moments, with the limo ride being the highlight for me because it’s Looney Tunes logic, but lacks the crazy absurd stakes of the concert. Just as the reveal of the killer would be the climax of another movie, the escape from the titular trap is just another moment in this movie and not the real ending.

The weakest part Trap is Saleka Night Shyamalan as Lady Raven, an amalgamation of Taylor Swift and Lady Gagabut that’s because she’s a musician first and this is her first acting role. With that in mind, she does a great job, and her seeming slightly out of place throughout the film helps the character work, but in any other film, her delivery would immediately pull you out of the story. Directed by her dad, the awkwardness, like Cooper’s absurdist humor, somehow works.

A unique experience

Trap is a film that has divided audiences and critics, with a 57 percent rotten rating Rotten tomatoes; this is a movie you will either love or hate. I really enjoyed it, mainly because of Josh Hartnett, who somehow elevates the script by chewing every bit of scenery in a way he couldn’t even do in a gothic horror. Penny Dreadful. No film in recent memory can match the manic energy, bizarre story choices and alien tone Trap, making it a unique viewing experience.

You can stream Trap today on Max.