Trap

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap follows a father (Josh Harnett’s Cooper) as he and his young daughter (Ariel Donoghue’s Riley) discover sinister happenings during a pop star’s (Saleka Night Shyamalan’s Lady Raven) sold-out concert. It’s a compelling premise that is, at the outset, employed to engrossing and often impressively tense effect by Shyamalan, as the filmmaker, armed with his own screenplay, does a terrific job of initially exploiting the seemingly foolproof setup and enhancing it with a series of suspenseful set-pieces – with the compelling atmosphere heightened (and then some) by Hartnett’s completely captivating and convincing turn as the fascinating central character. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Trap‘s grip on the viewer is slowly-but-surely loosened by a progressively underwhelming and uninvolving second half, and there’s little doubt, certainly, that the film’s downward spiral stems mostly from Saleka Night Shyamalan’s increased presence and completely inept performance – with, in addition, M. Night Shyamalan’s decision to move the proceedings out of the aforementioned concert proving utterly disastrous. By the time the padded-out and hopelessly anticlimactic final stretch rolls around, Trap has cemented its place as a thoroughly disheartening missed opportunity that stands as Shyamalan’s least effective endeavor since 2013’s After Earth.

** out of ****