#54: TRAP

STARRING: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Nigh Shyamalan, M. Night Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Alison Pill. Written directed and Night Raven's song written by M. Night Shyamalan. Budget £30 million. Running time 105 minutes.

This is the first M. Nigh Shyamalan movie I've enjoyed since 2016's Split, and only the third out of his 16 movies. All his films, up until this one, featured a high concept combined with a twist ending  and I found it deeply annoying, mainly because I always guessed the ending far too early, I guessed the twist in The Village, in the first 5 minutes. Night has a terrible habit of badly telegraphing key plot points, "Swing high", for example from Signs which I find deeply irritating. And if The Village with its terrible twist broke my spirit, then The Happening was the final nail in the coffin. 

He always seems like a director who loves himself way too much and whose belief in his own abilities far exceeds his actual reach. 

And so to Trap. I went in expecting to hate it, but damn it if it didn't win me over with its silly, over-the-top script featuring glaring plot contrivances that only exist to propel this ridiculous story and a fanatically committed Josh Hartnett.

Josh plays Cooper a fireman and family man with a wife and two loving kids who just so happens to be a fantastically high-functioned organised serial killer with 12 confirmed kills who goes under the soubriquet The Butcher. He's taking his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a Lady Raven concert at a nearby stadium. Who's Lady Raven, I hear you ask? Well she's only the biggest star in the pop firmament, in this universe anyway and played by Night's daughter Saleka Nigh Shyamalan. Anyway, once they're in the stadium, Cooper begins to realise that he's trapped as the entire weight of the law enforcement descends on the stadium sealing him inside, from every member of the police force to the National Guard, FBI, CIA and probably KGB, who all gather outside to catch him. And so far so the trailer. Desperately Cooper looks for a way out while trying to keep his daughter off the scent, but as the concert winds down Cooper finds himself running out of options, that is until an opportunity presents itself...

I've never been to a mega concert featuring a super star pop idol but according to this film, nobody spends any time inside watching the star, they're all outside in the corridor around the stadium buying snacks, hotdogs, drinks, merchandising, or using the toilet so Cooper can move around unseen by everyone. 

Luckily a serious of coincidences and lucky breaks enable our loveable serial killer, whose latest victim is chained up in a basement somewhere in the city, to gain a way of moving about with impunity and to listen in on the police band radio while the lead psycho profiler carefully details what they're going to do to catch him. Phew that's lucky! It's also lucky that everyone Cooper meets falls for his charm and inadvertently help him to plot his escape. 

While this carries on we're treated to an extended music video of M. Night's daughter's musical stylings featuring music and lyrics he composed. There's a lot of it as we're treated to a good 30 odd minutes of her performance. No shade on Saleka, she's actually rather good and plays an important part in the second half, but it's also in this half of the film where the plot devices kick in with a vengeance.

M. Night has this very annoying habit of getting his actors to talk directly into the lens which is deeply intrusive and bloody annoying. Josh is very game as the lead actor and carries the film on his very broad shoulders, but he also looks uncomfortable in the part of a loving father and his interactions with Riley boarder on very clumsy and artifical. He's far better in the second act as his escape plan rolls into action and his final confrontation with a family member is very powerful. It's in these later scenes that he comes to life as his true nature finally reveals himself.

With all of it's ridiculous contrivances, plot holes and shocking convenient co-incidences this was an unintentionally funny film that can only be taken as a dark comedy, seen as a serious thriller it's a farce, but from the armchair of parody this was an enjoyable and satisfying romp that amused me far more than it annoyed me and bereft of a trademarked M. NIght Shamalyan twist ending was far more entertaining that I was expecting. 

7/10