Skip to content
Trap takes place at a huge stadium arena for a concert where Lady Raven (Saleka Night Shyamalan, daughter of the director, although she does give a decent performance, so isn’t just a ‘nepo baby‘, as Gen Z would say) is performing, an artist who clearly has the following that echoes what Taylor Swift would witness on a daily basis.
The premise is that, as described in the trailer from his encounter with merch vendor Jamie (Jonathan Langdon), the concert is one big trap to catch a serial killer known as The Butcher. It’s no secret that this person is Cooper, because the fun comes in watching how he goes about his derring-do, wondering whether or not he’ll be captured.
This is also confirmed within minutes, since once Josh and daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) drive into the arena car park – getting a surprisingly close space to the front when the place is completely rammed – and he uses his phone in the toilets to check in on something particular.
It’s also quite a timely film, given how Swift’s concerts were cancelled in Vienna, for potential terrorism reasons, so to continue a concert as shown here, would be deeply irresponsible in reality.
Trap is a very twisty-turny movie, which also throws in a few moments which make him act more like Agent 47 in the Hitman series, than either the 2007 Timothy Olyphant film, or 2015 Hitman: Agent 47 managed, such as posing as a cook in the fast-food stand, putting something explosive in the fryer, leading to one of the staff members copping for the end result.
Another involves him pushing a woman down the stairs, causing significant injury, but it’s a bit of a stupid scene, given that there’s so many people about (and CCTV), that no way would he get away with that! Okay, so he’s a serial killer and they can be a bit psycho, but at least Dexter wouldn’t be so reckless, especially with the amount of police and security on view for this concert.
In fact, when it comes to Raven’s pop star boyfriend, The Thinker (Scott Mescudi – Don’t Look Up), he’s such an arsehole with his demands, that he would definitely be next on Agent 47’s hitlist!
Hartnett does a great job of being stealthy, but any success Cooper has does depends upon an awful lot of luck. Plus, if he’s a fireman as he claims, how come his family still uses a kettle that only works with a stove? Plus, they’re more likely to cause an accident – something a fireman wouldn’t want.
Director M Night Shyamalan often gives himself a cameo, and he also does here as a member of the backstage staff, but I’ll leave you to discover that. However, when it comes to the actual concert in this film, it doesn’t half go on.
I understand he also wanted to film Trap in a 4:3 ratio to make the frame even tighter, but while some directors like to be arty-farty, it’s 2024. Just shoot in either 1.85:1 or 2.39:1. If you go for something else, it really fucks with how it’ll look in the cinema, especially those that shoot with a 2.00:1 ratio, which fits neither, and since the cinemas never manually adjust their screens, you end up with the film ‘floating’ in the middle of the screen, with black bars all around it. FFS!
Additionally, the great Hayley Mills also pops up as Dr. Josephine Grant, who follows the cops about.
There’s also a mid-credits scene, as I get into in the video below.
Trap is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 105 minutes
Release date: August 9th 2024
Studio: Warner Bros
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Super 35)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: M Night Shyamalan
Producers: Marc Bienstock, Ashwin Rajan, M Night Shyamalan
Screenplay: M Night Shyamalan
Music: HerdÃs Stefánsdóttir
Cast:
Cooper: Josh Hartnett
Riley: Ariel Donoghue
Lady Raven: Saleka Night Shyamalan
Rachel: Alison Pill
Dr. Josephine Grant: Hayley Mills
Jamie: Jonathan Langdon
Spencer: Mark Bacolcol
Jody’s Mom: Marnie McPhail-Diamond
The Thinker: Scott Mescudi (aka Kid Cudi)
Parker Wayne: Russell ‘Russ’ Vitale
Cooper’s Mother: Marcia Bennett
Spotter: M Night Shyamalan
The Thinker’s Assistant: Hailey Summer
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.