M. Night Shayamalan’s Trap, the taut thriller playing in cinemas worldwide, starts with an unconventional premise — and likely an unconventional trailer that pulled one into the theatres: a concert of a female pop star (Lady Raven, played by Saleka Shyamalan, the director’s eldest daughter), turns out to be a ruse by the FBI to capture ‘The Butcher’, a psychopath killer who is likely one of those everyday men that pass you on the streets.

This man, in the screenplay also penned by Shyamalan, is Cooper Adams (Josh Hartnett) — a dad who loves his daughter dearly. When the film opens, they’re in the concert — unlike other films or stories, there is no lead-up: the action starts in the thick of it.

Soon, as shown in the trailer, the premise starts ramping up. As the concert begins, Cooper devises escape plans on the fly; at times, they’re dead simple, and Cooper’s unassuming good-guy persona — an excellent showcase for Hartnett’s acting abilities — makes him near invisible, even when the many law enforcement and security personnel meet him face to face.

Shyamalan was once known for his twist endings and fast-paced screenplays with short running time — his films clock in between 90 and 106 minutes on average; the longest is Glass with 130 minutes. The rapid pace makes one more forgiving for the slip-ups, which he smartly swipes under the rug, or explains away in compact expositions.

M. Night Shayamalan’s Trap is a clean, tightly woven thrill ride

Shayamalan’s choices on where to place the camera has also gotten more interesting, and obvious, of late. Placing the actor near centre-frame on a close-up, looking directly at the viewer, the characters appear to be looking the audience dead-in-the-eye, creating an invisible but tangible connection. These are sharp filmmaking tactics that suit his writing and direction, even if at times one can see that the predicaments are too simple in designs and the solutions are concocted for convenience (again, as far as screenwriting goes that’s not really a bad thing).

Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue (playing the role of his daughter), Allison Pill (the wife), Saleka (the pop diva) and Jonathan Langdon (a vendor) give fine performances — though, like James McAvoy from Split, the show is all about Hartnett, a good-bad man, who may not be that complicated (backstory-wise), but who nonetheless catches your attention in the way the best psychopaths in cinema history have.

Trap is released by HKC and Warner Bros, and is rated U. The film has no gore, blood, nudity, or sexual situations — the routine elements one stereotypically expects from thrillers about psychopaths. It is just a clean, tightly woven thrill ride

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 11th, 2024