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Join Telegram ChannelA concert, 20,000 people in the hall and in the middle a serial killer hunted by the police. A brilliant concept that unfortunately doesn't live up to its promises.
Returning somewhat in spite of himself to modest budgets since 2015 and the very scary The VisitM. Night Shyamalan chains together “small” films with the ardor of a craftsman never satisfied with his creations. Regulated like clockwork, at the rate of a feature film every two years (Split, Glass, old or more recently Knock at the Cabin), so here he is back with Trapa B-movie with an absolutely unstoppable concept: Cooper (Josh Hartnett), a seemingly decent family man, is in fact a serial killer known as “The Butcher”. While accompanying his daughter to a concert by a famous pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan, the eldest of the director's descendants, better at singing than acting), he understands that the police have set a trap for him and that officers posted at each exit will search anyone matching his description…
An eminently sexy idea – what thriller fan wouldn't want to see that? – that Shyamalan unfortunately struggles to transform into a cinematic object. We've known the Philadelphian to be more inspired in terms of staging (visual suspense close to zero; no camera angle to make us believe that 20,000 people are in this room), but the problems stem mainly from a poorly put together screenplay, which pushes the suspension of disbelief to its limits.
First or second degree?
Every step Cooper has to take in an attempt to sneak out is handed to him on a plate by a stroke of luck (” You wouldn't want to go backstage, by any chance? “), or a secondary character who is a little too talkative (the t-shirt salesman details the police plan after two questions; the FBI profiler gives crucial information in real time…). The script's not very solid seams are constantly exposed in broad daylight (a concert with two intermissions???) and a feeling of artificiality infiltrates Trap from the first 20 minutes, to the point where we no longer really know whether Shyamalan is speaking in the first or second degree. The improbable third act, which buries the promise of the closed-door setting, only holds up – more or less – thanks to the impeccable performance of Josh Hartnett, finally allowed to let his character's contained madness burst forth.
” If all goes well, you should have a blast from start to finish. “, the director told us in an interview in the summer issue of FirstSuddenly, a doubt sets in: have we missed the comedy of the year?
Trapby M. Night Shyamalan. With Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan… Duration: 1 h 45.