Trap is a preposterous movie. It isn’t terrible, but it cannot be taken seriously at all. I only knew of its
existence because it was featured on How Did This Get Made & The Flop House. I figured I had to watch it so I’d be able to listen to those episodes of my favorite podcasts.
As I write this Trap is available to stream on Max. It is written and directed by M. Knight Shyamalan. It stars Josh Hartnett and Shyamalan’s daughter (Saleka Shyamalan). Shamalan’s daughter is trying to launch a singing career, and that is the only explanation I can think of for why this movie was conceived and created.
The premise of the movie is that there is a concert of an artist that teen girls love. We are following a father & daughter who are attending this concert as a reward for her good grades. There are police everywhere and we quickly find out the concert is a trap set for a serial killer the police knew would be attending… and that serial killer is the sweet father we have been following.
There are a lot of plot inconsistencies and silliness in this movie. At times it is enjoyable, at others it is cringe-inducing.
I got interested in this movie from the beginning. Even though the concert trap was a ridiculous idea from the jump, I enjoyed watching this guy try to figure out how he was going to escape. The first half was totally watchable. The second half was real dumb. While Josh Hartnett stuck it out to the bitter end, the 2nd half of the movie prominently features Saleka Shyamalan, and she is real bad at acting out her father’s idiotic plot.
The movie also stars Hayley Mills in the role of FBI profiler who conveniently provides exposition over the walkie-talkies for most of the movie. Haley Mills famously played the twins in the movie “Parent Trap”, which I have to assume is a joke. This movie is about a parent who is trapped. It is all very dumb.
This is a bad movie, but it is entertaining. I wasn’t bored. It is the type of film you watch with a group of friends and make fun of.
Filed Under: Film