With Trap, M. Night Shyamalan confirms his usual strengths and weaknesses in this new concept film starring Josh Hartnett.

Over the past decade, M. Night Shyamalan has proven to Hollywood (and himself) that his ideal playground is mid-budget thriller/horror films. However, while Shyamalan continues to maintain a steady rhythm of one film every two years, the quality of his films tends to vary.
Taking his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), to his favorite artist’s concert, Cooper (Josh Hartnett) quickly understands that the amount of police on hand isn’t just for security, but to come and get him.
The director may not have a recognizable technical style, but he certainly has one in terms of storytelling. Trap is no exception to the rule, and conforms to the film’s mysterious concept. Led by Josh Hartnett, the film proves Shyamalan’s strengths and weaknesses.
First and foremost, it’s a pleasure to see Josh Hartnett in such a role, given how effective he is. Oscillating between lambda father and sociopathic killer, Harnet is remarkably effective at showing both sides of his character to the camera and the viewer. His performance is aided by Shyamalan’s ingenious ideas for intensifying his character. Through discussions with camera gazes, close-ups of the face or static shots of his gaze, the director uses every tool in his bag to sell us his character.

While Shyamalan succeeds in selling us on his character, this is less the case for his script. Plagued by revealing dialogue and facile plot devices, the script lacks finesse at times and becomes predictable. Key phrases are uttered far too easily, and Cooper’s intentions are announced far too far in advance. In fact, Trap sometimes forgets what it set up with characters or narrative backgrounds earlier on. What’s more, we’d like to know more about our character, beyond a few narrative interactions.
Nevertheless, Trap is full of visual ideas to keep our attention, from tight tracking shots to skip diopter focus, Shyamalan makes the most of his main set and his camera to keep the location interesting and make us feel that the noose is tightening around our character. But once again, the director can be criticized for showing too much and not being able to restrain himself from revealing an important element.
Trap confirms our expectations of a modern Shyamalan. The concept is catchy, the cast is good and the direction is always top-notch. But the director’s writing is once again what prevents the film from working to its full potential. Fortunately for Shyamalan, Josh Harnett is able to draw enough from his character to carry the narrative despite its flaws.