M. Night Shyamalan is one of the most interesting figures in modern cinema, for good and for ill. The world has spilled enough ink about his rise and fall. We’re past all that now. Decades removed from his last universal success, Shyamalan’s output is now in a bizarre realm. Some view the overwhelming hate he received as a good reason to view his new work through a positive lens. Others prefer to continue piling on insults for fun. The truth about Trap doesn’t fit evenly into either perspective.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap Caught a Spot on HBO’s Top Ten
The premise of Trap is both hilarious and solid. Josh Hartnett stars as a devoted dad who brings his charming teen daughter to a sold-out concert. Turns out, the entire stadium-filling event is a honey pot. The cops are closing in outside because they know that one of the attendees is a serial killer called the Butcher. Mild spoilers for the premise, but the film wastes no time informing us that Hartnett is the murderer. M. Night Shyamalan is known for his twists, but the identity of the killer isn’t a reveal here. It’s a tense thriller in which Hartnett has to simultaneously evade capture and avoid ruining his reputation with his daughter. This is far from the first time Shyamalan has stumbled onto a stellar idea. It’s also not the first time he’s delivered a questionable execution.
So where does Trap sit in M. Night Shyamalan’s filmography? Around the same place most of his modern offerings do. It’s not anywhere near as good as The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, but it’s a thousand times better than The Happening or The Last Airbender. It’s the same perplexing middle ground everything he has made since 2015 falls into. Not unlike Sonic the Hedgehog, Shyamalan fans follow a cycle. When a new work of his comes out, people start to buzz with rumors of a “return to form” without a concrete vision of the term. When the film comes out, everyone celebrates the mixed reviews. Then, over time, we all agree that it wasn’t a “return” to anything. This is just what Shyamalan does now. How long before we can all agree to treat him like every other director?
I thought Trap was fine. I preferred Knock at the Cabin, at least until the borderline irresponsible ending. Shyamalan should blend in with his peers at this point, but he’s still awkwardly struggling against his half-intentional mythology. He has unique interests, weird likes and dislikes, and a perspective that makes his films unmistakably his. That’s equally true of Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, and Martin Scorsese, but they seem less anchored and more celebrated. Trap speaks for itself. Much like the film’s concert, the film’s audience will be shocked when they realize what’s going on.
