Last Updated on August 10, 2024 by
Trap is a 2024 Movie Directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills, and Alison Pill., with a runtime of 1h 45m and will be released on August 02, 2024.
The event, in this case, is a concert where a famous singer, Lady Raven, a pop diva (portrayed by Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka Shyamalan) similar to both Lady Gaga and Olivia Rodrigo. Her songs are upbeat and lively (Saleka Shyamalan composed these songs, and they are quite fine along with her dancing); her fans, which are mostly teenage girls, lip-sync to the songs and shriek at virtually every scene in a manner reminiscent of Beatlemania. One of those fans is Riley, played by Alison Donoughue, who is a middle school student attending the concert at Tanaka Arena along with her dad, Cooper, acted by Josh Hartnett. He wants to connect with her so he pretends to be the cool dad as he takes her to her desired concert. But he’s trying too hard. When he says things like ‘jelly’ instead of ‘jealous’, it is awkward.
And though he’s gotten them seats on the floor (in the 44th row), her friends or, rather, the cool girls who were friends with her last week until they didn’t have better seats. In the reality competition that is middle-class domesticity in the 21st century, that means Cooper has done his job just…fine. Hartnett, who always had that thing about him that screamed star, begins the show as an overzealously sweet man on a mission. At least, it does until Cooper goes for a bathroom break and pulls out his cell phone…to call up the victim he has confined in the basement of some suburban house. Not quite the film I expected to see. But yes, we’ve seen this movie too.
Warning: This is not a spoiler. It’s the very premise of “Trap. ” Cooper is a serial killer known as the Butcher. He has 12 victims, each of whom he has left cut up in pieces. The police have been on a manhunt looking for him for the past seven years. But now the authorities, headed by an experienced special agent from the FBI, played by the British actress Hayley Mills, have set the final ambush. They have realized that the Butcher is going to be at Lady Raven’s concert. And so they have enclosed Tanaka Arena with S. W. A. T. team members, and nobody is allowed to escape. 20000 people are going to the concert of which 3000 are adult male persons.
The authorities have various (conflicting) clues about the killer from surveillance footage (they’ve never seen what he looks like) and one possible clue: an animal tattoo. They know that the Butcher is at the concert. Their objective is to capture him. Right away, though, you may think: But how are they going to do that? Serial killers are masters at evading police. Is the FBI to interrogate each of the 3,000 men who attended the concert before they are released? That would take three days. Or is the profiler, with that sixth sense of hers, going to have the slightest clue who he is?
Cooper hears all of this from a T-shirt clerk at a merch counter, and as soon as he does, he plans to sneak out of the concert. Nevertheless, as he finds out, the only chance to do that is to get backstage. Occasionally, as Cooper goes through motions such as stealing a passkey, eavesdropping on a police pep talk, and arguing with the mother (Marnie McPhail) of one of his daughter’s flighty friends, we do as well, even though the whole thing is played in the Shyamalan Zone of the ridiculously surreal.
This is why we don’t mind imitating Josh Hartnett, a great actor, as a killer in the tradition of Joseph Cotton’s evil Uncle Charlie in Hitchcock’s “Shadow of a Doubt. ”But then, we get to a point, where Shyamalan, while writing the script (that is the main reason why Shyamalan the writer sacrifices Shyamalan the director) comes up with a twist that someone should definitely tell him is a terrible idea It involves Shyamalan himself. He’s the uncle of Lady Raven, whom Cooper encounters by chance in the middle of the show. This gimmick enables Cooper to lie about Riley having had leukemia, thereby having her chosen as the Dreamer Girl who dances onstage with Lady Raven. All of this happens…so that the film can get Cooper backstage!
When Cooper starts a secret conversation with Lady Raven in her dressing room, we are watching a movie that makes no sense at all. It is not that I am arguing that they could not have that meeting; it is just that he exposes himself to her as the killer. From that point on, whatever complicated scheme he devises, couldn’t she just… recognize him? I think that we are expected to sit up and say, “Aha! It is a ride! Roll with it!” But expecting an audience to roll with something so fundamentally preposterous is an affront to intelligence. More to the point: It is not entertaining.
The second half of “Trap” is one trap door of contrivance after another. The movie turns into a “study” of Cooper: His sneaking, his problems with Mommy, and his split personality. Yes, he is actually a butcher, but he also has a family and does care for his children. A movie like “The Boston Strangler” (1968) dealt with this kind of thing in a haunting way, but as the contrivances of “Trap” balloon into something almost grotesque in their borderline absurdity, the movie raises the question: How invested can we be in a high-concept serial killer whose emotions are no more believable than his escapes?
Trap 2024 Parents Guide Age Rating
Trap is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Rating (MPA) for some violent content and brief, strong language.
Violence & Gore: The movie plot revolves around Cooper, a psychopathic murderer who became known as the Butcher; he had 12 victims, and each of them was dismembered. There is no actual depiction of the killings; however, there are lots of descriptions and implications of such a process. There are scenes where Cooper calls his victim, who is held in a basement – this might be disturbing for children. The climax is a police action where SWAT teams surround a concert, which is a potentially scary situation for young people. Some scenes involve physical fights, spying on police plans, and some combative, aggressive scenes that may seem uncomfortable.
Profanity: The characters use quite a bit of mild to moderate language that would be appropriate for a PG-13 movie. The show uses slang terms such as ‘jelly’, which means jealous, and there could be occasional swearing when the characters are at their most angry.
Alcohol, Drugs, & Smoking: There is no special scene with alcohol, drugs, or smoking. However, it could be possible that there are short scenes depicting characters taking alcohol at the concert.
Sexual Content: There is no sex scene in the movie. It can contain minor romantic themes or themes that are PG-13 at best.
“Trap” is recommended for viewers over eighteen years old because of the high rating of violence, psychological thriller, and focus on the activities of a serial killer. Parents should know that there is violence and some disturbing scenes even though it isn’t very graphic. Some of these topics could be discussed in case the viewer is young but meets the age rating of the film.
