Trap (2024)

Trap

• I admire M. Night Shyamalan in many ways, but mostly because of his ability to make an eerie setting and build suspense. In that sense, this movie is one of his best to me. For almost every second Josh Hartnett was on screen, I was stressed. Like I literally said a few sentences ago, Shyamalan is great at building suspense. For the whole concert part of the movie, I was constantly looking for things that Cooper could do to escape, and I loved watching everything unfold. However, once he actually left the concert, the movie kind of fell off. It felt like too much tried to get added and everything just kind of fell apart. Honestly, this movie would’ve been amazing if it was just a short film, maybe around 45 minutes long. That’s the perfect amount of time it needed to build the nervous feeling, have him escape, and end it there. That would’ve been so good. But, as stated, when Cooper leaves the concert, it feels so drawn out. The very ending was cool, but once the movie finished I just felt kind of meh. Nothing crazy, and it felt like a lot of other Shyamalan films. But this one had my heart beating quicker than others, which was great. Josh Hartnett carries, and I love how he’s able to go back and forth between nice and sinister so easily. Seeing Hayley Mills was also extremely awesome. She’s one of my favorite actresses ever, and not a lot of people know who she is. She’s so talented, even when she doesn’t have much screen time. The acting from the cast as a whole was alright, with some corny dialogue, but Hartnett is the guy. Overall, this movie was mediocre, and though the first half is really good, it starts to drown by the end. I’d probably watch it again at some point just to see if I change my mind, and I’d probably recommend it if you like somewhat decent thrillers.