Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
A father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they're at the center of a dark and sinister event.
Trap has a genuinely fun high-concept premise — a serial killer attending a pop concert that is secretly a sting operation to catch him — but M. Night Shyamalan's execution fumbles the landing. The first two acts cleverly milk the tension of the killer's perspective trapped among oblivious fans, but the plot logic frays badly in the third act, with increasingly absurd contrivances undermining credibility. Josh Hartnett commits fully to the charming-yet-sinister father role and carries the film on his shoulders, delivering a stronger performance than the material deserves. Cinematography is competent and makes decent use of the concert spectacle but nothing visually distinctive. The concept is novel enough — inverting the slasher formula by centering the killer as the hunted protagonist — but Shyamalan's familiar fingerprints keep it from feeling truly singular. The ending collapses into messy, unearned chaos that squanders the taut setup, feeling rushed and illogical even by the film's own internal rules.