Trap

In cinemas now

There are few directors whose films oscillate in quality quite as wildly as those of M. Night Shyamalan, which means that audiences can at least approach his latest release with an emotion bordering on curiosity.

Trap, inspired in part by a real-life sting operation, is centred on the FBI’s attempts to apprehend an elusive serial killer (Josh Hartnett) while he attends a pop concert with his teenage daughter (Ariel Donoghue). Sadly, the film’s loose-lipped marketing material means that viewers already know Hartnett is playing its antagonist, which means that an otherwise clever premise goes to waste, along with the possibility of another classic Shyamalan twist.

Instead, what we get from Trap is a thriller that is completely devoid of thrills, one that is weighed down by a nonsensical plot that feels like it was hastily written down on the back of a cigarette packet. Another problematic feature of the picture is that, despite his best efforts, the only thing frightening about Hartnett’s slayer is his cringeworthy attempts to bond with his equally lame child.

This is a shame as the way Shyamalan recreates the look and feel of a stadium show is mostly impressive, aside from the puzzling behaviour of its attendees, who spend most of the show perusing the concession stands. One of the reasons that the latter aspect of Trap works well is because of the committed performance delivered by Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka, who makes for a convincing pop star. While accusations of nepotism could be levelled at her casting, you can’t really argue with the end product, which sees her perform a set of catchy tunes and more than hold her own during the film’s otherwise leaden final act.

Indeed, you could argue that the soundtrack is the only thing good to come out of this dud, which surely ranks as one of the director’s worst-ever efforts.