By Nick Nitkowski

M. Night Shyamalan has really made a reputation for himself over the years. Catapulting his career in the film industry with “The Sixth Sense” and keeping up that momentum with movies like “Unbreakable” and “Signs.” But suddenly, the quality of his films started to decline. For me personally, it started with “The Village” and while I know there are people that liked it, I was not one of them. The trajectory of his declining quality continued a downward spiral with “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening” and eventually hit rock bottom with “The Last Airbender” and “After Earth.” He did make a slight come back with “Split” but then dropped the ball hard with “Glass.” His movies after that like “Old” and “Knock at the Cabin” to me were below average at best and I was not a fan of “The Visit.” Looking back at his career and seeing more rotten scores than fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, for me personally, M. Night Shyamalan’s name has become the official stamp of damnation for a film.

But now M. Night Shyamalan has a new film in theaters now called “Trap” about a dad named Cooper, who is secretly a serial killer, taking his daughter to a concert of her favorite artist, but as he enjoys this time with his daughter, he soon discovers that the concert is actually a trap to capture him. So, now he must discreetly find a way out of the event while avoiding any suspicions from his daughter and capture from the police surrounding the venue. After seeing the trailer, I thought it sounded like an interesting enough premise so I figured I’d give this one a chance despite the reputation of M. Night Shyamalan. So, is “Trap” a much-needed return to form for M. Night Shyamalan? Or is it another stain on his record?

I can honestly say that this is one of M. Night Shyamalan’s better films in recent years. However, having said that, it is still a far cry from his greatest hits. The absolute best thing about this movie is Josh Harnett as the serial killer dad. He absolutely carries this movie on his shoulder. His sneakiness throughout the film and his line deliveries worked a lot for this movie. In almost every M. Night Shyamalan movie has actors delivering line in such an odd way that can only be described as unnatural and this movie is no exception, but since most of it is coming from the dad trying to maintain his image as a good Samaritan, it strangely makes sense in this movie.

M. Night Shyamalan also cast his daughter Salek Shyamalan as the star attraction of the concert as singer Lady Raven, which sounds like a comic book character but it’s better than naming a character Mid-sized Sedan or Cypher Raige, and I thought that she was fine as the singer of the movie showing up on screen every once and a while, but then she ends up playing a larger role in the film and she just wasn’t that convincing to me with her acting performance, I’m sorry to say. There is also a merch salesman in the film, played by Jonathan Langdon, who provided most of the comedy of the film and it worked. He got a lot of laughs out of me. The only other notable performance is from Cooper’s daughter Riley played by Ariel Donoghue. All she really had to do was be a super fan of Lady Raven, and I’d say she convincingly portrayed that in this film.

The first half or so of this movie was actually very interesting. I really enjoyed seeing this person going through ways to find a way out of the venue without getting caught while also maintaining secrecy from his daughter and others. But unfortunately, it got to a point where the movie felt like it was going on a bit too long. This film could have been a solid hour and a half long film, but as it stands, it’s about 15 minutes too long. The ending itself felt very longwinded and just wasn’t as interesting as the first half of the movie. There is also no major infamous Shyamalan twist in this one.

Overall, “Trap” was a decent movie. It’s not the best from M. Night Shyamalan, but it is certainly not one of his worst films. I would say that “Trap” is passable. I didn’t really have high expectations for this film so it wasn’t possible to disappoint me. I do feel if the last half of the movie was trimmed down a bit or possibly re-worked a little bit, it could have been a much better movie. As it stands now, it’s just fine. Not exactly a return to form, unless that form is now mediocrity at best. I still hope that one day M. Night Shyamalan will make something that’ll blow me away like his earlier works did, but I’ll take any little bit of positive he can provide and this was one of them. So, if this was a movie you were planning on seeing this weekend, I can say that at least you won’t feel Trapped watching it.

3/ 5