Movie Review

Josh Hartnett navigates odd role in M. Night Shyamalan thriller Trap

Josh Hartnett in Trap.

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

Writer/director M. Night Shymalan has been a big presence in movies for 25 years since the debut of his 1999 breakout film, The Sixth Sense. In 2024, he is doing everything in his power to pass his film legacy down to his daughters, first by producing The Watchers, the directorial debut of his daughter Ishana, and now by putting another daughter, Saleka, at the heart of his latest directing effort, Trap.

The thriller follows Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his daughter, Riley (Ariel Donoghue), as they attend a concert by her favorite singer, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). While Riley is enthralled with the whole experience of being in the presence of Lady Raven, Cooper can’t help noticing a police presence that is larger than normal. Buddying up to a friendly vendor named Jamie (Jonathan Langdon), he discovers that the police have used the concert as a trap for a notorious serial killer nicknamed “The Butcher.”

It’s only a small spoiler (it’s featured prominently in the trailer) that Cooper is revealed early in the film to be said killer, and he spends the majority of the film trying to figure out how to escape the dragnet the police, led by profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), have planned out. His schemes get increasingly desperate, with seemingly no chance to get out without putting his daughter and others in danger.

The film is a change for Shyamalan, who typically likes to build up to a big twist toward the end of his stories. Here, the “twist” comes so early that it can’t even be considered one. Instead, it forces the audience into an odd experience of watching a lead character who has the dichotomy between being a great father to his daughter and a monster who kidnaps and kills people. Shyamalan shows both sides of Cooper throughout the film, putting him in Jekyll and Hyde mode constantly.

The story as a whole is hit-and-miss, with Cooper’s machinations being the most engaging part of the film. Some of the situations do start to get silly, especially after he nabs a police radio and starts listening to Dr. Grant lay out loads of exposition for the audience. The script is also sketchy, with Cooper engaging with a series of people in conversations that are often inane in nature, and lots of “just go with it” kinds of plot devices.

There has been much talk about “nepo babies” in pop culture in recent years, but this film might take the cake in that respect. It’d be one thing for Shyamalan to give Saleka, a budding singer in the real world, the honor of playing the massively adored Lady Raven and showcasing her songs/singing ability. But she also plays a key acting role in the second half of the film, and suffice it to say that she’s not quite ready for prime time in that area.

Hartnett is enjoying a career resurgence, with a big part in last year’s Oppenheimer and a cameo on season 3 of FX’s The Bear. His portrayal of Cooper strains believability at times, but he ends up on the positive side of the ledger when all is said and done. Donoghue doesn’t have much to do other than cheer for Lady Raven and wonder why her dad keeps disappearing in the middle of the concert, but she does well overall. The aging Mills is saddled with a raspy voice and clunky dialogue.

Trap is far from the best film that M. Night Shyamalan has released, but it’s also not an unmitigated disaster. It’s a decent thriller that could have used a bit more thrills, and a psychological trip into the mind of a man who has to fight to keep his opposing worlds separate.

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Trap is now playing in theaters.

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Movie Review

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first but not by much

Blumhouse

Five Nights at Freddy's 2

Blumhouse Productions first made their name with the Paranormal Activity series, establishing themselves as a leader in the horror genre thanks to their relatively cheap yet effective movies. In recent years, they’ve added on “soft” horror films likeM3GAN and Five Nights at Freddy’s to draw in a younger audience, with both films becoming so successful that each was quickly given a sequel.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 finds Mike (Josh Hutcherson) and his sister Abby (Piper Rubio) still recovering from the events of the first film, with Abby particularly missing her “friends.” Those friends just so happen to be the souls of murdered children who inhabit animatronic characters at the long-defunct Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, children who were abducted and killed by William Afton (Matthew Lillard).

A new threat emerges at another Freddy Fazbear’s location in the form of Charlotte, another murdered child who inhabits a creepy large marionette. Mike, distracted by a possible romance with Vanessa (Elizabeth Lail), fails to keep track of Abby, who makes her way to the old pizzeria and inadvertently unleashes Charlotte and her minions on the surrounding town.

Directed by Emma Tammi and written by Scott Cawthon (who also created the video game on which the series is based), the film tries to mix together goofy elements with intense scenes. One particular sequence, in which the security guard for Freddy Fazbear’s lets a group of ghost hunters onto the property, toes the line between soft and hard horror. That and a few others show the potential that the filmmakers had if they had stuck to their guns.

Unfortunately, more often than not they either soft-pedal things that would normally be horrific, or can’t figure out how to properly stage scenes. The sight of animatronic robots wreaking havoc is one that is simultaneously frightening and laughable, and the filmmakers never seem to find the right balance in tone. Every step in the direction of making a truly scary horror film is undercut by another in which the robots fail to live up to their promise.

It doesn’t help that Cawthon gives the cast some extremely wooden dialogue, lines that none of the actors can elevate. What may work in a video game format comes off as stilted when said by actors in a live-action film. The story also loses momentum quickly after the first half hour or so, with Cawthon seemingly content to just have characters move from place to place with no sense of connection between any of the scenes.

Hutcherson (The Hunger Games series), after being the true lead of the first film, is given very little to do in this film, and his effort is equal to his character’s arc. The same goes for Lail, whose character seems to be shoehorned into the story. Rubio is called upon to carry the load for a lot of the movie, and the teenager is not quite up to the task. A brief appearance by Skeet Ulrich seems to be a blatant appeal to Scream fans, but he and Lillard only underscore how limited this film is compared to that franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 is better than the first film, but not by much. The filmmakers do a decent job of making the new marionette character into a great villain, but they fail to capitalize on its inherent creepiness. Instead, they fall back on less effective elements, ensuring that the film will be forgettable for anyone other than hardcore Freddy fans.

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Five Nights at Freddy's 2 opens in theaters on December 5.

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