Trap is about a father and daughter who go to a concert which is used as a setup to catch a killer. The film stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Alison Pill, Haley Mills, and Jonathan Langdon.

I thought Trap was decent. I was looking forward to seeing Trap when I saw the trailer for it. I was not disappointed, but I was not wowed either. I have not seen many of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies. I have only seen a few with mixed results. I did not care for Signs when I saw it. I was also a lot younger then. I thought it was boring. I enjoyed The Village, but I did not understand the twist. I was a teenager then. My mom had to explain the twist to me. I saw Lady in the Water and I don’t really remember my feelings on it. I saw the Las Airbender which I thought was good for what it was at the time. Trap is supposed to be a horror/thriller, and I was not really on the edge of my seat that much. It seemed a little bit too straight forward. M. Night Shyamalan has built a reputation for twist endings and twists in general. Trap did not really have many twists or game changing moments. The main twist is given away from the beginning, and it is also stated in the trailers. The whole premise of the movie is about Josh Hartnett’s character who is revealed early on to be the serial killer the Butcher. That is not really a spoiler since it’s in the trailers. The movie plays fairly straight forward after that reveal early on.

Josh Hartnett does a great job as Cooper who is a father and the Butcher. A big strong point of the film is the relationship between Cooper and his teenage daughter Riley played by Ariel Donoghue. Both characters have good chemistry. Another standout is Saleka Shyamalan, the daughter of M. Night Shyamalan, who plays singer Lady Raven. Another strong point of the movie is the music. The plot centers around Lady Raven’s concert. I thought that was a cool device used for the film. It was different.

The movie is a little under two hours. It is a good length. It doesn’t really drag. It is not necessarily as fast paced as I would have thought. I was expecting it to be a heart pounding experience, which it was not. Given the premise of the movie, the film felt fairly tame. There was not much character development either. There was a good dynamic between father and daughter but there was not much else.

Trap is a decent movie and doesn’t run too long. Josh Hartnett does a great job as does Saleka Shyamalan. The music really helped elevate the movie as well and it felt like being at a concert. The downside is that Trap does not really fit the genre it is marketed as. There were not many scares or thrills to categorize it as a horror or thriller.