M. Night Shyamalan seems like a nice dad.

Plot: In M. Night Shyamalan's latest outing, everyone in a large city is in a frenzy. Why? That's because they're up and ready to watch a concert performed by famous pop star Lady Raven. Two of her fans, a man named Cooper and his daughter Riley, attend the concert with high spirits, but things slowly begin to change their tune. Amongst the screams of adoration and sounds of applause, the concert itself has a hidden identity: a front to fish out an infamous serial killer known as The Butcher. With security cameras rigged, armies of policemen with weapons at the ready, and police vehicles surrounding the venue, will anyone survive their concert experience or is there more to The Butcher than meets the eye?

I bloody love M. Night Shyamalan! As a director that is, not as a person as I’ve never met the guy. He could be a real stuck snob for all I know. But as a creative voice in the movie industry I absolutely adore him, as this is someone who to this day has not let the Hollywood machine change or mould him and has stayed true to himself and his style of art form. Granted he does make a lot of crap, from the fascinating beach-that-turns-you-old concept stuck in a goofy and stupidly executed Old to The Happening where he somehow managed to make a tree be the ominous bad guy. And even then I cannot hate the guy as he’s evidently so batshit crazy that I have no choice but to love it. As even at his worst he still manages to come with such unique and outrageous concepts, and of course is also well known for his ridiculous third act plot twists, so even his worst film can still offer some level of entertainment. Except for After Earth. F*** that movie and also f*** Jaeden Smith ya tosser!! Mind you, I’ve never seen After Earth.

Trap is so silly. Like on every level, from each scene featuring a thousands plot-holes, characters talking like unreal people as if they are in some alien reality, random crap occurring for the sake of it…. It’s all absolutely absurd. Josh Hartnett is the glue that holds it all together, as his unhinged performance of a psychopath trying his best to act like a happy fun loving guy only to seem even more like a serial killer was truly hilarious. Also, I found myself kind of rooting for the serial killer? Like what kind of weird Dexter crap is this, Shyamalamadingdong?? I’ve been Stockholm syndromed into liking the bad guy! But anyway, Hartnett is a hoot and honestly he needs to be in more films! Saleka as the pop singer is alright. Her songs aren’t that great nor is her acting, though I do find it super endearing that Shyamalan made this entire film just to give his daughter her big ‘Eras Tour’ concert moment break and to boost her music career. What a sweet papa.

This movie very much is reliant on how willing you are to suspend your sense of disbelief, and on what level are you able to stick with Shyamalan’s shenanigans. This isn’t a particularly good movie, nor is it a bad one, but it’s extremely entertaining from beginning to end, even if the ending does get a little too off the rails. That being said one aspect that was actually phenomenal was the cinematography by Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who’s a frequent collaborator of Luca Guadagnino’s. There are so many ludicrously delicious frames here, and I admired how each conversation was shot, as tight and intimate as possible while capturing every foolish and panic-induced character response.

Also shout out to Kid Cudi who rocks up for less than 5 minutes of screen time to drop the mic, eye-fuck Josh Hartnett for no other reason other than it’s Josh Hartnett and then drop the best line of the whole damn movie - “I specifically said I wanted honeysuckle sour kombucha, bitch!!”

Overall score: 6/10