Directed and written by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense (1999); Signs (2002); The Village (2004); Old (2021)) and starring Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down (2001); Oppenheimer (2923); Lucky Number Slevin (2006)), Ariel Donoghue (Blueback (2022); Wolf Like Me (tv series, 2022-2023)), Saleka Shyamalan (in her firt feature role) and Hayley Mills (The Parent Trap (1961); Polyanna (1960); Arthur's Whisky (2024)).

Psychological Thriller; 105 mins; 12+

The last outing by M. Night Shyamalan who delves between horror and thriller; while TRAP is certainly not in the latter genre, it is certainly tense throughout: set almost exclusively at a massive stadium music concert, it portrays the inner workings of a mind up against the odds and how they can find a way out of their predicament.

Cooper (Josh Hartnett) brings his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a pop concert by her idol Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan); while on the one hand they start to have quality father-daughter time together, he starts to become suspicious as to the number of police and security at the venue, as well as the sheet volume of additional security cameras.

It turns out that the police suspect that an infamous serial killer "The Butcher" is expected to be attending the event and, under the eye of profiler Dr. Josephine Grant (Hayley Mills), they have every exit covered. Even the staff are sworn to secrecy and have special access cards and passwords.

Cooper becomes agitated and the audience is led to believe that he may be The Butcher; however, there are multiple questions that appear to be overlooked: why would the killer be attending the concert? Why would the police suspect that the killer would be there? Surely there would be a way out somewhere from the massive venue...

While the venue may be large, there are tens of thousands of people attending, with many teenage girls (in particular) near hysterical seeing their idol on stage. So the atmosphere is oppressive, and the desire of Cooper to find a way out intensifies as each opportunity is closed off - but maybe there is there more to The Butcher than meets the eye...

Very entertaining and one of the director's better offerings of the last few years; currently screening in Luxembourg at Kinepolis and CiNextDoor.