Is Trap good or bad? Reviews for M Night Shyamalan’s twisty new movie are in – what the critics are saying

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

The reviews are in for M Night Shyamalan’s mysterious new film Trap.

Months after Shyamalan fans went wild for the film’s enigmatic trailer, the director has released his latest movie, which was shrouded in even more mystery when it was revealed it would not be screened for critics ahead of being released in the US.

Trap follows a father and his teenage daughter’s night out at a concert, where the dad, portrayed by Josh Hartnett, learns that the entire event has been set up in a bid to catch a known serial killer.

However, unbeknownst to his teenage daughter, portrayed by Ariel Donoghue, the serial killer in question is her father.

Considering Shyamalan’s films, including The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs, are famous for their twists and turns, it appeared inevitable there would be a lot more to the plot than meets the eye – and reviews for the film confirm this to be the case.

But the reviews are not too enthusiastic about the overall film, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “a moderately entertaining thriller” and Variety stating that each of the film’s many twists is “more contrived than the last”.

The outlet added: “Asking an audience to go with something that is this fundamentally farfetched borders on an insult. More to the point: It’s not fun.”

Collider says the film showcases “glimpses of [Shyamalan’s] former brilliance but ultimately falters with awkward choices and laughable moments.”

In a more positive review, The Wrap said that, while the film “doesn’t have the depth of Shyamalan’s most important films or the theatricality of his most memorably weird experiments” it is “one of his best thrillers”.

The Daily Beast praised Hartnett’s performance, writing: “As a pulpy game of cat-and-mouse, however, it provides enough thrills to compensate for its illogicalities, and in Josh Harnett, it boasts a star adept at locating the fiendishness in fatherhood.”

At the time of writing, after 30 reviews, the film has a score of 50 per cent on review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

Trap is out in the US now, but will be released in the UK on 9 August.

Shyamalan’s most recent film was Knock at the Cabin, which he released in 2023.