CROWD CONTROL
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN IS THE HIGH-CONCEPT KING OF HOLLYWOOD, AND SERIAL-KILLER THRILLER TRAP LOOKS SET TO ENSNARE AUDIENCES ONCE MORE. WE SPEAK TO HIM AND HIS LEAD, JOSH HARTNETT, ABOUT GOING IN FOR THE KILLM. NIGHT SHYAMALAN IS THE HIGH-CONCEPT KING OF HOLLYWOOD, AND SERIAL-KILLER THRILLER TRAP LOOKS SET TO ENSNARE AUDIENCES
WORDS JOHN NUGENT
"WHAT IF THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS HAPPENED AT A TAYLOR SWIFT CONCERT?"
THAT’S THE ONE-LINE, HIGH-CONCEPT, elevator pitch that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has been using to describe Trap, his 16th feature film. It’s a brilliantly neat and typically efficient job for a filmmaker who has become the king of high concepts. This is the man, lest we forget, who brought you The Sixth Sense (what if a child could see dead people?), Unbreakable (what if superheroes were real?) and —of course! —Old (what if there were a beach that could make you old?). Trap is his latest “’90s movie throwback”, as he puts it. “I miss the high-concept movies!” he says. “Trap is meant to be that.” THAT’S THE ONE-LINE, HIGH-CONCEPT, elevator pitch that writer-director M. Night Shyamalan has been using to describe
Like all good high concepts, its premise can be neatly established in a single teaser trailer. The gist, according to the two minutes and 41 seconds of footage released to the world thus far, is this: handsome dad Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his tween daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) are attending a stadium concert by pop sensation Lady Raven (Saleka, Shyamalan’s eldest daughter) —when it emerges that the entire concert is a trap set by law enforcement to capture a notorious serial killer known only as ‘The Butcher’. The classic Shyamalan twist? Cooper appears to be that very killer, watching a livestream video of a victim on his phone during the gig.
Released in April, the trailer instantly electrified the internet. Over 22 million
Clockwise from main: Singer Lady Raven (Saleka); Dad Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) at Lady Raven’s show; Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan with daughter Saleka on set; Cooper becomes concerned.
people watched it, inspiring fan theories from the plausible (there may be more than one killer!) to the kooky (it’s a stealth Sixth Sense sequel!) to the downright bonkers (Cooper’s daughter is a vampire!) —alongside a debate about whether it gave the big twist away too soon.