Have you ever thought to yourself, “I would love to watch a movie about a serial killer without any killing and a threadbare plot?” Well boy do I have a movie for you!
Trap is a movie that was trying its best to tell a story of a killer trapped by the past and the literal police, but instead of diving into the nuance, it decides to give you only the tiniest sliver of a character and a plot.
That is not to say that this movie is horrible, it is however not what it was advertised to be.
Trap tells the story of a father, Cooper, and his daughter, Riley, who go to a Lady Raven concert, however this is not a normal concert, It is a trap for a serial killer named The Butcher, who also happens to be Cooper.
It’s a classic story of cat and mouse and is told from Cooper’s point of view which gives it a sort of American Psycho feel, without any of the real horror.
Trap was advertised as a horror/thriller, yet it does neither well. It could be considered a low level thriller but horror is completely out of the question. It was more comedic than scary. Although it wasn’t the intention, I did find the movie enjoyable from a comedic standpoint. The dad jokes Cooper tells and the father-daughter relationship at the beginning is pretty entertaining.
Strangely enough the whole movie felt like it was a detective movie from the killer’s perspective. The end was Cooper finding out the truth about how he was found out and he presents it like a classic noir detective cracking the case.
Josh Hartnett played Cooper and all things considered I think he did a great job. He felt off putting and not outright like a murderous killer and I liked that. Even without saying anything, you can feel his frustration and his quick thinking. Too many movies try to hit you over the head with the, “he’s the killer because look at him!” Trap did a good job of portraying a villain that was just a “normal” family man. His actions were unnerving but subtle and, although I don’t think it makes up for the lack of character building, I thought that Josh Hartnett’s performance significantly boosted this film.
Speaking of character building, why didn’t it exist? Were they just trying to force a sequel? I definitely think it’s needed. I finished the film dying for a sequel to explain Cooper’s past and what happens next. At random points the ghost of Cooper’s mother would appear and taunt him, but it is never explained why he sees his mother’s ghost, how he became a killer, why his mother is important or even what happens to Cooper’s father. Cooper also seemed to genuinely care about his family which is strange for a psychopath or sociopath so that is yet another question left unanswered from this film.
If Trap’s only purpose was to force a sequel, they hit the nail on the head. It created more questions and answered none of them, so a sequel is the only logical next step.
Aside from the main few characters the writing was subpar. Riley’s dialogue was fine and I thought Ariel Donoghue did an accurate job at portraying a teenager. Lady Raven was something else but I’ll talk about her in a minute. For now I have to express how stupidly the background characters were written. The cops were absolutely idiotic and when Cooper walked out onto the roof looking very out of place, the police questioned him for maybe five minutes before letting him go on his way. I’m sorry, if I was a cop looking for a serial killer that was attempting to escape the arena and I was patrolling when a man matching the description of the serial killer wanders up onto the roof, I would immediately take him to the FBI profiler. There were two cops and neither one of them thought it was appropriate to question him further? I think not.
The rest of the characters were just one sided like NPC’s in a video game. They would say exactly what was happening to Cooper and which doors were blocked and which were free. During an active investigation I don’t think that it is in anyone’s interest to give someone options on how to escape, especially when the man asking is the type of person that was brought up in the pre-concert briefing.
I get that in order to move the plot Cooper would have to leave the arena but it doesn’t have to be that blatant.
Onto Lady Raven, the amount of disbelief that has to be suspended for this film is astounding. Lady Raven, after she helps Cooper escape because he threatened her, goes onto Instagram Live and tells her followers that The Butcher is holding a man named Spencer hostage somewhere near a broken lion statue in the Philadelphia or New Jersey area. The followers then immediately find this statue, and the correct basement and save Spencer.
How many lion statues approximately would be in the Philadelphia/New Jersey area? Hundreds? Many of them are probably broken. Spencer was saved in three to four minutes after this message was put out. It is impossible that the police managed to get to the correct location in three minutes and someone knew the exact lion statue in New Jersey. Impossible.
Overall, Trap is weak from a script, storytelling and horror perspective and the acting can only save so much of it. It is more dark comedy than thriller and although it is advertised as such, do not go into this movie with hopes of a thrilling adventure.
Trap was entertaining to an extent although wildly inaccurate and full of plot holes. I do hope that a sequel is made to fill in the gaps because it is desperately needed.
Compared to the other concert horror of 2024 Smile 2, Trap is unremarkable.
On a scale from one to five I would rate this a two. It was okay for a casual viewer that isn’t expecting anything but do not watch it if you want a movie with substance.
