In M. Night Shyamalan’s TRAP Trailer, Josh Hartnett Is Your Daddy… and a Serial Killer

Brian D. Bradley

a man, played by josh hartnett, stands in a crowd of young concert goers in the movie trap

Highlights

  • In the trailer for Trap,  Josh Hartnett is a serial killing dad who takes his daughter to a pop concert and finds himself trapped by police.
  • The pop star in the film is played by M. Night Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka, who also wrote songs for the film.
  • Trap will be in theaters on August 9.

In the Trap trailer, the new thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, we open with a sweet scene. A daddy-daughter outing to a pop star’s concert. The daughter (Ariel Donoghue) is excited about their amazing seats. The dad (Josh Harnett) makes lame jokes. They both crush soft pretzels (delicious-looking pretzels). Then the lights go down, the music starts and Dad excuses himself to the bathroom.

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In real life, this happens all the time and Dad is probably gonna is just going to linger outside a bit checking his Fan Duel and letting his gummy kick in. But this dad is a serial killer (known as The Butcher… which seems kind of “first blurt”) and the heavy police presence he suddenly clocks is there for him. Because, like Admiral Akbar says, “It’s a TRAP!”

The rest of the movie seems to be about The Butcher trying to escape the trap so he can get home to the drifter he has chained in his basement and who we see on security footage on his phone.

Flipping the Script

If this seems like the whole movie, it’s probably not. This is M. Night Shyamalan after all and there’s bound to be several twists along the way. Twists are basically his brand. That and his penchant for subverting our expectations.

Variety reports that in an event this week in LA called “Summer of Shyamalan” the director spoke about his strategy for the script saying that he wanted to tell the story, “from the vantage point of an unexpected person” — in this case, a serial killer. He went on to say, “It kind of led more and more to this dark humor angle that Servant has, and The Visit and Split had.” Adding that he wants to make sure the film is, “a fun time for everybody. It’s odd … when you should be terrified and you’re laughing at the same time.”

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Family Business

Appearing as the pop star “Lady Raven” in the movie is the director’s daughter, Saleka Shyamalan. In the Trap trailer, we see her performing in full diva mode at the concert, with tons of production and backup singers. Which tracks, because Saleka is a real-life singer-songwriter who also wrote several songs for the film.

She’s not the only Shyamalan sibling in the game. Her sister, Ishana, recently wrote and directed the horror film The Watchers, based on the novel of the same name by A.M. Shine and starring Dakota Fanning. Summer of Shyamalan, indeed!

Right Guy for the Job

In the role of the serial killer “The Butcher”, Josh Hartnett seems to be having a good time going “full psychopath” with lots of close-ups of him where his daddy facade drops to reveal the murderer underneath. After a bit of a break from film and TV, Hartnett seems to be making a return to the screen having been seen recently in both Black Mirror and Oppenheimer.

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M. Night Shyamalan said of casting Hartnett in the role, “What I’m looking for is someone that’s willing to just let go completely, give themselves over like a play to the movie and leap, leap, leap — don’t protect yourself. That beautiful electricity that requires the right actor at the right time in their life. And that’s where Josh was when I met him.”

Trap also features Hayley Mills and Marnie McPhail and will dance its way into theatres on August 9.

You can watch the Trap trailer with Josh Hartnett below. As always, let us know what you think in the comments!

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