Warner Bros. has released the first trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's new movie, Trap, which stars Josh Hartnett (Sin City, Halloween H20) as a serial killer cornered by the cops while attending a concert with his daughter.
All the brief synopsis tells us is that "a father and teen daughter attend a pop concert, where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event," but the teaser gives away a lot more.
Noticing a large police presence in and around the venue, Hartnett's character persuades a vendor to tell him what's going on, and finds out that the cops have been tipped off that a notorious serial killer known as The Butcher will be attending the concert.
Hartnett then goes to the bathroom to check his home security system, and we see that he has a man tied up in a chair screaming for help.
So, it seems he is the Butcher. Surely a twist that should have been kept out of the marketing? Shyamalan explains why he decided to give the game away right off the bat.
“When I thought of the idea. I was like, Why? You can’t hide it. It happens so early,” the filmmaker tells The Wrap. “This is the fun of the movie. It’s being in that point-of-view.”
This being a Shyamalan movie, we can't see this trailer giving everything away, and there's a lot of speculation that the film will include at least one more twist.
Shyamalan went on to explain how the music industry was a partial inspiration for the movie.
“We were talking about the form of music, and what tried to happen with the movie industry, which was, hey, just release everything ubiquitously everywhere and everyone can watch it whenever they want. That’s the future right? I said, ‘That’s not the f*cking future. That’s not the way we’re doing this.’ And I tried hard not to do and help everybody and say, ‘Don’t do that.’ But the music industry went that way, and I was like, ‘In what field do you do your work, and then give it away for free? What world is that?’”
Check out the trailer below, and let us know what you think.
Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider. The director of photography is Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (Call Me by Your Name). The production designer is Debbie de Villa (The Hating Game). It is edited by Noëmi Preiswerk and the music is by Herdĭs Stefănsdŏttir (Knock at the Cabin). The music supervisor is Susan Jacobs (Old); the costume designer is Caroline Duncan (Old). The casting is by Douglas Aibel (Asteroid City).
Warner Bros. Pictures Presents A Blinding Edge Pictures Production, An M. Night Shyamalan Film: Trap. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures. Trap will be released on 9th August 2024 by Warner Bros. Pictures