‘Trap’ Review: Josh Hartnett Plays a Serial Killer in an M. Night Shyamalan Thriller Where Each Twist is More Contrived Than the Last
variety.comOwen Gleiberman Chief Film Critic As a filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan has been a household name for 25 years, starting in 1999, when he ruled the end of the summer with “The Sixth Sense.” You can basically divide the Shyamalan oeuvre into four periods.
There was the era when he was an A-list visionary who some compared to Spielberg (a period that includes his finest film, “Unbreakable,” as well as “Signs” and “The Village”).
There was the era when he began to lapse into self-parody (“Lady in the Water,” “The Happening”), and when the whole notion of the Shyamalan twist ending became less an entertainer’s trademark than a sign of the rut he was in.
There was the period when he left all that behind to reinvent himself as an anonymous sci-fi craftsman (“The Last Airbender,” “After Earth”).
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