As his career continues to evolve, it seems like we, the audience, have a love/hate relationship with M. Night Shyamalan. The name itself is polarizing, conjuring multitudes of feelings for his movies, in a career that remains hard to define. On the one hand, Shyamalan’s streak of Sixth Sense-Unbreakable-Signs is still considered a blistering start to his mainstream Hollywood era, showing the promise of a commercial director being able to bridge thrills with thematic depth. Then the director almost immediately had a decade-long run of misfires, lighting that goodwill on fire with every goofy performance he directed, every silly line of dialogue, and every poorly constructed twist, culminating in the diss track to everything cinema stands for – known as After Earth (2013).

The book on him was that his hubris, during the initial adulation that accompanied his success, led him to double down on his flaws and worst instincts. But then something happened to Shyamalan’s career, something that he’s seemed to enjoy even until this day – he re-earned that goodwill by way of an unforeseen career comeback. Yet, I question: how good was this comeback, really? I can’t deny the objective measures – Shyamalan’s recent output has been highly praised critically as well as successful at the box office. But just because he stopped making movies as bad as The Happening (2008) doesn’t mean that they’re great flicks.

In fact, other than Split (2016), most of these are turkeys or just outright terrible. The Visit (2015) was 2 hours I’ll never get back – an incredibly bland exercise lacking the fear-inducing menace of better horror flicks. Glass (2019) is laughably pretentious and overcooked, with bizarre story choices throughout. Knock at the Cabin is largely just unremarkable and forgettable. But then there’s Old – a suffocating film, that traps you into a ludicrous story filled with terribly uninteresting characters and eye-rolling moments. Past the fifteen-minute mark, I don’t think there’s a single second where I didn’t want the movie to end. And it’s that impression that leaves me skeptical of the director’s latest feature – Trap.

To be fair, the concept for this movie is terrific, which we’ll get to, and normally I would be pretty excited for an M. Night film. Yes, his track record is alarmingly spotty – few filmmakers have this many peaks and valleys. But as a creative talent, he remains exciting, even in his worst moments. His style is unique to him, the way his actors talk is unique to his movies, and when he’s firing on all cylinders, his reveals and reversals are creative, thought-provoking, and potentially iconic. So part of me is obviously hoping we get the latter M. Night. Not the guy who indulges too heavily with navel-gazing or supplies his characters with ostentatious speech. We need the guy who’s focused on the audience, not himself, and will inspire moments of fear or surprises that will leave viewers thinking about the movie for many weeks to come – IN A GOOD WAY! He’s still capable of being that guy, even if we see it less and less. This gets us to Trap, and its enticing trailer:

First things first, before we even get to what this movie is about, let’s start with the fact that the film stars Josh Hartnett. So, right off the bat: W. You’re just not going wrong casting Hartnett in anything. Name one movie of his that would be better if he wasn’t in it, I dare you.

But more importantly, the film seems to have a clear goal rather than being overly convoluted. Like I’m not expecting this movie to win any awards, but it could be a nice fright night summer horror flick. The setting is claustrophobic, unpredictable, and vast. The tease of Hartnett as a psychotic killer makes it seem like the movie is willing to get right to the point, establishing the stakes early. And that poor kid, going to a concert with her dad, Freddy Krueger. But there’s also the possibility that everything isn’t quite as it seems in this trailer, leaving the door open to play with expectations in fun ways.

I think M. Night is at his best when his stories are not too ambitious, focusing less on making grand statements and focusing more on character work and structurally sound plotting. It seems Trap is only preoccupied with being a good, fear-inducing thriller, which will end up serving the movie well. This could all be setting viewers up for disappointment – that the real trap is seeing M. Night fumble another intriguing premise. Or this movie could be a return to form, keeping things simple in order to maximize the terror an audience can feel. Movies like Trap don’t have to prove how smart they are; the audience will be appreciative of a rollercoaster that feels like no escape.

Trap is set to go into motion in theaters everywhere on August 9th, 2024.