Josh Hartnett is a serial killer who gets trapped at a pop concert. The result was anything but suspenseful and exciting; it looked more like a clumsy promotional vehicle for the director's daughter.

To those who were young in the days of Shyamalan's pomp, his name still holds mystery. He was once a director whose movies were events in themselves. But what should have been a career marked with exponential growth fell prey to a series of films that critics dismissed as pulp. While Shyamalan seems to have regained his mojo with The Visit and especially the darkly clever Split, his recent films have failed to hold that momentum.

Trap was kept from critics pre-release, which can be a bad omen. On its own merit, the film is not a dud, but at best, it's a tepid thriller that doesn't really get off the ground to help reestablish Shyamalan's former glory. The premise—taking The Silence of the Lambs and putting it within a pop concert—really is interesting. Hartnett's character is a serial killer who gets caught in a sting while attending a concert with his daughter, which should be a recipe for edge-of-the-seat tension. The movie doesn't really provide any, though. It seems that the script was underwritten and the dialogue clumsy, lacking that sheen and sophistication which will carry a thriller along.

The most jarring aspect, however, is how Shyamalan has turned the whole film into an excuse to put his daughter, Saleka, who is playing the pop star on stage. Her performance, particularly during the final act of the film, is highly distracting. Her original music and integral role in the climax are quite forced and only serve to completely ruin the credibility of the film. This comes right on the heels of his shameless plug for his other daughter's horror film, which was received rather poorly as well.

Trap is afflicted by a lack of coherent direction and misses tending to the truly interesting premise at hand. Poor writing and uninspired acting bring that potential of high-stakes suspenseful thriller down a peg. There are moments, like Hayley Mills leading an FBI operation or Kid Cudi's bizarre cameo, that give a glimpse of the madness that could have made the film enjoyable in a campy way. These moments, though, are too few and far between in an otherwise dull movie. Trap ends up being a thriller that mistakenly believes it is clever when it is anything but.