If you鈥檝e seen Taylor Swift鈥檚 Eras Tour, you know the idea of safety emerges at some point.
With thousands in the arena, it鈥檇 be a nightmare if, say, some threat appeared. A serial killer?
That鈥檚 writer/director M. Night Shyamalan鈥檚 nightmare scenario.
In 鈥淭rap,鈥 he sends a father and daughter to a Philadelphia arena where they鈥檙e going to see her favorite artist, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan), a Taylor type who has an endless concert with ample opportunity for ticketholders to leave their seats.
There are so many breaks you wonder if anyone is left in the arena. Dad (Josh Hartnett), though, is looking for a way out (aren鈥檛 all dads?). He chats up the merch guy, gets his ID, checks into the employee lounge and discovers there鈥檚 a plan to trap the serial killer, called 鈥淭he Butcher.鈥
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Why a guy named 鈥淭he Butcher鈥 would go to a concert (in the afternoon, no less), is anyone鈥檚 guess, but it means fewer men to search on the way out.
Early on, we get the suspicion Hartnett鈥檚 Cooper Adams could be hiding something. He makes those 鈥淰 for Vendetta鈥 faces every now and then and constantly comes up with excuses to leave daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) alone.
Sure enough, there鈥檚 reason for dad to devise an exit strategy.
Hayley Mills聽turns up as an expert who knows how serial killers act. She advises plenty of people (mostly with her back to the camera), then becomes a player in the final third of the film.
Shyamalan has plenty of plotholes where this could fall in. Riley, for example, gets a chance to go on stage as the 鈥淒reamer Girl.鈥 But if she hadn鈥檛 been picked, dad鈥檚 next moves would have to be rethought.
Similarly, when he聽gets in proximity to Lady Raven, Cooper becomes one of those pests every singer must hate. He keeps asking for more and even gets a moment alone with her in her dressing room. From experience, we can tell you this WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. No matter who wants a private conversation, there鈥檚 always a handler nearby.
Still, that sets up the escape route and brings 鈥淭rap鈥 to the Adams home where much transpires like an installment of 鈥淪cream.鈥
Hartnett doesn鈥檛 really fit the Anthony Perkins mode, but he gets more lines here than he has in countless other films. He鈥檚 good at pivoting but he鈥檚 also good at making a child cringe. When he goes over the line, 鈥淭rap鈥 becomes a typical horror film with 鈥淪ixth Sense鈥 pretensions.
That Shyamalan聽created that original 鈥渁-ha鈥 movie only serves to enhance the disappointment with this one.
It keeps its suspense going for a good hour and then it becomes like a concert with too much 鈥渘ew鈥 music: Bring the hits, not the potential misses.
Of note: Saleka Shyamalan wrote the songs she sings and could land one on the charts if producers pushed it enough. She gives us a sense of what a Taylor-esque singer must be like and isn鈥檛 afraid to reach out and touch, even if that touch could be lethal.
