movie review time trap

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Common Sense Media Review

Mediocre time-travel sci-fi has violence, cursing.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Time Trap is a 2017 sci-fi movie in which a group of students are stuck in a cave where years pass in seconds. Some sci-fi and action violence. Characters battle cavemen with rocks, punches, kicks. A tween boy is presumed dead after his rope breaks while descending into the cave…

Why Age 13+?

Tween boy falls when descending into a cave with a rope and the rope snaps; knoc

Occasional profanity: "F--k," "s--t," "d--k," "suck."

Character references hippies who were "tripping shrooms." Marijuana leaf patch o

Mom makes reference to walking in on her tween son masturbating in his bedroom.

Any Positive Content?

No real positive messages.

No real positive role models.

Violence & Scariness

Tween boy falls when descending into a cave with a rope and the rope snaps; knocked out, presumed dead. Characters fight cavemen with punches, kicks, rocks. Image of conquistador impaling a stick through the neck of his enemy. Characters get injured while trying to explore a cave. Sci-fi peril -- characters appear to be attacked by aliens in one scene.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Character references hippies who were "tripping shrooms." Marijuana leaf patch over a US flag.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Positive role models.

Parents need to know that Time Trap is a 2017 sci-fi movie in which a group of students are stuck in a cave where years pass in seconds. Some sci-fi and action violence. Characters battle cavemen with rocks, punches, kicks. A tween boy is presumed dead after his rope breaks while descending into the cave. Image of a conquistador impaling a stick through the throat of his enemy. Infrequent profanity, including "f--k, "s--t," "d--k," "suck." Mother of tween boy makes reference to recently walking in on her son masturbating in his room. Drug references -- talk of hippies who were "tripping shrooms," characters find an old VW van with an American flag inside with a marijuana leaf image sewn into the middle. This is low-budget sci-fi best for teens and older. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (4)
• Kids say (5)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Great family film

What's the story.

In TIME TRAP, Hopper ( Andrew Wilson ), an archeology professor, has ventured into a cave in Texas in an attempt to look into the rumors of there being a fountain of youth deep within. When he goes missing, Taylor, Jackie ( Brianne Howey ), Cara ( Cassidy Gifford ), Veeves, and Furby venture off in search of their favorite professor. They find the cave, and upon their descent, they encounter problems. Their new ropes break, causing Taylor to break his wrist. There are mysterious screams and howls. Upon finding an alternate entrance, they discover that Furby, who was to stay aboveground, tried to descend the cave and fell to his death. They soon make the terrifying discovery that they have entered a kind of time warp in which seconds in the cave pass like years outside the cave. It's up to the group to figure out a way to find Professor Hopper and find a way back to their own time, or at least escape from the cave.

Is It Any Good?

This movie is an interesting concept that falls short in the execution. While Time Trap makes a lot happen on a low budget, the story leaves a lot of potential unexplored. The very best science fiction isn't about the largest budget or the best special effects -- it's about taking the concept and fully exploring all of the ramifications of that concept. In the future, there are both cavemen and astronauts, and rural Texas is filled with tumbleweeds and brambles. There's no explanation of why this is -- the vague hints of there being a sequel at the end don't offer much in the way of resolution. It leaves far too much out there somewhere in the proverbial space/time continuum.

The acting is decent, if not exceptional, but the dialogue has some moments that come off as forced attempts at levity during moments of life-or-death conflict and danger. Not to spoil anything, but the ending is a little too convenient, and the characters are a little too happy with where they find themselves. The result is a movie that's merely so-so.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about science fiction movies. How does Time Trap compare to other science fiction films you've seen?

How does this compare to other "time travel" movies you've seen? Why is time travel such a popular theme in books and movies?

Was the violence in the movie necessary to the story, or did it seem deliberately put in for excitement?

Movie Details

• On DVD or streaming : May 19, 2017
• Cast : Andrew Wilson , Cassidy Gifford , Brianne Howey
• Director : Mark Dennis
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Pad Thai Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Science and Nature , Space and Aliens
• Run time : 87 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : January 20, 2024

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Time Bandits

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• Cast & crew
• User reviews

A professor enters a cave and goes missing. Some of his students come looking for him and get trapped in the cave as well. A professor enters a cave and goes missing. Some of his students come looking for him and get trapped in the cave as well. A professor enters a cave and goes missing. Some of his students come looking for him and get trapped in the cave as well.

• Mark Dennis
• Reiley McClendon
• Cassidy Gifford
• Brianne Howey
• 964 User reviews
• 41 Critic reviews
• 46 Metascore
• 2 wins & 1 nomination

Top cast 52

• Rich Pintauro
• Furby's Mom
• (as Jennifer Bateman)
• Hopper's Sister
• Leviathan …
• Hopper's Father

• Fountain Guardian

• Young Hopper
• Young Hopper's Sister
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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Did you know

• Trivia Part of the filming occurred in the Bronson Caves, known to many history buffs as the Batcave in the Batman television series in the 1960s.
• Goofs The natural light entering the cave where Cara, Jackie, Taylor and Veeves rappelled down should have rapidly alternated with the changing of day and night after they crossed the time warp threshold, just like it did for Dr. Hopper. Unlike the cave that Prof. Hopper and Furby enter, the cave that the others enter isn't in direct sunlight. It has a small entrance under trees, that opens into a rather large cavern, the cave they descend down is at the opposite end of the cavern from the entrance. It would be nearly impossible for them to see the flickering of the seasons at the speed the days were passing.

Taylor : So what are we doing here?

Hopper : Well, my grandfather used to tell me the future can give you anything you want. If you wait long enough, the future will create it. Maybe through technology, or maybe just by making you not want it anymore. Either way, the answer's in the future.

• Crazy credits Dear Camden and Jack, Remember when we made STRINGS and forgot to give you screen credit? Here ya go: CAMDEN MCCOY Cleveland's Son, Age 6 JACK RYAN Cleveland's Son, Age 14 Sorry, Mark and Ben
• Connections References The Goonies (1985)

User reviews 964

• pedroandresantos
• Aug 20, 2020
• How long is Time Trap? Powered by Alexa
• November 2, 2018 (United States)
• United States
• Official Facebook
• Austin, Texas, USA
• Pad Thai Pictures
• Filmsmith Production & Management
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $1,000,000 (estimated)

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 27 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Review: ‘Time Trap’ not nearly the sci-fi adventure it could have been

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There’s a big sci-fi adventure movie waiting to burst out of “Time Trap,” a decidedly contained, budget-conscious take on time travel, youth in peril and apocalyptic fear. The result, directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster (not the actor) from Dennis’ script, is a handful of intriguing ideas in search of a more cohesive and dimensional narrative.

When Texas archaeology professor Hopper (Andrew Wilson) disappears after setting out to find his hippie parents, who disappeared in the 1970s while in pursuit of the Fountain of Youth (really?), Hopper’s dedicated teaching assistants, Taylor (Reiley McClendon) and Jackie (Brianne Howey), go looking for their vanished mentor.

Joining Taylor and Jackie on their half-baked mission are Taylor’s friend Cara (Cassidy Gifford), Cara’s tween sister Veeves (Olivia Draguicevich) and Veeves’ nerdy, video blogger pal Furby (Max Wright). As posses go, it’s not the most inspiring bunch.

They soon land in a vast and twisty underground cave that they believe will lead them to Hopper. But as a series of dubious and risky events unfold, it’s revealed that the cave is home to a unique space-time continuum in which time passes more slowly than it does above ground.

This opens things up to plenty of new dangers, including aliens and some seriously hostile cavemen, but not the kind of wholly propulsive, time-tripping fun that might be expected.

-------------

‘Time Trap’

Running time: 1 hour, 27 minutes

Playing: Starts Nov. 2, Laemmle Royal Theatre, West Los Angeles; Laemmle Glendale

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Directed by Ben Foster , Mark Dennis

Escape to the future.

A group of students become trapped inside a mysterious cave where they discover time passes differently underground than on the surface.

Andrew Wilson Cassidy Gifford Brianne Howey Reiley McClendon Olivia Draguicevich Max Wright Hans Marrero Rich Skidmore Jocelyn Kay Chris Sturgeon Grayson-Belle Burton Jennifer Bateman Cassidy Longoria Abi Murphy Sabin Smith Zachary Matz Rusty Grimmer Wayne Dalchau

Directors Directors

Ben Foster Mark Dennis

Writer Writer

Mark Dennis

Casting Casting

Cinematography cinematography.

Mike Simpson

Production Design Production Design

Jessee J. Clarkson Madison Fisk

Stunts Stunts

Jasi Cotton Lanier

Composer Composer

Xiaotian Shi

Pad Thai Pictures Filmsmith Production & Management

Releases by Date

19 may 2017, 22 jun 2018, 14 jun 2017, 24 feb 2018, 11 aug 2019, 23 aug 2020, releases by country.

• TV 12 tele5
• Digital R18+
• TV 12 TV premiere

87 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

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This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

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I knew in the first minute or so when the voiceover sound mixing was virtually indistinguishable from the phone call sound mixing and the dialogue sound mixing that I was no longer dealing with quality filmmaking. 

A group of (age not discernible) coeds go searching after a professor who went searching after his parents who went searching after the fountain of youth in a cave somewhere in Texas. Turns out the cave is stuck in time. Then there’s aliens and cavemen. The end. 

This was horrendously bad. Laughably bad. Not unenjoyably bad but definitely shitty screenwriter bad. 

Where to begin?

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Kinda crappy acting. Kinda bad dialogue. Kinda racist.

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Review by Michael ½ 2

This movie is so bad my mind can not forget it. It is a curse. And I'm writing this review like a year and a half later and I still remember it clear as day.

Review by DirkH ★★★½ 1

So if you're in the mood for a low key sci fi movie with a very pleasant running time and a good sense of self, look no further.

I was very pleasantly surprised by Time Trap, especially because the way it gets presented on Netflix doesn't really bode well. Nothing could be further from the truth as this cleverly constructed film just breezes through with a plot that unravels at a perfect pace.

There are no real characters here, which is absolutely fine as this is more about the mystery than the people inhabiting it. Sure, there are many things to bitch about if you're so inclined, but I was just pleasantly surprised by how this film manages to do a lot with a little.

Review by Chadwin ★★

It’s sorta ambitious...at the very least.  But it’s kinda wack.  And by kinda, I mean it’s very wack.

Review by Matt ★★

Rarely have I seen a film encapsulate the 'well that escalated quickly' meme so accurately. There's virtually no budget until the last ten minutes, the acting is downright amateurish and the writing simply appalling...but the actual story and the way it just explodes into 'christ that's ambitious, ok then' territory I found really endearing. Decent fun if you're in the mood for nonsense.

Review by sofi✨ ★★½

the concept is actually really interesting but the execution of it is just meh and it’s honestly a shame

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Time Trap Ending, Explained

‘Time Trap’ follows the story of a group of people who discover a system of caves where time runs differently than the rest of the world. Taylor and Jackie are assistants to an archaeology professor who has spent his life looking for a place where the Fountain of Youth is said to be. He tells them about a group of hippies who claimed that they had seen the Fountain. When he finds the caves, he decides to go it alone, despite his assistants pleading to accompany him.

When two days pass by and he doesn’t return, Taylor and Jackie decide to look for him. They need a car, so they call their friend Cara. She is supposed to go on a project trip with her sister, Veeves, but decides to take her with Taylor and Jackie instead. They are also accompanied by Veeves’ friend, Furby. A bit of looking around reveals that Hopper didn’t come here in search of some hippies. His own parents had vanished there, and hence, his obsession to find them. Perhaps the mention of so many missing people should have made them stop. But no, the group descends into the caves and makes a startling discovery that changes their understanding of time and space . SPOILERS AHEAD

How Does Time Work in the Caves?

When Professor Hopper stumbles upon a strange man in the caves, he decides to pursue him. From the looks of the man, we can tell that he doesn’t belong to our time. He has a gun that was used a long time ago and his attire is also very different. Hopper sees him, goes back to town, talks to his assistants, collects his things and comes back with his dog. And yet, the man is still there. It is as if he is stuck there. But, as soon as Hopper enters the cave and crosses an invisible but palpable layer of moisture, the man goes back to normal speed. Behind Hopper, we notice a strange dance of light. It is as if someone is constantly dimming and brightening the entrance of the cave with a huge flashlight or something. We mark it as off and move on.

A few days later, when his assistants return, with three more people, they experience something similar. By now, we know that something massively weird is going on. This time, due to the height difference, we get to see the sun moving around. So, we know that a number of days have passed. However, the actual scale of the change in time becomes clear sometime later.

After they find themselves trapped in the caves and hear Furby’s voice that doesn’t quite seem like his, they move further inside. They discover that Furby had tried to get in with a rope which was cut down by someone the same way theirs had. However, after looking at his tapes, they realise that the time outside the caves is running at a very fast speed. Because both Taylor and Jackie are wounded, only Cara and Veeves are left to find a way out and call for help. And because Veeves is younger, Cara decides to go. She climbs up the same way they came down and comes out to find a completely different place.

Before they had left, it was full of trees and there were cars and other things. But now, everything is wiped clean. There is no sign of vegetation and even the air feels weird, Cara has difficulty breathing and as if that wasn’t alarming enough, she watches a huge dust storm heading her way. Unable to call for help, she goes back inside but is rebuked by others for not even trying to get out of the cave. This is when the actual picture falls into place. While she had been outside for about thirty minutes, only a couple of seconds had passed in the caves.

What’s happening here is this. The layer of moisture that they cross serves as a boundary that separates the outside world from the caves. It is sort of a wormhole that allows you to enter a place where time works slower. And that’s not the only boundary. As you move deeper into the caves, there is another layer that reduces the rate of time further. So, if in the outside world, you have been waiting for someone for a day, inside the cave they have spent only minutes.

And for those who choose to enter the second boundary, which is considerably thicker than the first, Time becomes exponentially slower. Its speed reduces to the point that years and years will pass outside its periphery and you’ll not even be able to take another step by then. And you reach the Fountain of Youth after you cross this boundary. All the people who tried to cross the second boundary have been slowed down to such extent that they haven’t been able to move even their arms. This is why we can see all the people, from Hopper’s sister to the regiment sent by the queen to the Neanderthals who tried to get to the fountain. The cycle of dim and bright outside is not days passing, they are years. And considering how frequently it is happening, a couple of hours means a couple of years.

The Timeline of Time Trap

The story starts with one man. Then, five get involved. And then suddenly, more and more people start to appear out of nowhere. This can make things confusing, so here is a clear timeline.

Thousands of years ago, The Neanderthals entered the cave and are trapped there.

Hundreds of years ago: After being fascinated by the stories of the locals, the Queen sends a group of people to locate the Fountain. They find it but are stuck in the second layer.

About 50-100 years ago: Another group of men with guns entered the cave.

The day Hopper enters the caves: Hopper discovers an entrance to the caves and sees a man stuck there. This is the same man who is entering the cave 50-100 years ago. Since he is passing the wormhole, time has already begun to slow down for him. As soon as Hopper crosses the wormhole, they are at the same time. Inside, the older men come across the Neanderthal and are killed by them. Hopper hears the gunshots and rushes out of the cave.

Two days after Hopper goes in the caves: His assistants are worried about him and decide to follow him. Out of the five, Furby is left outside, while the other four go inside.

Three days later, Furby grows impatient and scared because he has no connection with his friends. He accidentally finds Hopper’s rope and decides to enter the caves. By now, only a couple of minutes have passed inside, so they are not worried about him. As soon as he enters the cave, he crosses the wormhole and time begins to play its trick.

A few years later, Hopper rushes out of the cave after hearing gunshots but finds that it is night and his dog is nowhere to be seen. His car is covered in shrubs. He finds the car that his assistants came in and decides to go back inside the cave.

About a thousand years later: The Earth is completely destroyed. The air is unbreathable and nature is decimated. Humans now reside on a spaceship that floats above the Earth. This is when Cara comes out of the cave.

A couple of years later: Humans, who have evolved into something else now, find a way to come back to Earth. Somehow, they know about the Fountain of Youth and have sent someone to collect a sample. This person has a fixed time limit within which he should collect the sample and come back. However, he is delayed while saving Taylor. This is when the group discovers the nature of the water there. Taylor finds Hopper, who had entered the cave way back when. He was attacked by the Neanderthals and is barely holding on to dear life.

By now, the group knows that they have no chance against the savages, so they use the ladder used by the evolved human to escape. However, by now, hundreds of years have passed and the entrance of the cave has been sealed by water. Cara is saved by the evolved humans. She comes to know everything about the new world and comes back to save her friends who are hung mid-air because not even seconds have passed since her disappearance.

Time Trap Ending

In the end, we see that at least a couple of thousands of years have passed. The evolved humans are basically aliens, now. They know that sending someone inside and bringing back the group will only waste more time. So, they have automatic ropes that search for their targets and bring them back in what is a matter of seconds, at most minutes, inside the caves. They have also succeeded in harvesting, if not replicating, the water. Furby, Hopper, his parents, and his sister are all brought back to life. They are now on the bigger spaceship that is headed towards the new Earth, or whatever they are calling it.

Basically, there is no going back for the characters now. They have to accept their reality and move on. Since they are now, what can be called the Ancients, they are practically royalty. They are Neanderthals to new humans but are revered because of their time in the cave and for surviving for so long after humanity as they knew it had perished.

Another reason they are being treated like gods is that they may have become gods now. The Fountain of Youth is known for its healing qualities. But what if it also slows down aging? What if, it slows down the aging of everything that comes in contact with it. Even time. This is where the reason for the caves being a time trap comes to light. It is because of the Fountain. The closer you get to it; the slower time gets. The second layer, where everyone was stuck, was very close to the Fountain. Also, remember how everyone said that they could feel the moisture in the areas that acted like wormholes? That moisture is the water from the fountain. It has collected at the entrances and has formed a layer, hence the increased density in that area. These water drops have the power to slow down time and that is exactly what they are doing in the entire cave system.

Because Furby, Cara, Veeves, Jackie, Taylor, Hopper and his family have been in touch with the Fountain, it could be that their body clock has slowed down so much that they will never get older. And hence, might even be immortal.

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What is ‘Time Trap’ on Netflix? All About the Time-Travel Movie Starring Brianne Howey and Andrew Wilson

Where to Stream:

• Time Trap (2018)
• Owen Wilson

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Heads up for any time-travel nerds looking to escape the endless monotony of life for 90 minutes today: There’s a silly but fun film called Time Trap on Netflix right now.

Time Trap , which originally premiered in 2017 at the Seattle International Film Festival, flew under the radar when it was released straight-to-video-on-demand last fall.  Directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster, it stars Andrew Wilson as an archeology professor named Hopper who goes missing while exploring a remote cave system. His graduate students, Taylor and Jackie, grow worried when he doesn’t return, and head out to search the cave with their friend Cara. Their friend Cara happens to be watching her kid sister Veeves, so they take her along too, and her best friend Furby for good measure.

It’s not exactly a good movie, but it’s an enjoyable enough imitation of The Goonies to be worth a stream for anyone feeling nostalgic for those “band of kids goes on an adventure” films. (In fact, it’s so reminiscent of The Goonies that at one point the film even explicitly references Furby’s obvious resemblance to Chunk.) In the end, the time travel plot doesn’t really hold up if you think about it too hard—but then again, does any plot with time travel in it?

If you’re not sure if Time Trap is worth your own time trap, here’s a basic overview of the film.

What is the Time Trap plot?

Thanks to the power of video technology, the gang soon discovers that the cave they’re exploring is no ordinary cave—it’s a time cave. Time works differently under these rocks, and events move more slowly than they do in the real world. For that reason, there are all kinds of crazy things trapped in this cave from different eras of time including spacemen, cavemen, and Conquistadors. It’s like an episode of Magic School Bus or Doctor Who , basically, but for adults.

Who is in the Time Trap cast?

If you’re wondering why that blonde, rugged archeologist sounds so familiar, it’s because that’s Andrew Wilson, older brother of actors Luke and Owen Wilson . In addition to Wilson, Brianne Howey stars as the grad student Jackie, Reiley McClendon stars as the other grad student Taylor, Cassidy Gifford (daughter of Kathie Lee Gifford) stars as their friend Cara, Olivia Draguicevich plays Veeves, and Max Wright plays her best friend Furby.

Who is Brianne Howey?

Brianne Howey may not have a Wikipedia page (yet), but she’s been acting for many years.  You’ve likely most recently seen Howey in Fox’s The Passage as the vampire Shauna Babcock. Perhaps you’ve also seen her in one of her TV guest roles: Emily on The Middle , Eve on Revenge , Heather Clarke on Criminal Minds , Whitney Taylor on Twisted , or Melanie Dorkus on Scream Queens .  Or maybe you recognize her from her starring role in the first season of Fox’s The Exorcist , where she played Kat Rance, a former golden child grieving her dead girlfriend—or from her starring role in the British sitcom I Live with Models , where she plays Scarlet Wayde, one of the models.

Howey may not be a household name yet, but we have a feeling that’s about to change. The actor recently landed the lead role in a new Netflix series, Ginny & Georgia , from first-time showrunner Debra J. Fisher. Howey stars as Georgia, the charismatic and manipulative 30-year-old mother of a 15-year-old daughter named Ginny (Antonia Gentry), who often feels she’s more mature than her mom. Georgia grew up in poverty and wants Ginny to have a life better than hers. But her daughter’s bright future at a new prestigious school is put in jeopardy when Georgia’s dark past comes back to haunt her. The series is expected to debut on Netflix next year, so watch out.

Is there a Time Trap trailer?

There sure is! Watch the trailer for Time Trap above, and then go enjoy this ridiculous time travel adventure. Be sure to say hi to the Conquistadors for me!

Watch Time Trap on Netflix

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In Theaters and Digital

Time trap (2018) movie review.

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Time travel.  It is a tricky subject in film, offering ANY and EVERY chance for continuity errors in logic and in the script.  Usually, we give its treatment, warts and all, a pass when it comes bouncing down the halls of science fiction from time to time.  USUALLY.  Only when the material is so flagrantly wrong do the nerds (myself included) come out in full force to ATTACK.  Which is why, when I first heard of  Time Trap , my instinct was to quote Admiral Ackbar and flee.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.   Time Trap , written by Mark Dennis and co-directed by Dennis and Ben Foster , crushed my low expectations and elevated my spirit with its adventure.  This low budget science fiction journey, involving the discovery of a cave in a remote part of Texas in which time itself is slowed to a crawl, surpasses so many special effects-laden feature films on almost every level that it emerges as the BIG WINNER.

Starring Andrew Wilson , Cassidy Gifford, Reiley McClendon, Brianne Howey, Max Wright , and Olivia Draguicevich ,  Time Trap  begins with sudden disappearance of an archeological professor.  His quest?  The Fountain of Youth or at least something like it.  What he has stumbled upon, once he enters the cave, is a ripple in the time continuum and discovers that, upon going further into the cave, that everything here moves slower; down here there are space men and cave men and cowboys . . .

. . . but when the rescue mission to get him, conducted by a group of his favorite students, involves rappelling down into the depths of what he is experiencing, we have an interesting series of discoveries that take EVERYONE straight into the unknown. . . even the audience. {googleads}

Buckle up, boys and girls.   Time Trap  aims for the stars and absolutely DELIVERS upon the unexpected. 

Weighing matters of life and death (even among kids),  Time Trap  is a risky adventure as the space time continuum itself is laid bare and, astoundingly, the whole thing works to offer a complete experience of science fiction beginnings and endings.  Whatever reservations you might have, this B-movie is a true Amblin -spirited banger.  Seriously.

ALL of the characters are likeable and treated with respect by the script and, as a result, the bulk of  Time Trap  comes across as a cousin to the fun spirit of the first season of  Stranger Things . 

The turns the film takes – especially when the cave men are introduced – are head-spinning and unexpected.  Yet it all works.  Time itself gets twisted into a knot where the past, the present, and the future collide and must be sorted out in order for this group to make it out of the cave ALIVE.

Time Trap , after winning several awards at Film Festivals throughout the country, will be in select theaters on November 2.  It will be available on all digital platforms on November 13.

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MPAA Rating:   Runtime: 87 mins Director : Mark Dennis, Ben Foster Writer: Mark Dennis Cast: Andrew Wilson, Cassidy Gifford, Brianne Howey Genre : Science Fiction Tagline: Escape to the future. Theatrical Distributor: Giant Interactive Official Site: Release Date: November 2, 2018; DIGITAL & ON-DEMAND   NOVEMBER 13TH DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: No details available. Synopsis : While searching for their missing professor, a group of students become trapped inside a mysterious cave where they soon find themselves in the crossfire of control for one of the greatest legends in history.  {googleads}

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Time Trap (2017) Discussion <Spoilers!>

The low-budget SciFi film Time Trap hasn't been mentioned here, and want to hear r/movies thoughts on it.

I caught the film on Netflix after the recommendation of a friend and, wow, I can't stop thinking about it. It opens with some bad dialog and rough acting, then completely redeems itself with a mind-blowing plot and super ambitious universe.

I want to discuss spoiler related things here, and speculate about the unwritten and implied parts.

*** SPOILERS AHEAD ***

We learn near the end of the film that a group of Spanish Conquistadors found the Fountain of Youth and ran towards it, effectively trapping themselves in an inner time trap until the end of the universe.

How'd they get that far in a few hundred years? Early hominids have been down there for presumably tens of millenia. How long in their time line is that?

The protagonists speculate that the the whole cave system is a series of interlocking time traps moving at different speeds. So when Hopper (the archeologist) steps out of the cave the first time, he finds his and his student's cars covered in growth. Is that just a few years? The cowboy he first sees is frozen at the entrance for presumably over 100 years. What would happen if he threw a rock with a note attached at him? To Hopper it'd freeze mid-air, but the cowboy would immediately be able to read it.

When Furby, the boy, passes the threshhold his rope seems to instantly disintegrate from the years of friction it suddenly takes on. How long would that take realistically with modern climbing rope? Why wasn't there a pile of bones in that spot from whoever/whatever else landed there? How long could that opening have been exposed for?

Despite the dog being afraid to enter the threshold, I can imagine the number of animals and insects that fall in being ridiculously high. Imagine just one large animal falls in per year for 100k years. The cavemen must be eating well, but from their perspective a nonstop stream of wildlife and humanoids are bursting through the door, right?

What could be holding the dirt and rock around the time trap together? Will people who enter see the heat death of the universe over their time inside? Will they see the entrances of the cave suddenly free-floating in space well after the earth has been burst about by the Sun's death? What keeps oxygen inside? What era is the oxygen from? What era could the time trap be from?

The space man and ladder/ropes used by the future folks are super cool, but what would happen if someone from above pulled the ladder up? Would it move at relativistic speeds within the cave? Would it require infinitely higher force because of this? Is that why the smart-ropes curl themselves up through the portal?

Since we know light can get through, some basic fiber optic cable could transmit real time info. But from the outside it'd trickle in bit-by-bit. I don't see why space man wouldn't bring that with him. Or maybe he did and we just don't recognize the tech. I'm surprised they didn't throw down a bunch of supplies beforehand, since they'd have been perfectly preserved forever. Or perhaps they knew anyone who went down would be on a short one-way trip and deem it a waste. How long would it outsiders to figure out what was happening? What do you think our current civilization would do with such a discovery?

I can't stop thinking about this films and its implications. I know a lot of the questions are not meant to have answers but they lead to a lot of interesting ideas. I'd love to hear more from the community here about their thoughts and takeaways.

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Time Trap (United States, 2017)

As Time Trap starts, we’re introduced to Hopper (Andrew Wilson), an archeology professor who has made searching for his missing parents his life’s goal. Now, having finally located their van, he thinks he might be getting close to the truth when he stumbles on a cave where a gun-toting cowboy appears trapped in time like a fly in amber. Throwing caution to the wind, Hopper enters, never to be heard from again by the outside world. A few days later, his two favorite students, Taylor (Reiley McClendon) and Jackie (Brianne Howey), their friend, Cara (Cassidy Gifford), and a couple of tween tag-alongs, Veeves (Olivia Draguicevich) and the terminally annoying Furby (Max Wright), decide to do a little impromptu spelunking. With Furby staying behind, the others go underground in search of Professor Hopper and find, among other things, Neanderthals, conquistadors, the Fountain of Youth, and a maybe-space alien. Oh, and the cave system exists in a pocket of the space/time continuum where years on the outside become seconds on the inside. They are in the cave for at least an hour when they – being a little slow on the uptake – figure this out. By then, the world they knew has long since ceased to exist, Star Trek ’s time frame is long past, and their great-great-great-etc. grandchildren are pushing up daisies.

Give co-directors Ben Foster and Mark Dennis (with Dennis listed as the sole screenwriter) credit for being willing to get outlandish with things. Whatever problems Time Trap may have, it’s never boring. It moves along at a nice clip and some of its time-travel related problems (most notably as they relate to Furby) are easy to overlook. There are other things that don’t necessarily make sense but, hey, in for a penny, in for a pound. Don’t think too hard and it won’t bother you. The movie seems a lot smarter than it is. This isn’t Arrival or Interstellar , although I’m sure Foster and Dennis would be delighted if anyone was to make the comparison.

The movie consistently looks good, which is probably a testimony to careful cost management. Hollywood could learn a thing or two about how to economize; Time Trap looks better than one would ever expect from a low-budget indie film. Although there’s a wooden quality to some of the performances, the cast members exhibit sufficient chemistry to overcome the acting deficiencies. They’re a likable group.

Time Trap has a clearly-defined “through” story but it never bothers with the details. Many little things either can’t be explained or, if they can, they aren’t. There’s a Lost feeling to the proceedings – a sense that “mystery” is something to be savored when it’s really just a prop to allow the filmmakers to ignore narrative aspects they can’t explain. Like many so-called “refrigerator movies,” this one falls apart if subjected to an in-depth post-screening autopsy. In the moment, however, it’s entertaining and chock-full of enough deliciously weird interludes that it’s impossible to be too harsh.

For Foster and Dennis, Time Trap (which has played a few film festivals in advance of a limited theatrical opening followed by a VOD/digital rollout) is a solid calling-card.

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‘Time Trap’ Ending, Explained: What Did Hopper Find Out About The Magical Cave?

Directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster, “Time Trap” tells the story of a group of friends who find themselves stuck in a very strange situation. As far as the storyline is concerned, “Time Trap” does not bring anything unique to the plate and serves the same old wine in different bottles. Taylor, Cara, and Jackie embark on a mission to find their missing professor, but they are unaware of the kinds of anomalies that exist in the world. Time-dilation as a concept was something that they had heard of in the films, but they had never imagined that they would witness it firsthand in their lifetime. So, let’s find out what was happening in the cave and if there was a fountain of youth or was it just a baseless rumor that had been passed on from one generation to another.

Spoilers Ahead

‘Time Trap’ Plot Summary: What Is The Film About?

Hopper, a professor of archaeology, had been searching for some hippies who had gone missing in the late 1970s while they were searching for the fountain of youth. Hopper often used to take expeditions to search for the missing hippies, but he was never able to make any kind of discovery. Hopper’s eyes lit up when he saw a caravan, which he believed belonged to the hippies. He called one of his students, Jackie, and asked her to prepare his climbing kit as he was going on a hike. Jackie and Taylor were together in the archaeology program, and they were teaching assistants for Hopper. Because all three of them were so close, they often used to talk about the case of the missing hippies, and after Hopper’s recent findings, Taylor was more than excited to accompany him on the expedition. But this time, Hopper wanted to go alone, and he told Taylor and Jackie that he couldn’t risk their lives as he didn’t know what kind of perils he would have to face there.

Taylor got worried when there was no communication from Hopper’s end for two days, and he decided that he would have to go there and find out for himself what had exactly transpired. Taylor and Jackie didn’t have a vehicle, so they had to include Cara in their plan. Cara had a crush on Taylor, and her father owned a sports utility vehicle that Taylor knew he could borrow. Cara’s little sister Veeves and her best friend Furby also accompanied them on their mission, and the five of them reached the place where the caravan of the missing hippies was parked. Taylor and Jackie found a journal kept inside the caravan, and they realized they were not just random people but Hopper’s parents. It all started to make sense to Taylor and Jackie as to why their professor had become so obsessed over the years with finding the hippies. Furby tripped over a rope, and the group found out that it led to a nearby cave.

The group found a steep cliff inside the cave, and they decided that they would have to make the descent and see if Hopper was stuck in what looked like a bottomless pit. Cara noticed something very weird when she was making the descent; she felt like they were passing through an invisible boundary, something that even Hopper had felt when he was going inside the cave. The group reached the bottom and found out that there were multiple tunnels in there. They heard strange voices coming out of the tunnel, and they stood in horror, not knowing if some kind of predator was hiding there or if there was another human being stuck there just like them. They decided that they would have to escape immediately, but as Jackie was making the climb, somebody cut the rope, and she fell and hurt her ankle. Taylor believed that Furby, who had decided to stay up, was trying to pull a prank, and he tried contacting him through the radio. But nobody responded from the other end, and the group came to the realization that they were stranded inside the cave and would have to find a way out as soon as possible.

Cara Makes a Horrifying Discovery

Hopper had also heard similar screams when he was going inside the cave and following a man who seemed to have frozen in his place. Hopper tried to escape, but when he came out of the cave, he noticed that the entire surroundings had changed. The place where he had parked his vehicle had a negligible amount of vegetation, but the entire area was now covered with dense foliage. Hopper also found Jackie’s car, and looking at its condition, it felt like it had been standing there for years. Hopper didn’t understand what was happening, but he realized that he would have to go back inside the cave once again to find Jackie and Taylor.

Meanwhile, Taylor heard the voice of a grown man on the radio asking for help, but the strange thing was that the man said that he was Furby. Everyone knew that Furby was only 13 years old and that it couldn’t be his voice, and once again they presumed that somebody was playing tricks on them. They went further inside the tunnel and found Furby’s dead body lying on the floor. The group realized that Furby had not cut the rope, and either he had fallen accidentally, or somebody had pushed him down the cliff. The group checked Furby’s camera, which was still in working condition, and the recordings they saw there blew their minds. Furby had waited for them for several days before he made the descent, and the group couldn’t understand how that was possible when it had been only an hour or so since they had come inside the cave.

Cara knew rock climbing, so she decided to climb up and check if she could find any signal or kind of rope or equipment that the others could also use to come up. Just like Hopper, Cara also noticed that the entire landscape had changed and that the air had also become dense and unbreathable. Cara came down, and the others thought that she was bluffing as it had been only a couple of seconds since she had started climbing. Cara had luckily turned on the video recorder, and she showed that it had taken her a good 30 minutes to go up and come down. Taylor realized that they were probably stuck in some kind of “time trap,” where, due to time dilation or some other unprecedented force, the time inside the cave passed slowly as compared to that on the outside. Jackie figured out that maybe that is why the people believed that there was a fountain of youth inside the cave since time passed slowly there. Taylor also figured out that when Furby fell down, he was still alive, and somebody had come and killed him. The group knew that there were some unknown people inside the cave and that they needed to escape as soon as possible.

‘Time Trap’ Ending Explained: What Did Hopper Find Out About The Magical Cave?

The mystery thickened after the group realized that they were stuck in a “time trap,” and they were still trying to gulp down the information and make peace with it when a man from the future came down the cave. As soon as that man stepped foot in the cave, he was attacked by humans who seemed like they belonged to a pre-Neolithic age. Cara found the body of Hopper’s mother, who had been missing since the 1970s, and the group encountered a number of stone-age men who charged at them on their four limbs. Taylor was severely injured, and it felt like he wouldn’t be able to survive. The man from the future came and took him into a pool of water that immediately cured him. The group realized that the water had some magical healing powers, and they were relieved to know that the masked man from the future was on their side. 

The stone-age men attacked once again, but the masked man was able to fight them off. That man wasn’t able to breathe once his headgear was taken off, but before dying, he showed the group what had happened on the outside while they were stuck inside the cave. Thousands of years had passed in the outside world, and humans had made technological progress by leaps and bounds. It was possible to go to other planets and stay there, and planet Earth probably no longer supported life as it once did.

Towards the end of “Time Trap,” Taylor finally found a gravely injured Hopper, who was on the verge of dying and who had figured out what was really happening inside the cave. The cave was like a fortress, with multiple layers of security checks designed to protect the fountain of youth. The time kept getting slower as one moved inside the cave. Taylor, Cara, Veeves, and Jackie were able to escape from the cave, and though they were not able to go back to their world, they reached inside a spaceship that was hovering around the planet Earth. Hopper and Furby were also rescued and taken aboard the spaceship.

Furby had died, but Cara, Jackie, and Taylor put his body inside the healing pool, and that is how he was revived and brought back to the spaceship alive. Hopper’s sister had never died as she was trapped inside the innermost layer of the cave and was the same age as she was when she had come to the cave with her parents back in the 1970s. Though it was not possible for any human to penetrate that boundary, we realized that whoever was on the spaceship had some advanced technology at his disposal that was able to release the little girl from the trap and bring her back to life.

Even Hopper’s parents were brought back from the dead, and they, too, were the same age as they had been in the 1970s. “Time Trap” never tells us exactly how they all were revived, though it could be speculated that the healing water, time dilation, and technology cumulatively had a role to play in the entire scheme of things. Hopper saw his parents in front of him, and he couldn’t process what he was seeing. Though there was a lot left for all of them to decipher, one thing was certain that the technology had become so advanced that it had the power to reverse the laws of nature. The group headed to another planet probably to demystify the unknown and divulge the secrets of the universe.

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Despite its Low Budget and Absurd Ending, This Sci-Fi Indie is Worth Watching

Time Trap is the most audacious time-travel movie on Netflix now.

Scroll through Netflix’s sci-fi selection and you may stumble across a little-known time-travel movie whose all-too-literal title, schlocky poster and corny tagline (“Deep in the unknown, where time stands still, the only way to survive is to escape to the future”) screams Syfy original. While this movie does indeed appear to have been made on a budget that redefines shoestring — and the acting often makes Sharknado ’s cameos seem Academy Award-worthy — there’s also more ambition on display here than in many Hollywood blockbusters.

Released in 2017, Time Trap is an independent movie directed by Mark Dennis and Ben Foster, two Texas film school graduates whose even cheaper debut, the psychological thriller Strings , became a minor festival hit six years previously. If you’ve ever wanted a cross between the temporal anomalies of Primer and the boy’s own adventures of The Goonies , look no further.

Time Trap is streaming now on Netflix. Here’s why this bizarre sci-fi indie is worth watching.

Despite making multiple references to The Goonies , Time Trap’s direct inspiration, however, doesn’t come from the big screen. After four years away on a South Pole expedition , Dennis returned home to discover life as he knew it had changed forever. And alongside his regular partner in crime, he set out to replicate that feeling of displacement, albeit on a much more extreme level.

Their journey through space and time begins in the present day, when archaeology professor Hopper (Andrew Wilson, the lesser-known but older brother of Luke and Owen — listen for that familiar Southern drawl) heads out to Texas Hill Mountains to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two hippies several decades earlier. In one of several unsettling moments where the film threatens to spill into horror, he then stumbles across the eerie image of a cowboy seemingly frozen in time.

The gang about to enter the time-distorting cave.

Following Hopper’s failure to return from the same caves on his second visit, teaching assistants Jackie (Brianne Howey) and Taylor (Reiley McClendon) launch their own rescue mission. Also along for the ride is the equally non-descript friend Cara (Cassidy Gifford) and her younger sister Veeves (Olivia Draguicevich). Rounding out their rescue mission is the pre-pubescent vlogger Furby (Max Wright), the only member of the group with any discernible personality traits, albeit mostly of the slightly nauseating kind. (“He always has that cheese puff crust under his fingernails.”)

Understandably, the group decides to leave Furby behind as lookout while they show off their spelunking skills. Dennis and Foster waste little time in disorientating both the young explorers and their audience. Within minutes (or should that be millennia), Jackie is injured thanks to a mysteriously frayed rope, while a strange radio transmission purporting to be from Furby can be heard coming from much deeper inside the caves.

The lesser-known Wilson brother swatting up on his youth-restoring mythology.

On further inspection, Furby’s lifeless body is discovered. Yes, this is a film that isn’t afraid to murder its kids, perhaps foreshadowing the anything-goes approach that follows. Luckily for the gang, he was able to record his own demise (the only sign of Time Trap ’s origins as a found footage film). Worryingly, the video captured somehow spans several days, with the Chunk lookalike (their words) also serving up a convenient exposition dump that offers some clues as to what the heck is going on.

Turns out that, before plunging to his demise, Furby had discovered the missing hippies were, in fact, Hopper’s parents who’d entered the caves to search for the Fountain of Youth. Taylor, obviously minoring in quantum mechanics, theorizes they’re all experiencing the distortion of time, further evidence for which arrives when Cara free climbs to the surface and witnesses a landscape that looks suspiciously post-apocalyptic.

While the group has only been in the caves for a matter of hours, the world outside has fast-forwarded thousands of years. And just like Greta Thunberg predicted, mankind has wrecked the planet beyond repair. So much so that — as shown in video reports voiced by Stephen Hawking, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump impersonators — the entire surviving population has emigrated to a now-hospitable Mars.

Just one of the cave’s unlikely visitors.

It’s a development you’d expect to cause mass panic and several nervous breakdowns. Instead, in one of many unintentionally hilarious underreactions, the gang responds as if they’ve been mildly inconvenienced. “We still have each other,” says Cara, for some reason trying to put a positive spin on the fact that everyone they know and love has already spent a near-eternity pushing up daisies.

The script, and the monotonous way it’s delivered, may occasionally veer into parody. Still, there are at least a couple of great lines specifically designed to make you laugh. “Between water and psycho Flintstones, I say keep climbing,” shouts Cara as their getaway is interrupted by a bunch of growling cavemen — just one of several surprise visitors who help push the concept to enjoyably ridiculous levels.

Indeed, you have to admire Foster and Dennis for making so little go such a long way, with the final act also encompassing everything from laser-shooting spacemen to tentacled aliens. The visuals never look particularly convincing, but Time Trap is still determined to give you plenty of bang for your buck.

Of course, the duo’s grasp of the space-time continuum doesn’t bear much scrutiny. And for a film that thrives on pulling the rug from under its cardboard cutout characters, the happy-ever-after ending wraps things up way too neatly, admittedly with still one foot planted in the downright absurd. There’s an audaciousness here, though, which should have given its directors (who haven’t made anything since) a chance to showcase their talents at the next level.

Time Trap is streaming now on Netflix.

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An arch thriller given some grounding by Josh Hartnett's committed performance, Shyamalan's Trap will ensnare those who appreciate its tongue-in-cheek style while the rest will be eager to wriggle out from it.

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Pop music really can change your life. That’s part of the setup of M. Night Shyamalan’s near-miss of a thriller “Trap,” a movie that feels less like the Night Brand than a lot of his twisty ventures, a pared-down version of what he does that needed a round or two more of fleshing out its best ideas and amplifying its visual language. Night is at his best when he has a team of craftspeople to help elevate his best ideas in films like “ The Sixth Sense ,” “ Old ” (a movie that has grown on me), and “ The Village ,” but “Trap” too often lacks the craftsmanship it needs to crackle with energy and tension. Despite these missteps, Josh Hartnett almost makes “Trap” worth seeing, imbuing his character with a playfulness that can be captivating. It’s a shame his great work sometimes feels trapped in a movie that doesn’t know what to do with it.

The majority of “Trap” unfolds at a place that can be truly terrifying for a parent forced to spend hundreds of dollars on the latest pop superstar. In this case, it’s Lady Raven, played by Night’s daughter Saleka Shyamalan, a pop star shaped in the image of someone like Taylor Swift – one of those performances wherein the average age in the crowd is in the teens, and everyone knows all the words. Saleka wrote and performed most of the music, and speaking bluntly, there’s a bit too much of it, especially because it’s not quite as catchy as T. Swift.

Attending this Lady Raven show in Philly is an average guy named Cooper (Hartnett) and his teen daughter Riley ( Ariel Donoghue ). Shortly after their arrival, and with minimal character development, Cooper notices a strong police presence at the venue, including heavily armed men at all the doors. Through a brief act of politeness, he earns the trust of a vendor ( Jonathan Langdon ) who lets him on a secret – the cops and feds are there because they know that a notorious serial killer named The Butcher is in the building. Cooper is that man.

Their plan to stop every man who leaves the building and basically put them in front of ace profiler Dr. Grant (a woefully miscast Hayley Mills , likely here just because she's famous for a different "Trap" movie and Night thought that was funny) to determine guilt makes absolutely no sense. Still, people buy a ticket for a movie like “Trap” knowing the premise, and Shyamalan’s film gets by on its set-up for a while, largely because it allows Hartnett to shine through the opening act. Hartnett makes numerous smart, subtle choices that convey Cooper’s precise personality, particularly in a sly smile that reveals how much this sociopath enjoys the unexpected challenge.

Sadly, Shyamalan’s script doesn’t give Hartnett’s performance the stage it deserves. Cooper should be a cagey genius, someone who has kept his identity secret from everyone in his life and only has to do so for a bit longer to escape capture again. Instead of sketching Cooper as the smartest person in the room, Shyamalan almost comically makes him into the luckiest. Cooper keeps narrowly averting exposure through what can only be called movie magic. And when Shyamalan’s concept is forced to leave the arena, it comes apart with a series of scenes that make increasingly little sense. There are numerous times when the answer to “Why would someone do that in that situation?” can only be “Because of the movie.”

There’s an undeniably unique energy at a concert for a major pop star, a place where people scream (usually with glee), the lighting can be unpredictable, and someone in the crowd may not be all they appear to be. It’s a clever setting for a thriller, and where most of “Trap” unfolds, but Shyamalan doesn’t do enough with the geography of the space. A better film conveys how even a massive arena can feel claustrophobic when thousands of people surround you. But the cinematography by ace director of photography Sayombhu Mukdeeprom (“ Challengers ”) is oddly captivated by the large screens over the stage instead of the actual performer. This approach is surely to keep us more trapped in Cooper’s POV, but it ends up making the actual Lady Raven performance feel lackluster when we watch most of it on a screen on a screen. The editing by Noemi Katharina Preiswerk (who also cut Night’s “A Knock at the Cabin”) also lacks the hum that “Trap” really needed to work.

Ultimately, there’s something to be said for a man who can get a movie like “Trap” made in today’s market. It’s a weird, unpredictable movie not based on a pre-existing IP, and we are in an era where there are depressingly few original ideas in blockbuster filmmaking. For that alone – and the Joshaissance clearly unfolding with “ Oppenheimer ” and now this – it’s tempting to give “Trap” a pass. It’s just too bad that it ultimately feels like the word people so often throw at pop music confections: disposable.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Trap (2024)

Rated PG-13

105 minutes

Josh Hartnett as Cooper

Ariel Donoghue as Riley

Saleka as Lady Raven

Hayley Mills as Dr. Grant

Alison Pill as Rachel

Marnie McPhail as Jody's Mom

• M. Night Shyamalan

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Trap First Reviews: Josh Hartnett Powers a Surprisingly Straightforward Thriller

Critics say m. night shyamalan's latest doesn't hold as many surprises as one might expect, but its dark humor, tense atmosphere, and a strong central performance may just be enough for fans of his work..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies , thriller

Shyamalan summer continues this weekend with Trap . Arriving on the heels of his daughter Ishana Night Shyamalan’ s own feature directorial debut, The Watchers , released in June, Trap is the latest thriller from M. Night Shyamalan . According to the first reviews of the movie, it’s another divisive work from the master of suspense behind The Sixth Sense and last year’s Knock at the Cabin . Trap also co-stars another family member, Saleka Shyamalan , as a pop singer whose concert is used to snare a serial killer played by Josh Hartnett , and everything from the script to the acting is a delight or disappointment, depending on the reviewer.

Here’s what critics are saying about Trap :

(Photo by Sabrina Lantos/©Warner Bros. Entertainment)

Is it one of Shyamalan’s better movies?

It’s one of Shyamalan’s best movies in years…[he] returns to fine form here. — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

It’s perhaps his best-engineered work since The Village and arguably the purest piece of entertainment he’s ever made. — Nick Newman, The Film Stage

We keep wanting Shyamalan to somehow give us The Sixth Sense or Signs again. Trap is not either of those. This is a popcorn movie, with a surprising turn from an underrated star. And ultimately, it’s a pretty fun time at the theater. — Lindsey Bahr, Associated Press

It isn’t the top-tier M. Night Shyamalan that some might be expecting. — Peter Gray, The AU Review

Trap isn’t on the level of the filmmaker’s best but it’s far, far from his worst either. — Germain Lussier, io9.com

Trap likely won’t win over any new converts nor rank among his greatest efforts. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Trap is a miss. It’s not his worst, just middle of the pack, but a disappointment nonetheless. — Hope Madden, MaddWolf

How does such a good filmmaker make so many terrible films? — Graeme Tuckett, Stuff.co.nz

(Photo by ©Warner Bros. Entertainment)

How is the script?

The plot is rather ingeniously straightforward, at first, but the fraught journey of a father and killer trying not to upend and upset the carefully constructed delusional fabrication of his life — and how the two identities crash into each other on one fateful day — is exhilaratingly multifaceted. — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

Trap may not offer a lot in terms of its storytelling, as Shyamalan proves once again his ability to create something that can be enjoyed by a wide variety of audiences. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior

Trap is a cleverly-constructed thriller… accompanied by a script that’s much less involving by the end than it is to start. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

The best thing about Trap is the idea of Trap . — Germain Lussier, io9.com

The screenplay takes one idiotic turn after another. — Graeme Tuckett, Stuff.co.nz

Is it funny?

Unnervingly funny. — Nick Newman, The Film Stage

Trap features that filmmaker’s patented twisted sense of dark humor that’s light on its feet. — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

In Trap , [Shyamalan’s] wry and deceptively self-aware sense of humor is back on display. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

There’s a surprising amount of humor in Trap , partially because Hartnett gives a suitably and purposely goofy performance as Cooper. — Edward Douglas, The Weekend Warrior

Trap might’ve intended to have some dark comedy, but the movie is more memorable for its unintentional comedy because of how often Trap is laughably bad. — Carla Hay, Culture Mix

Does it have a satisfying twist?

Calling what happens in Trap a twist might be a misnomer… [It] shapeshifts, and the drama slithers ominously shedding its skin, becoming a brand-new creature on its own and a true-anxiety-riddled rollercoaster at that. — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

Shyamalan does have some tricks up his sleeves later in the film. — Germain Lussier, io9.com

Shyamalan has at least learned one new trick in the last couple of years. Rather than saving the nonsensical twist in the plot for the last few minutes of the film, with Trap , Shyamalan gets the “surprise” out of the way early. — Graeme Tuckett, Stuff.co.nz

It’s a bit more of a straightforward telling from the usual twist-heavy creator. — Peter Gray, The AU Review

Is the movie suspenseful?

True to form, the writer/director knows exactly when and how to ramp up the tension in the early going. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Trap is never, ever boring. Shyamalan simply has a way of coming up with an idea that keeps you on the edge of your seat until all is revealed. — Germain Lussier, io9.com

Shyamalan maintains a propulsive, high drama energy throughout with fast tracking shots, extreme closeups, slip diopter shots, and stunning camerawork that touches on Hitchchockian suspense for the first half. Then the gloves come off, and Trap shifts into a tauter, psychologically meaner affair. — Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting

It begins to claustrophobically coil, as the noose around Cooper’s neck seems to get tighter and tighter and he seemingly runs out of options. — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

Trap is effective in building suspense only during the scenes that take place during the concert. But even then, this suspense is built with repetitive scenarios. — Carla Hay, Culture Mix

How is Josh Hartnett’s performance?

Watching Hartnett flip between goofy, embarrassing father figure and concerned serial killer is a real treat. — Peter Gray, The AU Review

It’s a terrific performance… Hartnett is essentially playing several roles at once, or at least several subtly-shifting layers of them and its exceptionally compelling and one of his best ever turns. — Rodrigo Perez, The Playlist

It’s an amazing performance. — Germain Lussier, io9.com

Everything here lives or dies by Hartnett’s performance, and his many, many sure-to-be polarizing acting choices make him a worthy addition to Shyamalan’s canon of off-kilter leads. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

Josh Hartnett almost makes Trap worth seeing, imbuing his character with a playfulness that can be captivating. — Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

Does Saleka Shyamalan provide a great soundtrack?

She proves a capable performer with the largely R&B-inspired soundtrack an easy listen. — Peter Gray, The AU Review

Let’s just say that Saleka Shyamalan’s singing is better than her acting. — Carla Hay, Culture Mix

None of the songs are particularly catchy or impact the movie in any noteworthy way. — Germain Lussier, io9.com

Saleka Shyamalan struggles. She writes and performs all the Lady Raven songs, which seem reasonable enough as pop hits to me but, let’s be honest, I would have no idea. — Hope Madden, MaddWolf

Saleka wrote and performed most of the music, and speaking bluntly, there’s a bit too much of it, especially because it’s not quite as catchy as T. Swift. — Brian Tallerico, RogerEbert.com

Will some die-hard Shyamalan fans enjoy Trap ?

If you’re a fan of him, or curious about the premise, you’ll enjoy Trap much more than you won’t. — Germain Lussier, io9.com

Trap could very well prove a winning excursion for certain viewers. — Peter Gray, The AU Review

It’s another deliciously complicated addition to a filmography that simply refuses to fit into any neat and tidy boxes. — Jeremy Mathai, Slashfilm

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The Mouse Trap Review: A Painfully Misguided Venture

The Mouse Trap , directed by Jamie Bailey and written by Simon Phillips , is a horror reimagining of Walt Disney’s 1928 animated short film, Steamboat Willie . It was released following the public domain status of Mickey’s Steamboat Willie version on January 1, 2024. The premise, while potentially intriguing, quickly devolves into a dismal affair, more laughable than horrifying, and not in a good way.

The story centers around a group of friends—Alex ( Sophie McIntosh ), Marcus ( Callum Sywyk ), Marie ( Allegra Nocita ), Ryan ( Ben Harris ), and Gemma ( Mireille Gagné )—who decide to sneak into an amusement arcade after hours. What seems like an adventurous thrill quickly spirals into a nightmare when they realize they’re not alone. A masked killer, dressed in a Mickey Mouse costume, begins a terrifying game of cat and mouse.

From the outset, the plot of The Mouse Trap is riddled with clichés and predictable turns. The premise of being trapped in an amusement arcade with a killer should elicit tension and fear, but the execution falls flat. Simon Phillips’ writing fails to balance the comedic and horror elements, resulting in a script that feels more like a bad joke than a gripping narrative. The characters make the usual horror movie mistakes, like splitting up and ignoring obvious warning signs, which only adds to the frustration of the viewer.

The dialogue is uninspired and often cringe-worthy, filled with forced humor that lands awkwardly. There are attempts at witty banter that feel out of place during intense moments. This breaks any immersion the film might have achieved. The plot twists, if they can be called that, are telegraphed from miles away, making the film painfully predictable.

The characters in The Mouse Trap are underdeveloped stereotypes. Alex, played by Sophie McIntosh , is the typical final girl, though her lack of depth and agency makes it hard to root for her. Callum Sywyk’s Marcus is the jock with a heart of gold, but his performance feels wooden and unconvincing. Allegra Nocita as Marie, the quirky best friend, and Ben Harris as Ryan, the comic relief, deliver performances that are more annoying than endearing. Mireille Gagné as Gemma, the supposed brains of the group, is given little to work with, and her character’s smart decisions are undercut by the questionable actions forced by the script.

Simon Phillips as the killer in the Mickey Mouse costume is perhaps the film’s biggest letdown. Instead of a menacing and terrifying presence, his portrayal comes off as goofy and ineffective. There is a lack of menace in his performance, which is essential for a horror antagonist. The costume, rather than evoking fear, looks more like a cheap Halloween outfit, further diminishing any potential for horror.

Jamie Bailey’s direction is unfocused, failing to create a cohesive tone throughout the film. The attempts at humor and horror clash instead of complementing each other, resulting in a jarring viewing experience. The pacing is erratic, with moments of supposed tension being interrupted by misplaced comedic beats.

The cinematography by Bailey is equally unimpressive. The amusement arcade, which could have been a visually interesting and creepy setting, is shot in a bland and uninspired manner. There are no creative angles or lighting choices that could have enhanced the horror elements. Instead, the film relies on standard and uninventive shots that do nothing to build atmosphere or tension.

The special effects here are subpar, with practical effects that look amateurish and CGI that is glaringly obvious. The gore, which should be shocking and impactful in a horror film, looks fake and unimpressive. This further detracts from any potential scares the film might have had.

The music and sound design are equally lackluster. The score is forgettable, with no memorable themes or motifs. The sound effects, which could have been used to build tension, are instead overused and predictable. There are no moments where the audio truly enhances the fear or comedy, making it feel like an afterthought.

The Mouse Trap is a misguided attempt at blending comedy and horror. The premise of a killer in a Mickey Mouse costume could have been a unique and interesting twist. However, the execution is severely lacking. With poor writing, lackluster acting, uninspired direction, and unimpressive technical elements, the film fails on almost every front.

• Acting - 1/10 1/10
• Cinematography/Visual Effects - 1/10 1/10
• Plot/Screenplay - 1/10 1/10
• Setting/Theme - 1/10 1/10
• Watchability - 1/10 1/10
• Rewatchability - 1/10 1/10

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MOVIE REVIEW: We see if M. Night Shyamalan's latest 'Trap' lives up to its killer premise

Director adds to his shaky record with story full of plot holes and an overreliance on suspension of disbelief.

• 19:50, 17 AUG 2024

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There ain’t many directors out there with a back catalogue as wildly varied on the quality scale as M. Night Shyamalan.

And, unfortunately, Trap is more in line with Old and The Happening than The Sixth Sense or Unbreakable .

Josh Hartnett ( Cooper ) plays serial killer The Butcher who attends a pop concert with his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) only to discover the entire event is an FBI trap intending to capture the unidentified murderer.

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Like much of Shyamalan’s work, Trap has a very intriguing hook, and the trailer made it look like the thriller would be inventive - and make you wonder just how Hartnett’s antagonist could possibly work his way out of the seemingly hopeless situation he finds himself in.

It seems Shyamalan didn’t really know the answers, though, as his script really struggles to make Cooper and the characters surrounding him act in believable ways.

The plot holes and overreliance on suspension of disbelief are best summed up by the moment Cooper walks into a room full of SWAT officers and they barely bat an eyelid.

Shyamalan’s often wonky dialogue is also featured prominently, with characters spouting sentences no everyday person would ever utter.

Truthfully, if it wasn’t for Hartnett, this would be among the director’s worst work.

He does have the odd tendency to over-egg things at times, but the 46-year-old is clearly having a blast turning to a darker side, and often only a slight look or facial tic hints at his unhinged nature.

Donoghue deserves praise too as she often says what we’re all thinking and shares a sweet bond with her dad.

Much of the film feels like a showcase for Shyamalan’s daughter Saleka who plays pop star Lady Raven ; she can carry a tune, and the concert footage is very realistic, but there are times the focus is on her - and that shouldn’t be the case.

Everything that happens away from the concert doesn’t really work and the ever-increasing absurdity makes you think Trap would have worked better as a short film – or in surer hands.

● What are your thoughts on Shyamalan’s films? Has he already peaked as a director?

Pop me an email at [email protected] and I will pass on your comments – and any movie or TV show recommendations you have – to your fellow readers.

● Trap is showing in cinemas now.

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