Trap’s Reviews, Rotten Tomatoes & Metacritic Scores Don’t Match Its Positive Reactions

The initial reactions to M. Night Shyamalan’s psychological thriller Trap following an early screening were considerably positive. Now, with the film releasing in theaters on Friday, August 2, in various parts of the world, reviews from critics are coming in. And the film’s Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores don’t particularly match the early response to the film.

Trap currently has a middling 48% approval rating after 31 reviews on the review aggregating site Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, on Metacritic, which utilizes a weighted average to rate a film, Trap has received a score of 61 out of 100 after 10 reviews, indicating a “generally favorable” response.

ScreenCrush’s Matt Singer is one of the reviewers who gave Trap a positive review. Singer hailed the movie as not only the “best” one Shyamalan had made in years, but also the filmmaker’s most “Hitchcockian” project to date.

William Bibbiani of The Wrap called Trap a “fiendishly clever thriller,” before adding that while the movie might not have “the depth of Shyamalan’s most important films or the theatricality of his most memorably weird experiments,” it is still “one of his best thrillers.” “A tightly wound, devilishly fun, mean little film that dares us to consider the serial killer genre from new angles,” he further added.

Discussing Film’s James Preston Poole noted that Shyamalan “is riding the wave of a major resurgence.” According to him, at this point, a moviegoer has to be either “fully on board” with Shyamalan or not. “Trap is the kind of movie that will lead to many broken theater armrests by way of clutching too hard,” Poole added.

Among the reviewers who criticized Trap, Variety’s Owen Gleiberman dubbed the film as “fundamentally far-fetched” and “not fun.”

Richard Roeper of Chicago Sun-Times criticized Trap for having “laughable plot turns.” According to him, each new twist the film introduces is “more implausible and laughable than the next, until the absolute howler of an ending.”

Punch Drunk Critics’ Travis Hopson praised Josh Hartnett’s performance as Cooper, but then added that Trap was “too unfocused and clumsy to hit the high standards that Shyamalan has set recently.”

Throughout this weekend, Trap will receive more reviews and the Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic scores can potentially shift, though significant changes in the ratings are unlikely.