For a brief time writer-director M. Night Shyamalan was the toast of Hollywood, made so by the creative and commercial success of The Sixth Sense and a few other titles after that.  That was more than twenty years ago.  He has continued to make movies, some good, some bad, since then but has never regained the artistic success that he enjoyed with that classic supernatural thriller.  But I’ll say this for him — he is still trying, coming up with philosophical question films like Knock at the Cabin or intriguing thrillers like Trap.  We may yet see another big success from him . . . but it will have to be consistently better than this.

M. Night Shyamalan’s suspense drama brings fireman Cooper (Josh Hartnett) and his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a pop concert that Riley has wanted to attend.  Cooper is surprised by the large police presence at the stadium arena and learns that the hunt is on for a serial killer known as “The Butcher,” who is known to be attending the concert.  Riley finds herself being singled out by the singer, Lady Raven (Sakela Night Shyamalan), and even being brought onstage for a dance routine as her proud father watches from backstage.  Their interaction with the singer leads to some surprising developments.

I really enjoyed the premise of this film and the growing sense of dread it creates as we learn the details of the police trap and its accelerating sense of danger.  The father-daughter relationship is completely convincing and a couple of odd subplots involving an issue at Riley’s school and her loss of friends creates intriguing distractions and possible red herrings.  It all builds very well until the writer-director makes the mistake of revealing an incredibly important plot point in a bathroom stall too early in the drama.  This secret is bound to be uncovered but it should have been delayed for as long as dramatically possible.  And then The Butcher actually reveals his identity to Lady Raven is a scene that is simply too unbelievable to believe.  From that point on the movie changes direction and never recovers its way.  The cat-and-mouse game goes on for a good while after that and still retains some suspense but it becomes far too movie-ish, which is not a compliment.

I will compliment Mr. Shyamalan for one other aspect, which is the lack of violence.  With a serial killer on the loose in a packed stadium full of prospective teenage victims I had visions of a bloodbath.  That is not the case.  I won’t say how many victims there are but it is a surprisingly low number and I was grateful for that.  Suspense can be created and maintained without the gratuitous violence that permeates most modern thrillers these days.  With a very solid Josh Hartnett performance, strong use of the stadium setting and a palpable sense of danger, this is an admirable attempt at an urban thriller that just misses the mark.  ☆ ☆ 1/2.  12 June 2025.