Want to know the identity of serial killer The Butcher, who smothers and scatters frightful fragments of his helpless victims for the world to witness? His name is M. Night Shyamalan, and two and a half decades since his brilliant trick ending Best Picture nominee, he’s been consistently guilty of serving up large helpings of uneven cold product. The promising premise of his paranoid thriller Trap (C-) is that Philly police know a multiple murderer is at large and planning to attend a major concert, and the squad endeavors to contain and apprehend him in the arena before the show is over. Josh Hartnett and Ariel Donoghue play the zany zaddy of a father and the eye-rolling daughter at the center of the action in the general admission pit of the music event, with Hayley Mills as a mysterious sniffer of sociopaths leveraging her nose for this nuisance (please tell me she wasn’t cast in the film because she starred in the original Parent Trap, and it just seemed like too good a play on words!). Shyamalan stages a mild fantasia of a show-within-the-story on the stage with R&B singer Saleka (she’s perhaps the sassiest discovery) parallel to the pressure cooker of the coliseum as its own experiment for an escape artist. What starts out not feeling particularly well acted or authentic simply gets more preposterous by the final act. It’s poorly written and paced and rarely ratchets up the action or trademark turns to much significant effect. Parts of the movie are suspenseful and others boring, and the far-fetched elements fail to work as a cohesive whole. Nobody wins in this slow-burn setlist, especially the audience. This moviemaker needs someone who can control his inner demons which keep getting manifested as feature films.