Luis Cámara

(In French, On Cable TV, July 2021) There are a few promising ways in which Steel Trap could have gone, from an intriguing closed-set thriller to—oh, who am I kidding? From the film’s first moments, in which seven young unpleasant people are mysteriously invited by a mysterious person to a mysterious New Year party in a mysterious building, the film plays out along very familiar lines — it’s dark, moodily directed, and uninterested in its characters until it’s time to slaughter them. Seven guests means more or less seven deaths, and that’s the structure of the film for you — whatever mystery about the killer’s identity is really irrelevant because once secret identities and past traumas get involved, it could be anyone’s name out of the hat. Apparently resurrected from overly fond memories of 1980s slashers, Steel Trap is singularly joyless and featureless in how it approaches the material. The film clearly means its ending to be a big gotcha moment, but viewers jaded by it all will just shrug in response. Writer/director Luis Cámara does manage to turn in a watchable, professional product… but it’s so painfully boring and derivative that it won’t earn any recommendations.