M. Night Shyamalan And Daughter Saleka Set A ‘Trap’ In New Music-Fueled Thriller – Watch

American filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan and his daughter Saleka have teamed up to create an all-new psychological thriller.

Entitled Trap, the latest film from Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Split, Knock at the Cabin) features an an all-original soundtrack written by his daughter, R&B singer-songwriter Saleka, who also stars in the film. These include the tracks “Release” and “Save Me.” Previously, Shyamalan served as the showrunner of the Apple+ psychological horror series Servant, whose soundtrack Saleka also made the songs for.

Written and directed by Shymalan, Trap tells the story of a loving father named Cooper (Josh Hartnett), who accompanies his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to the concert of famous pop star Lady Raven (Saleka). Unknown to everyone else except him, Cooper is actually the serial killer called “The Butcher,” and he soon realizes that the concert is a trap set by the police to catch him.

“This is a very personal project, because it was an idea that my dad and I had a long time ago — to bring music and film together, which are things that go together very much in our culture from Bollywood films,” states Saleka when asked how the idea for the film came out, which she describes as something that feels natural but she and her father wanted to do it their own “Shyamalan” way. “That was the seed. Then, he came up with the idea of a serial killer at a concert, where the concert is a trap. That really began this project. He wrote the script with spots for songs, and I ended up writing an album for it.”

“When I first read the script, well, it was shocking, because it was the first time I was reading a script and thinking of myself as a character,” the singer-songwriter shares when asked about her reaction to reading the script for the first time. “There was a personal element that was different, but it was just so enthralling, even more than I thought it was going to be. I couldn’t stop turning the pages and it was very exciting — I was kept guessing the whole time.”

“We were considering a bunch of names for the character, but ‘Lady Raven’ was my favorite,” Saleka shares on the creation of her character in the film, noting how the raven is a symbol in their family that’s considered “dark but beautiful, and also strong and majestic.” Because of this, Saleka expounds, her character’s sound as an artist is pop but edgy — a sound one can have fun with. “She’s an artist who wants to teach her audience and the girls that follow her the strength to believe in who you are and not to be afraid, to go for things.”

On her process of writing the songs for the film, Saleka revealed that she consistently considered the music to be an amplification of the story, such that when the “tension in the plot becomes more intense” and “escalates,” the songs are also “rising in energy and getting a little bit more extreme,” alongside the the sets, the dancing, and the costumes. “My dad wrote the script very specifically, and I needed to find the music to match, lyrically and sonically,” Saleka reveals. “Every scene is very specific in the emotions.”

Trap comes out in movie theaters across the Philippines on July 31 via Warner Bros. Philippines. Watch the latest trailer for the movie below: