‘The Snare’ Review – Merlin Camozzi’s Intense Debut Sheds Light on The Reality of Confidential Informants

I’m sure it wouldn’t take long for anyone to think of a time when they felt trapped in an impossible situation. Back against the wall with no good options, what do you do? The Snare, written and directed by Merlin Camozzi, explores one of the more dire versions of this feeling. The film follows Dani (Cassady McClincy Zhang), a high school senior on the verge of graduation and a scholarship waiting for her in college. She has a rough relationship with her working single mother, Faye (Lucy Walters), and is often put in charge of her younger brother, Bison (Joaopaulo Malheiro), for hours after school. After Bison gets into some trouble in the same parking lot where Dani has been handed some MDMA by her crush, Marty (Dempsey Bryk), she’s quickly put into a rock and a hard place with the legal system when the cops arrive.

Dani is faced with an impossible choice: go to jail for getting caught with drugs, or become a confidential informant to help reel in a bigger fish for the police department. It’s clear early on that these detectives don’t really care about cleaning up the streets and keeping them safe, but instead care about their appearances and how these arrests look on paper. What choice does Dani have if she wants to keep her scholarship for college? Begrudgingly, she agrees to seek out someone for the cops to bust so that she can walk free. 

Camozzi perfectly captures the feeling and circumstances that would lead to someone agreeing to do something like this. Dani has virtually no support system, no one she can turn to in a time of crisis. Her mother works too much to be able to care about much more than keeping her kids alive with basic necessities. Her friends just want to party, and her brother is too young to be much help to her. She doesn’t have enough money to pay an enrollment fee for college, let alone a decent lawyer to give her sound advice. She’s trapped. And she has to entrap someone else to take her place, or her life is seemingly over before it really begins. 

McClincy Zhang plays this helplessness amazingly, with the desperation rising more and more as the film progresses. Her performance really shines after a couple of failed, yet valiant, attempts at entrapping some folks higher up on the food chain, leading to a powerful and emotional scene where she releases all the anxiety and fear she’s been carrying. 

During all of this, the only solace she’s found has been in her budding relationship with Marty, but she’s unable to be completely honest with her intentions with him. She’s infatuated with him, and he’s showing genuine interest in her, but she can’t divorce her desire for him from the need to use him to get out of legal trouble. She puts a lot of effort into finding someone to offer up as the sacrificial lamb to the police without leading them to Marty. Some of the more thrilling moments are surprisingly just the two of them in Marty’s room, with Dani trying to spin some story to gain his trust and help in her mission. 

The story and performances work amazingly in tandem, giving the viewer the rising anxiety that Dani feels. I was more tense during this film than in many horror movies, and it speaks to the script, pacing, and believability of the actors to be able to pull that off. 

The Snare is a harrowing depiction of a real-life issue that happens to people who have one slip-up or run in with the law. They’re ensnared in this never-ending cycle of helping the police find bigger fish so they can be safe, but it’s not just a one-off deal. You find one, then you’re wrapped into the operation for life. In perpetuity. Camozzi does a stellar job of shedding light on this issue with a compelling, intense script and bringing out a great performance from McClincy Zhang.