Hayley Mills Says She Got ‘Déjà Vu’ Watching Lindsay Lohan’s Remake of Her 1961 Classic, The Parent Trap

Before she made moves in the upcoming thriller Trap, Hayley Mills was the star of 1961’s original The Parent Trap.

The film saw the young British actress in the dual roles of long-lost twin sisters Sharon McKendrick and Susan Evers, similar to Lindsay Lohan’s characters, Hallie Parker and Annie James, in the 1998 remake.

Watching Lohan’s version, directed by Nancy Meyers, “was a very, very odd experience,” Mills, 78, told PEOPLE at the Trap premiere in New York City on July 24. “I felt like this déjà vu thing going on. I thought she was very, very good. The split screens were so brilliant.”

Seeing a movie so pivotal in her life remade was “weird,” Mills added. “It’s really strange because so much of the dialogue is the same. They changed the story a little bit. But I did think she was very good.”

In Trap, which star Josh Hartnett as a serial killer “trapped” at a concert-turned-sting-operation set up to arrest him, Mills plays an FBI profiler named Dr. Grant, a departure from some of her more best-known parts in Pollyanna, That Darn Cat!, Good Morning, Miss Bliss and other classics.

“I didn’t ever expect to ever get a part like this,” she told PEOPLE at the premiere. “When it happened, I thought they’d made a mistake.”

To work with director M. Night Shyamalan “was just a gift, an absolute gift,” she continued. “He is fabulous. He loves actors — he is an actor, you know — and he writes the characters. He understands them. He knows their thought process. He knows where they’re coming from and if you’re not thinking what you’re supposed to be thinking, he knows.”

Though Trap‘s trailer promises jumps and twists, as many of Shyamalan’s films do, “I’ve never really thought of it as a horror film,” Mills continued. “I think it’s very, very exciting. I think it’s a thriller. Night is particular — he’s extraordinary how he makes films that are often psychologically terrifying because he is one of the most charming, funny people I’ve met and on the set that we had more laughs than any movie I can remember.”

Speaking to PEOPLE about the film this week, Hartnett called Mills “the most gregarious human being on the planet.”

“I loved her,” the actor, 46, continued. “She was there for pretty much the whole time we were shooting. And when she was on set we’d just sit and chat.”

However, a few people weren’t so thrilled about Mills’ bond with Hartnett.

“My daughters love her work. They’ve watched Pollyanna a thousand times, and The Parent Trap,” Hartnett continued. “And I think they came to the set, but for whatever reason, they didn’t cross paths [with Hayley] and they were so angry when they found out they weren’t going to meet her.”

Trap hits theaters next Friday, Aug. 2.