Review: Split

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

Written by: M. Night Shyamalan

Starring: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula

Rating: [4.5/5]

Centering a film on a mental disability and the weirdness of it for the sake of horror certainly feels like quite the choice to make and one that needs to be handled quite carefully. Walking the line between entertainment and stigmatization of a group who does need any more of it makes a difficult proposition. Luckily, the king of great premises comes back with a bang with a disconcerting and intriguing story in Split giving the showcase of a lifetime to its lead actor. 

Kidnapped by a disturbed man, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) and three friends Karen (Betty Buckley) and Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) find themselves trapped in an undisclosed location and try to get out. While helped by their captor they soon learn the individual has dissociative identity disorder resulting in the same person having various personalities fighting to take the front of the stage making for quite a confusing and terrifying experience. 

Once again, if there’s one thing M. Night Shyamalan will do in every film he creates is craft quite the intriguing premise for a story that completely draws you in. This typically causes trouble and the polarizing relationship he has with audience members. He makes you get invested in the story only to feel shafted by his pursuit to pull the plug out from under you in the form of a twist. In a filmography filled with hits and misses, on this occasion, he connects well in crafting such an eerie tale handling everything fairly well. 

Putting these three girls in this predicament undoubtedly presents a frightful circumstance they must fight to survive and right away this feature demonstrates the different lives they have lived upon their capture. Casey advises the other two girls to urinate on themselves if the man that kidnapped them tries to sexually assault them as a defense mechanism to ward him off from their bodies. It indicates either she has learned a lot just from a general base of knowledge or rather she has experienced some horrific acts done to her and has needed to learn for her own sake. Something tragic to learn but it informs this character as a whole and evidently the man carrying the multiple personalities in his mind. 

Thus this feature switches from two settings for the most part in telling the story of these girls trying to survive whatever this man has in store for them but also the psychologist Karen (Betty Buckley), fully aware of the disorder the man deals with and seeks to help him with it although unaware of him kidnapping these girls. Karen tries to fully comprehend how it works and how the guy has 23 different personalities within him all trying to take over. This then informs the scenes with the girls where they learn something else is coming, perhaps a 24th personality mysteriously coming to the forefront that only spells trouble for the girls and anyone else he encounters. 

When it comes to exploring the themes of films, M. Night Shyamalan never shies away from yelling them at you through the narrative. In the instance of this feature, the theme very clearly centers on trauma and how both Casey and the man with multiple personalities share within them. Casey’s trauma gets sprinkled into the story through flashbacks and then we learn of the man’s through the psychologist where she spells it out through her research and discernment in her sessions with him. Something quite tragic but ultimately hinges on the idea of surviving trauma and making someone stronger without getting too deep into spoilers in this review. This becomes incredibly important to the narrative as a whole and what transpires with these characters. 

While not displaying all 23 personalities in this feature, having the ability to portray about half of a dozen of them in this feature presents catnip for an actor. The opportunity to portray different characters all in one role to display their range and James McAvoy plays this all so incredibly well. What the man does through the way he speaks makes a discernible difference but the magnetism of his performance comes straight from how he structures his face for each personality. He crafts something so distinct with each of them that after a while we recognize exactly which personality has come out to play. At first, they could easily be distinguished because of the change of clothes but the change in personalities does not necessarily hinge on that but rather on who steps up the microphone making for some incredible shifts in who these girls interact with in mere seconds. Exceptional work by James McAvaoy, a bravura performance. 

The way M. Night Shyamalan shoots the different personalities drives chills down the spine as he reveals new aspects about them. The most effective one comes from when the girls first learn about the change in personalities when the switch occurs between Dennis and Patricia. They see through the crack the figure of a woman in women’s clothing only for the reveal to display the same individual but using a more maternal voice. Quite intense to take on and M. Night Shyamalan sets up McAvoy so well so he can shine. 

Quite the story that’s shifty through its narrative but fairly straightforward in how it presents its story and themes, Split may lay everything out for the audience but does it in quite an entertaining way. It explores the trauma of these characters and how it informs the decisions they make along with the impact it’s had on their lives all wrapped up into a horror film as these girls try to escape a terrifying situation. As blasphemous as it may be to say for some, this feature may stand alone as my favorite M. Night Shyamalan film because of the way he handles the tightrope of this story making for quite a captivating watch.