(A Generic SPOILER ALERT is warranted, it’s best to go into this movie fresh)
Remember the days when M. Night Shyamalan was revered for his stories? Spoiler Alert: OMG, BRUCE WILLIS WAS DEAD THE WHOLE TIME!!!! Ah, those were the days. The director has been a figure of ridicule in recent memory, with some studios actively shying away from his involvement in a production. Split is a good reminder of what Shyamalan can do, of the good old days. Anchored by a great performance from James McAvoy, Split no longer makes me fear Shyamalan’s involvement in a movie, and gives me hope that the guy still has some juice left in the tank.
It’s Claire’s (Haley Lu Richardson) birthday, so she invited everyone to the mall to celebrate with her. Despite the objections of her best friend Marcia (Jessica Sula), Claire also invites class outcast Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), who seems like she wants to get into trouble all the time. Before the three get a ride home, they are drugged and kidnapped by a man who calls himself Dennis (McAvoy). However, as Dennis’s psychiatrist (Betty Buckley) informs us, Dennis is not just Dennis: he has a record 23 people living inside of his mind, each vying for control of the body they inhabit.
Split gets Shyamalan to go back to basics. The atmosphere around this movie is sinister; even when McAvoy (I’m going to use the actor because I don’t want to write all the characters he is playing) is being amusing or nice to his hostages, we are fully aware that the knife’s edge McAvoy is walking could slip at any moment. Plus, McAvoy’s personalities keep dropping hints of this Beast personality no one has seen that you know is probably not that far away from being released. The third act is rife with fear and tension, and left me curled in a ball covering my eyes at times. In addition, Shyamalan spends the 2 hours of screentime developing the 4 women surrounded by the Split. McAvoy’s psychiatrist is obviously a tool to help the audience understand what is going on with McAvoy, but she is also a very interesting woman as well, caring about these Splits and seeing it as a blessing more than a curse. The three girls are also not just wafer thin. Haley Lu Richardson and Jessica Sula are given agency to escape and use the resources they have, but they are still scared teenagers. Anya Taylor-Joy is even better; her backstory and reactions to McAvoy make her a fascinating take on the ‘final girl’ that most of these films have.
But Shyamalan succeeds mostly because he cast his Split personality character correctly. By IMDB, James McAvoy plays 8 of the 23 personalities, but given time, I’m sure he could have gotten close to that number. Each of the 8 is distinctly different, but McAvoy’s acting makes you see which ones would align together. McAvoy displays tics, accents, sounds, and body contortions to act the hell out of this person. He makes you scared, happy, awed, and many other feelings, sometimes in just one scene. Yes the story Shyamalan pens is pretty solid, but McAvoy is the piece that holds it together, and the ending is as great as it is because of what McAvoy brought to the table before.
Split makes me wonder where the HELL this M. Night Shyamalan has been? Riding the wave of a string of good horror movies, Split proudly continues the trend positively, giving us a fascinating scary story that will make you quiver (for me, I will shake when I hear the word Rejoice for the conceivable future). Or maybe this was a trick by Shyamalan all along? Maybe he wrote/directed Split because he wanted to cast himself as “Hooters Lover” in a movie and this was the only credible way to do so. Think about it, genius right?