As a director, M. Night Shyamalan has had quite a varied career in the film industry in terms of how his films have been received by critics and audiences. After starting out with a few small indie films that didn’t get much attention, Shyamalan truly made a name for himself in 1999 with The Sixth Sense. The supernatural horror-thriller ended up being the second highest-grossing film of the year, behind only Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. It was also nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Shyamalan then followed that up with two solid critical and commercial hits in the form of 2000’s Unbreakable and 2002’s Signs. But then, Shyamalan’s career started to take a severe nosedive immediately thereafter. Throughout the early 2000’s, his films were subjected to increasingly harsh reviews from critics while audiences began to get more and more frustrated with his trademark twist endings. Thus, films like The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth ended up turning the filmmaker who was once touted by Newsweek as ‘the next Steven Spielberg’ into the butt of many jokes (“What a Twist!” – Robot Chicken). But, it seems like he’s recently started to turn his career around, thanks in part to his smaller-budgeted collaborations with horror producer Jason Blum. Two years ago, they first teamed up to make The Visit, which was Shyamalan’s first well-received directorial effort in more than a decade. This year, that streak continues with Shyamalan and Blum’s second collaboration, Split. And thanks to strong lead performances and an excellently crafted/suspenseful atmosphere, Split is very much one of Shyamalan’s best directorial efforts.
As the film begins, three teenaged girls; best friends Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Marcia (Jessica Sula) and loner Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), the latter of whom joins them when she finds herself without a ride home, are kidnapped by a mysterious man in their car following a day at the mall. When the three girls come to after being knocked out, they find themselves locked in a reinforced, windowless room. Soon after, they are truly introduced to their captor, Kevin (James McAvoy), a man who suffers from dissociative identity disorder. To be more specific, 23 distinct identities reside within Kevin’s mind. These identities range from a 9-year old boy named ‘Hedwig’ to a prim English woman named ‘Patricia’, complete with a red dress and high heels, to the ‘one’ who kidnapped them in the first place, ‘Dennis’. While in these various identities, Kevin warns the three girls that ‘someone’s coming for them’. As it turns out, this ‘someone’ is a 24th identity referred to only as ‘The Beast’, as Kevin notes that the three girls are set to be sacrificed to it once it arrives. With no one else around to help them, Casey, Claire, and Marcia begin to seek a way out of their current predicament before Kevin can truly unleash ‘The Beast’ upon them. Their solution? Try and turn Kevin’s different identities against one another.
While I’ve not yet seen The Visit, it’s clear that the transition from bigger-budgeted blockbusters, like The Last Airbender and After Earth, to the smaller-budgeted affairs that his last two films have been, is something that has very much helped Shyamalan in terms of his screenplays. Much of the action in this film is restricted to one primary location, Kevin’s hideout, and as such, Shyamalan creates an excellent amount of tension throughout as we are left waiting for Kevin’s ‘24th identity’ to emerge. And because Kevin can slip in and out of his various identities in an instant, you can never quite tell what he’s going to do next. Thus, when the finale does roll around, it results in a very suspenseful, as well as effectively minimal, climax to what has been a very effective ‘bottle episode’, sort of like what 10 Cloverfield Lane did last year. As for Shyamalan’s trademark knack for twist endings, without giving anything away, the twist in this film is solidly implemented into the story. It doesn’t reach the ridiculous lengths of some of Shyamalan’s most infamous twists (e.g. aliens being vulnerable to water despite coming to a planet that’s primarily covered in water (Signs)). It just fits naturally into the story. Plus, the twist, as well as the potential that it brings to the table, is sure to satisfy fans of another Shyamalan film, which I won’t name here to avoid giving any major details about this film’s twist away. Really, my only major negative towards the film is that it’s arguably a bit overlong. Split is Shyamalan’s longest film to date at just under two hours and it could’ve used a bit of trimming here and there, namely during some of the more slower moments.
Of course, the main draw of this film is seeing the main villain, Kevin, go through his different identities. Admittedly, the film doesn’t go through all 23 of them (though, to be fair, that’d be a lot of ground to cover in the given runtime) but, nevertheless, James McAvoy does a fantastic job in the role. He slips into each distinct identity with ease while also conveying the right amount of creepiness with each one. ‘9-year-old Hedwig’ is easily the biggest standout in terms of his identities as he provides the film with some of its more humorous moments while also being arguably the most sympathetic of Kevin’s identities, as it’s established that he sometimes gets bullied by some of the other identities. McAvoy also works quite well in scenes with Betty Buckley, who does a great job in the role of Kevin’s psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher, while also managing to overcome the status of being ‘the crazy old woman from The Happening’ (you know, the one that made Mark Wahlberg respond to a question with “What? No!”). As for the three main girls, admittedly only one of them truly matters in the long run; Casey, played by Anya-Taylor Joy, who’s kind of become a big star in the horror genre thanks to films like this and 2016’s The Witch. She does a great job here and her character is a well-layered protagonist. All throughout the film, we see flashbacks of her traumatic past, which not only makes her a sympathetic lead but also comes into effect later in the film. But like I said, she’s really the only one of the main trio of girls who gets any major screen-time. Both Claire and Marcia come off as being extraneous to the plot, especially considering that both disappear for sizable chunks of the runtime after they anger Kevin and are put in separate ‘cells’. I mean, yes, they are generally essential to the plot seeing how they’re the reason why Casey is kidnapped along with them, but they’re still the most underdeveloped of the main cast of characters.
Okay, so I’ll admit that I was rather behind in terms of seeing this one as it’s already been out for a few weeks. However, I do want to note that there was quite a packed crowd at my screening, and again, keep in mind, this is three weeks into the film’s theatrical run. Clearly, Split has been a big hit with critics and audiences (in January, no less!) and it’s great to see Shyamalan have a critical/commercial hit again after all his misfires in the 2000’s. Of course, part of that comes from the fact that Split truly is one of his best efforts in recent years. It’s a well-tuned and suspenseful thriller that also benefits greatly from terrific performances from leads James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy. Not being a big fan of the horror genre, I can’t really say much about whether this film delivers on scares or not, but I can say that there’s a good chance that you’ll be left on the edge of your seat by the end of it all. Of course, as one would expect from a Shyamalan film, there are twists in this story but they do work well here, right down to the one that reveals the full extent of the universe in which this story takes place. And, again, it’s just good to see that Shyamalan has gotten his career back on track. I’ll admit that, prior to this, I’ve only seen two of his other films and, unfortunately, those two happen to be some of his most notorious ‘stinkers’, The Last Airbender and After Earth. So, at this moment, this film can claim the title of being the best Shyamalan film that I’ve seen to date. Admittedly, that’s not saying much considering that this is only the 3rd Shyamalan film that I’ve seen, but I will get around to seeing his other films in the future, especially the one that is tied to this film’s big reveal.
Rating: 4/5
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