Split (2016)

Split: M.Night Shyamalan has gloriously returned to the big screen with his mind-altering puzzle of uncertainty that is Split, which stars poster boy and the all-time favourite, James McAvoy. Now what I’ll say about the film just now before I dig into details is that it’s a very well done film, which explores a man that has abducted 3 teenage girls, a man who has a multiple personality disorder. The film tries to show us how someone with this condition might behave, act or treat others depending on which personality is ‘in control’ at the time. Something that McAvoy fantastically does at showing the massive difference between the personalities or ‘alters’ that live within Kevin’s body (the central body in which these personalities reside. The film is well crafted however, it does have it’s flaws, as with many films however the film is very good at sweeping them aside and continuing without a hic-up. Let’s talk story, shall we? At the beginning of the story we are at a high-school birthday girls party (I presume so anyways) where the two main girls are waiting for one of their invitees parents to pick her up, they eventually don’t show up after sometime and the girls dad asks her if she wishes to be driven to her home, she declines stating that she will take the bus, after a little bit of talking she accepts the offer, gets in the car with the other girls and waits to be driven. This is where things begin to go downhill. Instead of one of the girl’s fathers sitting in the chair, a complete stranger wearing a medical mask sits down and sprays the two girls sitting in the back with some sort of pepper spray sleeping aerosol. After a minute of watching her two ‘friends’ being sprayed she tries to escape the front seat, however, this doesn’t go to plan and one of McAvoy’s personalities sprays her. I would assume a few hours later they wake up inside an underground basement feeling room. They panic, screaming and crying until McAvoy's character of Dennis comes through, a character that has OCD and ends up trying to pry away one of the girls to dance with him, she refuses and they all fight back, Dennis then gives up and locks their door. From there and onwards, we are shown the many personalities that inhabit Kevin, 23 of them to be exact (well 24 but that’s a slight spoiler shhh). From the 23 (24), we only hear and see a small number of them. The names of these personalities that we see are Jade, Kevin, Dennis, Hedwig (arguably the best of them all haha), Patricia, The Beast (spoiler) and a few others whose names have slipped my mind. Throughout the story, we find out more about Kevin, how all of his ‘alters’ came to be, how each of them work and think, their personality traits and what they mean to each other, we also figure out what The Beasts intentions are, how his personalities share Kevin’s body and the 3 teenage girls will have to escape from their unlikely kidnapper. A plot that has it’s highlights and typical horror/thriller moments. Both good and bad to say the least. It’s also incredibly hard to talk about the story as it has many spoiler related parts to it and is also hard to explain after watching it without too much plot details being spoiled. This is a great film, something that is well crafted and gives us very very satisfying performances from McAvoy, meanwhile the three girls give a somewhat cheesy typical hormone-driven performance that is sometimes unbearable to watch. The Story is defiantly there, however, I feel really disappointed that we didn’t get to find out more about Kevin’s past, more about what each ‘alter’ means and what each ones intentions and dreams are, something that I found very disappointing and focused more on one the girls back story of how her uncle abused her, which ends up saving her life at the end of story which was a little strange to say the least and when moments in the film started to get tense and that thriller sense started kicking in that we love it would cut to something else out of context and something that left us thinking why? Why do this to us, which frustrated me a couple of times. To me honestly, I found this a great film but it had a sort of 3 story sense to it that made me feel like I watching three different stories but they cut the good bits out and replaced it with another film/story if that’s something you can understand and relate to? Overall, the different way’s McAvoy took on the role of creating unique characters in an interesting place is the best part about the film and the rest of it is just there and without much meaning, it’s often really hard to say this however, I couldn’t give a damn about the three girls or the therapist, it was all about Kevin and his story in my eyes and I wish we could have seen more of that. To call this movie a success is one thing, to call it a failure is another, it just depends on what mood you’re in when you see the movie. It’s a great film, just not the kind of film you would expect from a trailer or let alone the real film it is. Although it has it’s flaws and nuisances, M.Night Shyamalan has made a really good comeback to the world of cinema, I just hope his next film can set the bar higher and make a complete film, instead of hinting that a sequel or prequel is needed for this, which I assume is the studios plan is. Just think insidious for a moment, that’s how I feel the situation is for Split, which isn’t a terribly bad thing either. Anyways, this film is great to watch even with it’s annoying parts. 3/5