SPLIT: MULTIPLE SCARES

There are some director’s whose name alone brings forth images of the films they have made. If you hear Hitchcock you know a slow paced thriller is on the way. Spielberg? Normally a family styled big budget adventure. And when you hear M. Night Shyamalan you expect something different. Not always the same but unlike most movies you will see. That holds true with his latest release SPLIT.

As the film opens three young girls are kidnapped with no clue who is behind it or where they’ve been taken. Rather than a simple hostage movie we’re seeing something different. The girls find their kidnapper to be stern and unwilling to give into their pleas for help. But then they see him again. Except that it’s not quite him.

This is when we learn that the kidnapper, Kevin (James McAvoy) is suffering from dissociative identity disorder or what most people would call multiple personalities. When he shows up to the rooms they’re being held in wearing a dress and telling them his name is Patricia the girls have no idea what to think. Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), the outsider of the trio, insists that they bide their time to figure a way out. The other two girls are more impulsive and act without thinking things through.

When they meet “Hedwig” Casey thinks she may have found someone who can help her. She spends time gaining his trust and learning more about what is going on. He tells her about “The Beast” and warns that he is coming. When she later asks the “others” about “The Beast” she is rebuffed but learns just a little more with each conversation.

Do the girls escape as the film moves forward? I’d rather not say and allow the story to surprise and unravel for each of you. But the movie does move on with more information gathered in various ways. One of those is the discussions between Kevin and his psychiatrist Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley). Fletcher has been treating Kevin for some time now and is becoming slightly alarmed via various signs that something has changed.

Fletcher doesn’t just spend time with Kevin though. While he insist that he is in control she convinces him to allow some of the “others” to talk to her. At different visits the multiple people within Kevin’s mind are allowed to talk to her and discuss things with her. Each of them provides her with a greater sense of dread that something is happening.

Back at the house where the girls are being kept, Casey continues to work her way into the good graces of Hedwig. As the bond between the two of them builds the slightest glimpse of hope appears that perhaps the girls will make it out after all. With no demands made to their parents just why they were kidnapped to begin with comes into question. And when the answer presents itself the level of tension and fear reaches fever pitch. Is there really a “Beast” or is that just something in the mind of Kevin.

For me Shyamalan has been a hit and miss director. While I’ve never hated any of his films there have been a few that I felt had fallen a little short of the potential he showed in others. With SPLIT he returns to my good graces with a movie that draws you in, takes it’s time to unfold and tells a story unlike any other. In a world of remakes that earns points with me. He definitely gives us something new here.

The acting is amazing to watch here. While the entire cast does a fantastic job it is McAvoy who takes center stage and steals the show. It’s one thing for an actor to portray a character in a movie. But to create several and have them all well thought out and well done characters? That’s something worth paying attention to. The only problem would be trying to figure out which character would be the one receiving an Oscar nomination if it came to that.

I noted remakes but what about sequels you might ask. SPOILER ALERT. This film is indeed a sequel but not so much that you would recognize it as such. We’ve never been exposed to these characters, never seen this world as far as we know and have no inkling that it ties into anything else. That is until the film is just about to hit the credits. At that time we see people talking in a diner and the camera pans down to reveal Bruce Willis sitting there listening to a conversation where someone is trying to recall the name of a terrorist who was in a wheelchair. He tells them the name was Mr. Glass. The name and his presence is a reference to Shyamalan’s film UNBREAKABLE. And yes, this film ties into that. As will his next film, one he announced will complete a trilogy bringing all three films together. As a fan of that film I can’t wait.

Until then I’ll be content to watch this movie. And probably more than once. It’s one of those films that once you know the end you want to watch again to see what else you can pick up as the story unwinds. That makes it a movie worth not just watching but adding to the collection.

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