Review of Split (2017) by Dana F — 09 Jul 2017

I was reluctant to see this movie because it perpetuates the myth that people who have mental illnesses are dangerous (fun fact: 99% of the time, they are not, and in fact are much more likely to be victims of violent crime than perpetrators.

.. *steps down off soapbox*) . Also, I knew it would be loaded with crackpot psychology - and I was dead right on both accounts. However, it's pretty clear from the beginning that this movie is not, and does not aspire to be, based on anything that could remotely be considered factual.

So I actually got on board with it pretty quickly, despite the garbage being spewed as psychology, because as a horror/thriller, it's pretty good - it delivers on the suspense and there are genuinely tense moments.

The movie definitely labors under the same clichés that most horror films do - everyone constantly makes idiotic decisions, and the abducted girls just don't seem to be very invested in escaping their predicament.

It's annoying, but sadly, expected for the genre. The real reason to watch this movie is James McAvoy's tour de force performance, which is so winning that it's easy to just go along for the ride.

He flips between childlike, charismatic, and menacing, all at the drop of a hat and all totally convincingly. Best of all, he actually brings a lot of humor to the movie that helps offset the darkness of the story.

For the most part, I was enjoying it until the third act, when the supernatural element takes over. This movie would have been a lot better as a straight up suspense thriller... but no, it's M. Night, so of course there just HAS to be some supernatural nonsense thrown in.

It's too bad, this movie didn't need it and was better without it. And that ending... what a groaner. It's pretty much public information by now that this movie has a tie-in to Shyamalan's previous film, "Unbreakable", but wow, what a stretch.

Trying to link these two films makes absolutely no rational sense, they are utterly different in story, style, and genre. It's shameless sequel-milking... an obvious attempt to get people to remember that he did some pretty good stuff once.

And while this film is an improvement over the crap he has cranked out over the past 10 years, I wouldn't say that it's his "comeback". It's got a decent story and is filmed with style, but it isn't nearly good enough to put on par with his early work.

This movie is not gonna blow your mind or anything, but it's worth an evening's entertainment.