Review of Split (2017) by Raffaele A — 21 Jun 2018

A very welcome return to form from the filmmaker who gave audiences one of the greatest supernatural thrillers of all time, M. Night Shyamalan's twisty scary-good latest Splits its aces beautifully between psychological and supernatural horror...and both of them play a winning hand thanks to staggeringly brilliant multi-multi-faceted performance by James McAvoy. In this PG-13-rated thriller, three girls (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula) get kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities (McAvoy) and try to escape before the apparent emergence of a more sinister 24th.

The writer-director's previous film, The Visit, boasted decent thrills and a solid twist but hardly made up for the Trifecta of awfulness comprised of The Last Airbender, The Happening, and After Earth (okay, so only the second of these can be called out-and-out 'awful,' but it's so patently bad that it brings down anything else in its blast radius). Split, however, finds Shyamalan in top form, on par with his second best, Signs, and approaching the level of expert craftsmanship of genre evidenced by his - and one of the horror's - best, The Sixth Sense. It would be hard to reach the mantle of that particular gem, but it tries its damnedest and viewers are the better for it. Serving up a crackling good story that amazingly doesn't demonize mental illness, it gives the troubled kidnapper at its core, Kevin Wendell Crumb, personalities both good, bad, and downright ugly. Plus, it shows him seeking treatment and what happens when he doesn't follow doctor's orders. And yes, just like that old chestnut filmic amnesia, it stretches credulity beyond recognition but the suspension of disbelief is worth it for the twisted and thrilling character study that it provides. Believe it or not, however, his is not the main character. That honor falls on Casey Cooke who makes a great foil to the many faces of Crumb. She comes with a heart-breaking backstory but manages to get the heart pumping thanks to her never-say-die heroism in the face of unspeakable terror.

Without the actors to pull this all off, Shyamalan's complicated captivity narrative would be for naught. Taylor-Joy, who honed her horror chops with Witch, a very different but nonetheless killer thriller, makes for a very convincing heroine, earning every tear and mad tear. McAvoy, however, sells through 23 different personalities, each with different inflections, tics, and looks. It's a veritable masterclass in acting and it's beyond head-scratching that he didn't nab an Oscar or Golden Globe nomination. This particular genre has never been highly regarded by the H'Wood elite (The Exorcist getting bested by The Sting at the 1973 Academy Awards--'nuff said), but such a slight is really downright scary.

To Sum It All Up: The Best of the Beast.