Genre: Horror
Director: M. Night Shymalan
Stars: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Betty Buckley, Izzie Coffey, Brad William Henke, Neal Huff, M. Night Shymalan, Brian Gildea
Production: Blumhouse Productions
The works of M. Night Shymalan are certainly an acquired taste. A taste that has not been acquired by mainstream American audiences for the better part of seventeen years if we're being totally honest. Make a short list of movies that have angered audiences with misplaced pretension and/or rug-pulling twists that don't make sense, and you're liable to find the directors name all over it. Yet much like fake news, ska music and smallpox, his personal clout and unique mix of genre tropes are having themselves a bit of a comeback. And nowhere is that more evident than in his newest film Split.
Split's main conceit; the mysteries of the human mind, are exemplified by the traumatized Kevin (McAvoy) who becomes our villain of sorts. His psychoanalyst Dr. Fletcher (Buckley) believes he possesses 23 distinct personalities, all of whom vary in age, gender, interests, mannerisms, personal histories and even body chemistry. This of course comes as a shock to three teenage girls who have been taken hostage by one or more of Kevin's personalities, many of whom have a cult-like obsession or fear of "The Beast" the rumored 24th. While huddled in a locked basement awaiting their fates, the three girls must decide which personalities to trust while keeping their eyes peeled for ways to escape.
LOL, hilarious! |
Split is simply more of the same - ominous atmospherics, pseudo-religious iconography, quasi-Jungian pop psychology and excessive brooding, all dialed up to eleven. Clearly never learning from his mistakes, Shymalan has also speckled in wind-baggy in-world explanations and redundant plot information, all but guaranteeing that audiences will burst out in laughter before they cower in fear. Add to all that a complete inability to marry his technical abilities with a unifying tone and you got yourself a carnival full of cheap tricks and cheaper thrills.
Aiding in this carnival act is James McAvoy whose campy performance is fun to watch, if for no other reason than its so far beyond the pail of plausibility. Kevin is one of those characters that most actors secretly dream of doing because, while they may be broad and even offensive, they do supply facets of an actor's range. Plus, by the time one of the kidnap victims opens the files on all the personalities, Kevin's kinship to those suffering from Dissociative identity disorder (DID) is about as tangential as Pure Flix's kinship is to Christianity.
Pure Flix Entertainment: similar but very much not the same! |
By the end of the film, our fully-realized villain purports to bring salvation through suffering. Yet when you realize that you're not watching a bizzaro girls-in-peril kidnap movie but something else entirely, the suffering just becomes too unbearable.
Final Grade: D-
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