{🚨SPOILERS🚨}: Directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Split follows the story of Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) who suffers from an extreme form of dissociative identity disorder and has 23 distinct personalities. He abducts three teenaged girls, including a quiet girl named Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor Joy), and holds them in preparation for the arrival of a 24th personality who some of the other personalities believe will change the world for the better.
When this was first advertised a lot of people were very interested, as it seemed like M. Night Shyamalan was having a comeback, despite previous failures. And when it released 4 years ago many people, including myself, were blown away by not only how amazingly masterful and suspenseful this film was, but also what it ended up being, thanks to the excellent twist at the end.
The truth is this film was a secret standalone sequel to Unbreakable, serving as a supervillain origin story, and establishing a new original trilogy.
Now, Unbreakable is my favorite film of all time, and the fact this was connected to it was not only an amazing revelation, but it also explained a lot of the interesting and strange things that happened throughout this film. But even though it is connected to an already established universe, Split has a lot of things that make it stand on its own, and many rewatches has gradually made me love the film more and more. It serves as an effective horror and thriller, as well as an interesting character dive into two individuals that have suffered extreme abuse, and the paths they end up taking.
There is some really great acting involved here, specifically from James McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joy. Out of all of James McAvoy’s roles this is honestly the best one he’s ever had, and probably the most overlooked. Dissociative identity disorder has been adapted before in various movies, some accurately and some not, but here James McAvoy absolutely nailed it when playing each of the personalities, making them distinct from one another and transitioning between them.
From the voice to the physical movements and the clothes he wears James McAvoy was an absolute chameleon in this role, being able to play this disturbing and disturbed character. We don’t get to see all of the personalities on display in this film but we do get to see some of the most major ones like Dennis, Patricia and Hedwig. Dennis serves as the aggressive protector personality who also happens to have OCD and is actually a big pervert, which are two interesting qualities that are connected to the story and aren’t just simple quirks.
Patricia is the matriarch of the personalities, and while she appears at first to be the kindest of the personalities, treating the abducted girls with care and preventing Dennis from giving in to his perverted tendencies, there is a very unsettling feeling about her that gradually makes its way to the surface as the film progresses.
And then we have Hedwig, a 9 year old boy and probably my favorite of all the personalities. M. Night certainly did an excellent job writing what a 9 year old would be like, but it was McAvoy’s amazing talent that made it possible and believable. He really made you believe he was a child’s mind in an adult body, as well as being the most vulnerable and easy to manipulate among the personalities. But similar to Patricia, there was a very unsettling and creepy feeling about him as the film progresses and it is so, so well done. I especially love how creepy the dance scene is that has some interesting symbolism behind it that M. Night has spoken of a few times.
The interesting thing that connects all the personalities together is the fact that all were created due to Kevin’s early life with an abusive mother, and each personality reflects a certain element of that abuse that is subtly revealed throughout the story.
The only exception to the realistic accuracy of dissociative identity disorder is the fictional super powered 24th personality called “The Beast” that is the major build up over the course of the film. The abducted girls are told of the Beast’s arrival as being something to be celebrated, and that the time will come in which they will have to serve as sacrifices for him. When the Beast personality awakens he is a very, very terrifying and animalistic personality that seems capable of impossible feats like climbing on walls, invulnerable skin that can take shotgun blasts and super strength.
Before the big twist involving what created this personality, as well as the connection to Unbreakable, I was a bit uncertain about this, due to how realistic the film felt beforehand before this supernatural turn. But I was willing to stick with it to see where it would lead, and it ultimately pays off. I also love the fact that the Beast personality is revealed to be created due to Kevin’s job as a zoo keeper at the Philadelphia Zoo, which is hinted throughout the film visually and through the dialogue, like when Patricia was giving detailed facts about animals at random. The zoo is also revealed to be the location where the girls were kept, which made a lot of sense due to the various clues that were littered throughout. Why James McAvoy never got any nominations or major awards for this performance I have no idea.
While James McAvoy certainly was the driving force of this film there is also the other half, which is Anya Taylor Joy as Casey Cooke. The other girls she is with (who are acted very well) are in a big panic over the fact that they are meant to be lambs for slaughter, and yet Casey is the only one who isn’t panicking, and almost seems fine with the situation. Just like how we get to see how Kevin became who he was, we also see Casey’s life up till this moment, and the horrific things that she’s gone through explain why she acts the way she does. She was molested as a child by her uncle, who purposely got her father drunk and later made him die of a heart attack to get away with it, and she carries the physical and mental scars with her, which end up being being a major part of the narrative theme of the film, as well as what ends up saving her from the Beast’s wrath.
But despite being a victim she is the one that ends up being the smartest, and steps up when her life is at stake. The things she does are all based on her own experiences with her uncle that end up coming back to her as she goes up against Kevin’s personalities. But at the same time she ends up having a connection with Kevin, since the they both have suffered similar fates but have chosen different paths of how to deal with it. Anya Taylor Joy played this role beautifully and she deserves just as much credit as James does.
There is also Dr. Karen Fletcher played by Betty Buckley, who is Kevin’s psychologist and ends up giving us the most information on Kevin’s life, and also sets up the major twists that occur later in the film, including the big one.
The narrative is so masterfully written that, combined with the amazing cinematography and visuals, makes for a very compelling and suspenseful film that gets under your skin and hits you with very impactful themes. This is also one of the very rare occasions where a PG-13 horror can be really effective if handled by the right person.
Also the score by West Dylan Thordson is absolutely bone chilling, enhancing many scenes to great heights and raising the tension to the point that it has everyone on the edge of their seat. My favorite OSTs are definitely the opening and the birth of the Beast, beautifully composed yet also extremely unsettling and erratic, in a way just like the mind of Kevin.
Now let’s talk about the ending and the major Unbreakable connection. So, Casey is spared by The Beast and the other personalities after being deemed pure due to being one of “the broken,” and ends up being found by police. She gives a very unsettling look towards the officers when she is told her uncle was there to take her back, which left a very ambiguous ending for her arc that would later be addressed, but here it was such a great yet chilling end. And as her story comes to a close and we see what the personalities of Kevin, now dubbing themselves “The Horde,” are planning on next, we hear the subtle and familiar score of James Newton Howard’s theme for Unbreakable playing in the background.
At this point during my first time watching this film my eyes widened, my hair stood up and my mind was going berserk. There was no way this was happening, but sure enough in the next scene we transition to a diner where David Dunn, reprised by Bruce Willis, is present. He makes a reference to Mr. Glass after someone compared his nickname to the new one for Kevin, and sets up an eventual confrontation between our strong superhero David Dunn and the newly risen supervillain. What a fantastic ending and a perfect set up for the following sequel. There are certainly a lot of major things that Split sets up for the next film, but this was by far the best and most forward of the set ups, one which got a lot of fans of Unbreakable like myself excited for what was to come.
But like I said, independent of its connection to Unbreakable, Split is masterful on its own, featuring incredible acting, excellent writing, bold themes, incredible cinematography and a haunting score. It’s one of M. Nights best films and one of my favorite films of all time, continuing to get better upon every rewatch. I’m going to give Split an A+.
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