Split (2017) Review

“We trust in him. He’ll protect us. Look at what he can do. Let him show the world how powerful we can be.”

   M. Night Shyamalan was the man who once was called the next Steven Spielberg. He had some success early on with ‘The Sixth Sense’, ‘Unbreakable’, and ‘Signs’. Then for the rest of his career some terrible films like: ‘The Lady in the Water’, ‘The Village’, ‘The Last Airbender’, ‘After Earth’, and the killer trees film ‘The Happening’. His previous film ‘The Visit’ received a few positive reviews, which was a first for the director in a very long time. When I first saw the trailer for ‘Split’ I was intrigued and wondered if this was the film that would finally be his first good film since 2002. Then I was happy when I read from multiple reviews that it was Shyamalan’s comeback.  Well to be honest, I was somewhat rather disappointed when viewing the film.
   ‘Split’ is about Kevin who has a dissociative psychological disorder that was caused from a childhood trauma, which resulted in multiple personalities. So far he has 23 different personalities and some of them have committed a crime. Kevin abducted three teenage girls: Claire, Marcia, and the loner Casey. He locks them in a room together telling them that he selected them for the Beast’s arrival. The Beast being Kevin’s soon to be 24th personality. 
  Almost every film, especially horror, exploit something, It’s something one would expect from Hollywood. The main problem I have with this film is how Shyamalan deals with dissociative identity disorder (DID) and childhood abuse. Having a psychology degree and studied DID I was quite troubled with how it was portrayed. It’s hard enough to convince people that DID is a real disorder and now after this film people will assume that those who suffer from DID are violent. Although studies have shown that they are seldom violent and would far more do self-harm than hurt others. ‘Split’ exposes only the most extreme aspects of DID. Feels like Shyamalan is saying, “Oh he has DID that means he’s insane, which is why he does bad stuff”. Stereotyping those who are mentally ill as being dangerous just get’s me fired up. About 80% of films portray mental illness in a negative light. Then there is the way the film portrays childhood abuse. Throughout the film Kevin makes the girls undress and Casey wears the most layers out of the three. As the film progresses, the viewer learns that Casey was molested by her uncle at a very young age. When her father died of a heart attack and is then forced to live with her uncle. While it doesn’t show anything graphic it still makes the viewer quite uncomfortable. A good horror film makes its audience tense and uncomfortable, but ‘Split’ went overboard with making one feel uncomfortable. Then making the childhood abuse a plot point towards the end is just disgusting.
   The only things good about the film are the performances by James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy. McAvoy blew me away when his characterizations of Barry, Patricia, and Hedwig. Barry being a gay dress designer, Patricia a mean nasty woman, and Hedwig a nine year old with a lisp. With his different facial expressions and tone of voice it’ll make you believe that he’s actually all of these characters. The drop dead gorgeous Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance is all in her eyes. She’ll have a good career ahead of her. 
     This may be Shyamalan’s best film in almost fifteen years, but then again that’s not really saying much. I think people will remember this film for it’s final thirty seconds more than anything else. 

2.5 out of 5