Split is the
latest feature film from controversial director M. Night Shyamalan. This is
horror-thriller about a guy with dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps
three teenagers. Shyamalan writes and directs this feature for Universal and
Blumhouse Productions. The film stars James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty
Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, and Jessica Sula.
I quite enjoyed Split.
I don’t think it’s a perfect film. Nor do I think it’s really a great horror-thriller. It is, however, a very good one. This film
has great tension, an interesting premise, and largely strong performances
throughout. Shyamalan is a horror director at heart. With the exception of Unbreakable, all of his films that have
landed with audiences (The Sixth Sense,
Signs, and The Visit) have been in the horror genre. He does it well, and he
does it well here. His directorial vision is clear and effective. There are
some really horrific moments in this film that work extremely well. I also
think the way that he shoots all of his films is excellent. The added great
work by It Follows cinematographer
Mike Gioulakis made this a spectacular film to look visually with interesting
cues throughout.
The premise of the film is extremely interesting. The idea
of having a character with so many distinct identities that give us a person to
both empathize with and to fear, depending on the situation, is really cool and
kept me engaged throughout. It also generated an interesting tone. There was a
constant sense of terror but there were moments that were just awkwardly funny.
I don’t use the word awkward to imply improper, here. It works effectively in
manipulating the emotions of the audience with makes the impact of the horror
even more effective.
That premise could not work without the best thing in this
film: the performances. James McAvoy is transformative in this film. He’s not
just transformative from what we usually know him as. He is totally
transformative within the film itself. He massively changes his facial
expressions, tone of voice, gait, and just general sense of being. I was blown
away by the work that he did in this film. It really was on a completely
different level. Anya Taylor-Joy was also interesting though she was a fairly
quiet character. I found her to be very effective at playing a resourceful
character and was by far the best of the three kidnapped teens. Richardson and
Sula are both ok in their roles but are in the film fairly minimally. Buckley
is really great in here as well as a psychologist. She gives us a lot of the
films exposition but the scenes where she is talking to McAvoy are some of the
most engaging in the film because of the careful and clever game of chess the
two are doing across from one another.
Split’s problems
arise from its length and budget. This film overstays its welcome. It has some
good and purposeful repetition of moments but there was a point at which I felt
we could have cut moments and there is one entire side story I didn’t need at
all that could have shaved this down to a high-octane 90 to 100-minute film. This
film was also spread a tiny bit too thin. This was made for just $5 million
which was a feat for how good this was. However, there were moments where I
felt they were cutting around moments that could really have been strong
because of the budget and I felt like they added certain contrivances that I
didn’t need to work with this as well.
Overall, I found Split
to be an exceedingly solid horror-thriller with a fascinating premise and a
career defining performance by James McAvoy. I think it is far from perfect,
however I must implore EVERYONE to see this film. As everyone going into a
Shyamalan film expects, there is a bombshell somewhere in here. I won’t say
anything about what that is, but I was audibly shocked and fascinated in all
the best ways and it’s definitively something you want to see with an audience
who doesn’t know what’s coming. Check out Split
in theaters this weekend!
Ryan’s Score: 7.5/10
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