Friday, February 3, 2017

"Split" Review: A Movie for Every Personality


Ever wonder what is going on with a person who has split personality? Well, this movie is a suspenseful and thrilling way to that find out.

Split is an American psychological thriller written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars James McAvoy (Kevin Wendell Crumb), Anya Taylor-Joy (Cassey Cooke), Betty Buckley (Dr. Karen Fletcher), Haley Lu Richardson (Claire Benoit), and Jessica Sula (Marcia). It had a world premiere at Fantastic Fest on September 26, 2016, and was theatrically released on January 26, 2017, and was distributed by Universal Pictures. The movie is a spiritual sequel to a 2000 superhero thriller film, Unbreakable.

(SPOILER ALERT!!!)
(You've been warned!)

Split introduces us to Kevin Wendell Crumb, a person who suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has twenty-three different split personalities. One of his identities, “Dennis”, kidnapped three teenage girls and held them captive in a cellar. The three girls must find a way to escape before the twenty-fourth and last personality, The Beast, comes for them.



The film will let us understand the seriousness of the dissociative identity disorder and how it affects the sufferer, and how it can become dangerous to other people. A very good movie for people who majors psychology.

McAvoy demonstrated a fine acting with his ability to switch from one role to another. He owned every identity that he performed and it wasn’t difficult to identify which one he was portraying. “Dennis” showed intimidation and was frighteningly unpredictable. McAvoy made “Hedwig” a bit adorable as he skillfully delivered the gullible, playful and innocent traits of the personality. “The Beast” was just straight up terrifying. His performance was remarkable.


Taylor-Joy was beautifully amazing. She played her role splendidly. It was easy to feel that her character was suffering from personal issues throughout the movie which was revealed later in the story. She made Cassey likable by the way she let the viewers sympathize with her, displaying her character’s level-headedness, and of course, because of her angelic face.


The suspense and surprises in the movie did their job, as the jump scares and nerve-wracking scenes were good, though it wasn’t as scary and heart-pounding as the other thriller movies. The twists were excellent, mostly because it was hard to read what’s going on inside the mind of Kevin’s many split personalities.

Bruce Willis’ cameo was surprising as he reprised his role as David Dunn from the 2000 film, Unbreakable, which highlighted a connection between the two movies.

The movie was worth watching. It was easy to understand, but still wasn’t easy to predict. The flow of the story was good, and I would definitely go and see its sequel if they will release one.

Rating: 7.5/10

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