DIRECTOR: M. Night Shyamalan LEAD
CAST: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy,
Betty Buckley PRODUCER: M. Night Shyamalan,
Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock SCREENWRITER:
M. Night Shyamalan MUSIC: West Dylan
Thordson CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mike
Giolakis EDITOR: Luke Franco
Ciarrocchi GENRE: Psychological Thriller PRODUCTION COMPANY: Blinding Edge Pictures,
Blumhouse Productions DISTRIBUTOR:
Universal Pictures COUNTRY: United States
LANGUAGE: English RUNNING TIME:
117 minutes
Technical assessment:
3.5
Moral assessment:
2.5
Cinema rating: A14
MTRCB Rating: PG
A man abducts three young girls Casey, Claire and
Marsha (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula). But his motives are not clear as to what he
wants from the three girls. It turns out, he is Kevin (James McAvoy), a man
with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) or commonly known as split
personality. Kevin has 23 distinct personalities that eventually come out as he
deals with his abductees. He regularly visits his psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Flethcer
(Betty Buckley), who is getting suspicious that something might be wrong with
Kevin and she is sensing danger. One moment he is a 9-year-old boy, then he is
a British woman, then a gay fashion designer, etc. But all those 23
personalities are not keen on letting the girls escape; and they are all talking
and giving warning to the girls about a beast that will come after the girls
and kill them which later turns out to be his 24th personality. As Claire and Marsha pro-actively seek ways to
escape, Casey’s moves are more calculated as her childhood back story tells it
why. It seems Casey and Kevin have something in common—but will this make the
girls survive and defeat an enemy that they cannot seem to fully understand?
Split is a brave attempt
to explore such a mysterious brain disorder and extends it further into an
evolution bordering on superhuman potential. Beneath the conventions of a
psychological thriller lies a profound explanation of the deeper source of human
conflict that results in tragedy. In the tradition of M. Night Shyamalan’s depiction of the human
soul’s immortality, Split is more
than a scare flick but is a commentary on the many facets of man’s complexities
and power beyond the material
world. McAvoy delivers a tour-de-force
performance of a psycho hosting 24 personalities. Taylor-Joy is equally
compelling as a disturbed young girl torn between survival and surrender.
Buckley’s portrayal is also commendable. In totality, the film proves that CGIs
are not really essential to bring about scare but a mere exploration on the
mystery of life, on the existence of evil within and without, are enough to
make the audience thrilled, scared, and at the same time, enlightened.
Split is also mainly about
abuses and exploitation of the young and the evil and the trauma that a young
person carries up to adulthood resulting in tragic endings most of the time. The
abuses Kevin and Casey went through defined them as human beings only that it
led to two different directions. Kevin goes deeper the dark side and becomes
vindictive while Casey decides to remain pure despite the odds. One’s childhood
past determines their future human strengths or weaknesses. Exploitation and
abuse are all evil. But victims need not be evil themselves in order to seek
justice or take revenge for it will only cultivate further a cycle of violence,
of abuse, of exploitation. Casey shows that as a human being, one has the power
to rise above his or her dark past. That it is not their fault that they were
abused and it does not also mean that they should be abusers themselves to get
even. Kevin on the other hand went to the dark side. The abuse and trauma he
got from his abusive mother is depicted as justification for his persistent
D.I.D. It is a questionable justification. What does not kill you will make you stronger,
they say. This moral may be true to both of the film’s villain and heroine, but
to make the evil one seem stronger than the good is really disturbing. The
victim becoming victimizer may be a good story handle but there should not be a
vacuum as to the process on how becomes one. For to be swayed on the dark side
because of one’s circumstances is more of a weakness than a strength. Because of such portrayal of the evil’s
strength to lure in one’s body and mind, the film becomes a disturbing feature
morally although it clearly depicts evil as inciting more evil. In effect, it
seems nothing is resolved—not the crime, nor the abuse, although we see Casey’s
hint of determination in the end to stand up for what is right. For the graphic
violence, depictions and insinuations of child physical and sexual abuse, and heavy
psychological theme, CINEMA finds the film as suitable only to viewers 14
year-old and above.
