Split

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 24^th 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.