By Matt Allen.

It’s fair to say that M. Night Shyamalan hasn’t been on his best form for quite some time. After exploding onto the scene in 1999 with his iconic, mind-bending horror The Sixth Sense, the master of gut-punching twists steered into a colossal creative nosedive. After churning out middling films such as Unbreakable and Signs, he spectacularly shot to rock-bottom with the likes of The Happening and After Earth. The upsetting thing is that we all know he has it in him to do so much better, and yet he has never seemed to be able to capture that same lightening in a bottle that came so effortlessly in his early career. It’s therefore pleasing to see that with Split, Shyamalan appears to finally be pulling up out of one of the most astounding slumps in the history of cinema.

Split focuses on the story of Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), an introverted teen who has trouble connecting with her classmates and deliberately gets detention just to be by herself. But solitude stops being an option when she is forced into close quarters with two of her peers after they are kidnapped by a severely disturbed James McAvoy, suffering from dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personality disorder). Gradually, Casey tries to turn her captor’s competing personalities against one another, hoping to make her escape in the confusion, before his most monstrous alter-ego emerges from the depths of his psyche.

It’s an intriguing premise and Shyamalan uses it to great effect to slowly drip feed revelation after revelation, keeping us captivated throughout. But, whereas past efforts have spent the majority of their runtime teasing a satisfying conclusion and falling at the final hurdle, Split manages to deliver on its promises. Even as the story descends into surprising territory, including a brutal left-hook of a sub-plot, the integrity of the plot remains intact, holding up where others have buckled before it.

This is due in no small part to the strength of the central performances. Anya Taylor-Joy continues to prove she is one to watch, having already garnered well-deserved critical acclaim for her performance in The Witch (easily one of the best films of last year) and shows she is just as at home in a more mainstream setting. But credit really should go to McAvoy who puts in not just one excellent performance but 23. While we only spend any significant time with a few of the many personalities that reside within the mind of Kevin Wendell Crumb, McAvoy makes sure that each of them have their own mannerisms, their own expressions and twitches. It’s this attention to detail that means each alter-ego can be accepted as a character in their own right.

This being a Shyamalan film, it will probably come as no surprise to learn that there is indeed one of his signature twists lurking at the end. For some, this will likely be a jaw-dropping revelation that serves as a welcome cherry on top of an already serviceable thriller. For others, it will undoubtedly be completely meaningless. For me, it seemed to be an unnecessary crowd pleaser, unceremoniously crow-barred in to film that didn’t need it. Regardless of your feelings, it certainly poses some very interesting questions about the path ahead. Hopefully that’s vague enough.

While Split still doesn’t quite hold up to what we know Shyamalan is capable of, it certainly suggests he is back on even footing. Hopefully, this marks the beginning of an upward trajectory that mirrors the strength of his fall from grace.

 

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