Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder) is a real, albeit extremely rare form of mental illness. Unfortunately, sensationalized popular depictions of the disorder and its entanglement with the Satanic ritual abuse panic of the 1980s make it a touchy subject. That should be kept in mind when viewing director M. Night Shyamalan’s new horror feature, Split, which does nothing to demystify DID or present it in an accurate light.
That said, Split is a low-fi pulp horror delight when approached on its own terms and, while occasionally silly, it’s also wildly effective.
In the film’s prelude, adolescent Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) and two other girls are abducted by the compulsive, sexually menacing Dennis. The hook is that that Dennis is just one of 23 personalities (“alters” in psychiatric lingo) exhibited by Kevin (James McAvoy). Dennis seems to have recently formed an alliance with prim, schoolmarmish alter Patricia, and the malevolent pair have manipulated guileless 9-year-old alter Hedwig in order to subjugate Kevin’s original identity and the other 19 alters. Kevin’s psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), senses that something worrying is afoot, but she might be too late to help the captive girls, whom Dennis/Patricia describes as “sacred food” for an approaching entity simply named the Beast.
Shyamalan and cinematographer Mike Gioulakis commit a few blunders, but Split is still visually enthralling genre cinema, consistent with the director’s prior features Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village. Taylor-Joy is the film’s heart, but McAvoy is the clear star, scenery-chewing with a lithe gusto that is kitschy but always a pleasure to watch. Like all good mystery storytellers, Shyamalan sprinkles his film with details that have hidden, time-delayed significance—and the real bombshell drops in Split’s final 30 seconds, which exhilaratingly re-contextualizes the rest of the film.
Split opens Friday, January 20 in wide release.
