Another disapointing Shyamalan film

Rating: 2/10 (15 February 2018)

Film writer/director/producer M.Night Shyamalan has made it his trademark for his films to include a surprising twist revealed at the conclusion of each of his films. Such as in his very popular and successful film "The Sixth Sense" and later in the less popular films of his " The Village" and in the "Lady in the Water" The two latter films had to deal with some threatening, mysterious monster, beast or creature that is revealed at the climax of the film.
The problem with Shyamalan's latest film "Split" is that the writer/director Shyamalan let the mystery twist out of the bag too early in the film. We are all aware by way of the film's early trailers that actor James McAvoy who portrays four characters exceptionally well in the film as; Dennis the strong aggressive one, Patricia a female, Barry an artist with a gay personality and Hedwig as a nine year old boy all are going to become the character called the beast. Who they claim will do terrible things to the three young teens girls that Dennis has kidnapped and brought to his dungeon/basement hideout.
The concept of three young women being kidnaped and locked up is very close to the true life story of young women being held prisoner by a sick man in Ohio a few years ago. Of course the real life kidnapped victims had a very long duration of imprisonment, rape and sexual abuse. While the three young women in "Split" Here Marcia (Jessica Sula) Claire (Haley Lu Richardson) and Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) are merely locked in the basement while Dennis enters the room he grabs Marcia, now all three of these teen girls are gorgeous and curvaceous, so one would think that Dennis wants to satisfy his sexual desires. The smartest of the trio of girls is Casey, she is a loner while Marcia and Claire are more of the popular teen schoolgirls. Casey shouts out to Marcia for her to pee on herself since Dennis has cleanliness issues, this seem to spurn whatever intention Dennis had for the trio of teen beauties. The three girls watch as each time the door to their room opens a different personality portrayed by McAvoy appears to perform.
I always wondered where writers obtained their inspiration to write their stories. I read Shyamalan's bio where he and his family lived in an affluent town in Pennsylvania and that he attended a strict all Catholic school even though he and his family were of a different religion. Woody Allen in his film "Annie Hall" poked fun at his school experiences being spurned by the pretty girls in his classroom. I wonder if Shyamalan may have had similar experiences at the Catholic school, being rejected by the pretty Catholic girls of his school. Thus he had this beast of revenge inside of him, using the film "Split" to release his inner beast as well. For we all have some kind of dark hidden sides and secrets and inner beasts that we wish to hide.. Writers can release their beasts and have fiction characters play out their fantasies or their revenge.
The film has long lulls of no action and may seem very boring to many. As Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley) who is caring for Barry/Dennis/Patricia and Hedwig is receiving distress red flag emails from one the personalities. Her sessions with Barry reveals nothing and is wasted film time. Also Claire suggests that the trio of girls try to attack Dennis and fight for their freedom. While Dennis is too physically strong, the other personality Hedwig the nine year old boy, could have been easily over powered by one of the girls, yet they all just sit there and watch Hedwig as a nine year old rants and raves how the beast is coming and that they are food for the beast. All these personality performances become too repetitious. Wait aren't there supposed to be 24 personalities, we only see five, where are the rest of the personalities?
"Split" like Shyamalan's "The Village" is all build up to a disappointing conclusion. The bright spot to bring to light is actress Anya Taylor Joy, she is a joy to watch a true future superstar actress, with fabulous beauty and talent!!