They took this movie a step too far...

Rating: 4/10 (11 May 2017)

I was excited when I heard that this movie was coming out. When watching the various trailers online, I started to piece together what was going to be portrayed in the film. I was very unhappy when I knew (had a cloudy picture of what was going to happen) how the movie was going to play out. To help support my view of this movie, I will tell those who read this a little bit about my future profession. I am currently a psychology graduate student. For many years now, I knew that I wanted to earn my PhD in psychology and I wanted to specialize in Dissociative Disorders. So with that being said, I have researched this disorder for many years now. I was really upset that this movie took such a great idea and/or story line and expanded it to what was produced. The idea that a person can turn themselves into a beast by simply switching alters... COME ON! In a real case of DID, the host (the individual who has the disorder) develops these alters as protective mechanisms. The main etiology of DID is childhood abuse. The movie got this one right. When an alter is in control (as per the movie: holds the light) the host loses time. That loss of time is a form of amnesia. This symptom of the disorder only came about in the last 25 minutes of the movie. Throughout the movie, I was easily picking out the flaws of how this disorder was being portrayed. This disorder already holds high controversy in both the scientific community and nonscientific community. And this movie portrayed the disorder incorrectly. Yes, I know this is just a movie but the idea/concept behind it is very real. If movies are to be based on real stories, illnesses, etc., the creators of the movie need to make sure their facts are straight. Also, I was hoping that the back story of Casey and her uncle would tie into the movie better. The only relation to the back story was that Casey was still "pure" therefore she was not 'food' for the beast. I was hoping that somehow, she would have figured out that like her, Kevin was abused and she would use her experience of abuse to relate to him so she could help/stop him. I gave the movie a 4 rating because I did like the acting itself. The two main characters did a great job in this movie (in my opinion).