Predictable, But Entertaining, With Another O'Henry Ending

Rating: 7/10 (6 February 2017)

If tour-de-force performances alone constituted great cinema, then "Sixth Sense" writer & director M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" would rate as one of the best. Instead, Shyamalan's twelfth movie boils down to a straightforward, low-budget, abduction thriller, with a cannibalistic serial killer. The difference is this serial killer is a colorful basket case, a character teeming with more identities than you can count on all fingers and toes. As the traumatized casualty of an abusive mom, woebegone protagonist Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy of "Victor Frankenstein") has forged a 'horde' of personalities to serve as a bulwark against the atrocity of real-life. Predictable, derivative, and sometimes preposterous, "Split" benefits largely from McAvoy's nuanced performance as well as Shyamalan's usual last-minute surprises. "Split" feels like an 'origins' film. Not only is the protagonist a villain, but he also remains at large. The heroine is one of his hostages. Naturally, McAvoy has a field day chewing the scenery as a wacko with 23 personalities who is gestating number twenty-four. Basically, this charming but deranged ding-a-ling abducts three pretty little things from a Philadelphia shopping mall and confines them for his own culinary delight in an underground facility from which escape is virtually impossible. Compared with other movies about split-personality psychos, "Split" features a wackadoodle serial killer who isn't presented as a maniac out of a Rob Zombie splatter film. McAvoy's chameleon-like capacity to shift from one identity to another in the wink of an eye is as fluid as if he were genuinely conflicted himself. Suffice to say, McAvoy is nothing short of brilliant as Kevin Wendell Crumb. Were it not for one of the three captives, "Split" would have probably focused entirely on Kevin and not been as dramatic. Casey Cook is one of the kidnapped girls, but she is nothing like the other girls. Unfortunately, we see only eight of the twenty-three fruitcakes that McAvoy portrays, but none is either demonic or original. Meanwhile, two of those four other characters lack sympathy because they brought this tragedy on themselves by ridiculing this psycho. What "Split" does better than anything else is create a strong, memorable villain, and McAvoy fleshes it out in a bravura performance. Shyamalan conjures up a modicum of suspense toward the end when the girls try desperately to escape. Sometimes, this above-average suspense proves aggravating because you realize how futile it is for these doomed characters to survive.
Like Kevin, Casey Cook (Anya Taylor-Joy of "The Witch") has been forged in the crucible of child abuse, too. A heart attack killed her father (Sebastian Arcelus of "Ted 2") while she was attending elementary school. Sadly, her father's brother, Uncle John (Brad William Henke of "Fury"), became Casey's guardian. Without divulging too much information, Casey and her stepfather have had an abusive relationship. Now, in high school, Casey prefers to keep to herself. Two of her snobbish classmates, Claire (Haley Lu Richardson of "The Edge of Seventeen") and Claire's African-American friend Marcia (Jessica of "Honeytrap"), invite her to their birthday party more out of pressure rather than friendship. Indeed, they harbor cynical attitudes about Casey, but they fear the social media repercussions about what they might have faced had they not invited Casey. When her ride doesn't materialize, Casey agrees to accompany Claire and Marcia and listen to Claire's father (Brian Gildea) who loves to tell terrible jokes. As the saying goes, Hell is a road paved with good intentions, and Claire and Marcia have provided the asphalt that puts Casey in harm's way. Before they can pull out of the parking lot, a total stranger, Kevin Wendell Crumb, dispenses with Claire's dad and then carjacks them. Slipping on a face mask, he sprays something in their eyes that plunges them into oblivion. Of course, had they not been paralyzed with fear, these girls could have fled before Kevin incapacitated them. When they awaken, the girls find themselves locked up in a room with the same tight-lipped stranger staring at them. Eventually, they discover something is seriously amiss with their captor. Every time Crumb appears, he masquerades as an entirely different individual, sometimes even as a woman. What the three girls don't realize is that Kevin is a patient of a world-renowned psychotherapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley of "Frantic"), who has terribly misjudged the threat that he poses to society. Repeatedly, Kevin warns her about 'the beast' and how this Messianic personality will shield all twenty-three personalities from scorn and ridicule. When 'the beast' shows up, "Split" turns into a warped Marvel Comics movie because this side of Kevin possesses supernatural characteristics.
Basically, "Split" is a standard-issue serial killer saga. Neither the police nor the FBI interfere in "Split," which differentiates it from movies like "Manhunter." Shyamalan confines the action primarily to several underground rooms and one in a luxurious apartment. Shyamalan fashions some mildly suspenseful scenes, especially when the girls try to break out in the end. When the time comes for him to depict death, Shyamalan doesn't indulge himself as Eli Roth of "Hostel" infamy might. Nevertheless, the action amounts to a predictable series of episodic encounters between McAvoy's various personalities and his victims. Aside from Kevin Wendell Crumb, Casey qualifies as the only other genuinely interesting character. The two snobbish girls might as well have been mannequins. They are expendable, and they behave like whiny victims in a movie where whiny victims die. Most of Shyamalan's surprises occur exactly when you expect them, though two deserve back-to-back "WOWS!" because they come both as a relief and surprise! The outcome of Casey's hostile clash with 'the Beast' salvages this otherwise predictable potboiler. Bruce Willis's cameo in the final scene as security guard David Dunn brings "Split" into the "Unbreakable" timeline. Moreover, two characters at a diner compare Crumb to Glass! Ultimately, Shyamalan wants moviegoers to see James McAvoy's conflicted serial killer in "Split" in the same light as Alfred Hitchcock's classic chiller "Psycho" with Anthony Perkins as the protagonist.