Split

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with a birthday party for Claire (Haley Lu Richardson). Her classmate Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) was invited out of pity, as Claire tells her father (Neal Huff) that Casey frequently gets into trouble with teachers and gets sent to detention. Casey calls for a ride home but is told the car broke down. She's about to take the bus, but Claire's dad insists that he go home with them.The girls leave along with another friend, Marcia (Jessica Sula). Claire's dad is approached by an unseen person. Moments later, the person, a man named Kevin (James McAvoy), gets into the car. Claire thinks he just got in the wrong car by mistake, but Kevin puts on a face mask and sprays the girls with some kind of toxin that knocks them out. Casey slowly attempts to open the door to get out, but Kevin gets her too.Kevin brings the girls into a windowless room in an unknown location. He pulls Marcia out and takes her outside. After a brief moment, Marcia runs back into the room after she peed herself. She tells the others that Kevin wanted her to dance for him. Claire says they need to fight back together to get out. Casey is calm and says they need to find out what they are there for before they make any sort of move.We see a flashback in which a 5-year-old Casey (here played by Izzie Leigh Coffey) is with her father (Sebastian Arcelus) and her Uncle John (Brad William Henke). They are both hunters, and they teach Casey how to hunt. Uncle John talks about hunting a deer but being distracted by the buck.A therapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley), is watching a news report on the three missing girls and how Claire's father woke up to find the girls and his car gone. Karen then receives an email from someone named Barry, saying they need to speak and it is urgent.Barry is really one of Kevin's multiple personalities. This "alter" is a sketch artist with a heavy Boston accent. He meets with Karen regularly in this persona.The girls continue to try and find a way out. They look through a crack in the door and see what appears to be a woman talking to their captor. Claire and Marcia call to the woman for help. She approaches the door, but it is just Kevin wearing a skirt and high heels. This alter is known as Patricia, a polite British woman. Patricia assures the girls that their captor knows why they are there and that he is not allowed to touch them.Karen is in a conference via Skype in which she discusses her patients, most of whom are suffering from DID (dissociative identity disorder), including Kevin. Karen talks about how some identities have capabilities that the other identities may not possess, as well as the way she can sense who has come to "the light" (which alter is in control). She adds that people with DID can change their body chemistry with their thoughts.The girls meet another identity, Hedwig, who has the mannerisms of a 9-year-old boy. He claims that Patricia and Dennis (the persona that captured the girls) are mad at him and that he is in trouble. Casey talks to Hedwig in an attempt to get a way out of there by telling him that Patricia and Dennis are still mad at him and that he's in trouble. Hedwig leaves, and the girls start looking for a way out through the walls. Claire finds a hollow spot in the ceiling and starts breaking off the plaster. Hedwig starts to come back, but Casey and Marcia hold the door back as Claire tries climbing out. Kevin reverts to Dennis as Claire starts crawling through the vents. She finds an exit and starts running for help. She hides in a locker but her trembling breath is so loud that Dennis finds her. He orders Claire to take off her shirt because it's dirty. He then locks her in a room by herself.In another session with Karen, Kevin returns as Barry. Karen doesn't believe she is really talking to Barry. She has noticed certain characteristics that Barry is displaying normally seen with other alters like Dennis, such as OCD. Barry insists that he's gotten better. Karen mentions that Kevin has 23 distinct identities. Kevin then becomes Dennis as Karen mentions a 24th identity, "The Beast", whom Dennis says is indeed real.Patricia brings Casey and Marcia out for some food. Marcia is forced to remove her skirt and Casey takes off her flannel shirt. Patricia brings the girls into a dining room and starts to make another sandwich. He becomes upset when he accidentally cuts the sandwich crookedly, so he starts making another one. Marcia seizes the opportunity to take a chair and strike Patricia in the back with it. She runs out for help, and Casey tries to run too, but Patricia catches her and orders her to go to her room. Marcia is eventually caught as well and is locked in a room by herself.Karen and her assistant Jai (M. Night Shyamalan) review security footage of outside the building. A trash bin is knocked over with garbage spilled everywhere. One couple walks around it, but Dennis walks right through it, which is something Karen believes is deliberate.Hedwig talks to Casey playfully. He asks to kiss her, and she allows him to, though it is awkward. Hedwig mentions his music collection and how he likes to dance to some Kanye West. Casey asks him to show her his room and his music collection. He brings her in there, and she mentions a window that's next to his music. It's just a drawing of a closed window over another drawing of an open window. Hedwig starts to realize that Casey is trying to escape. She becomes frightened and attempts to placate him. He pulls out a walkie-talkie, which Casey uses to start calling for help while fighting off Hedwig. Hedwig subdues Casey and takes the walkie back.We see another flashback with Little Casey on a hunting trip. With her dad not around, Uncle John starts wanting to "play". He strips down to his underwear and tells Casey to take off her clothes because "animals don't wear clothes". Later, John emerges from behind a rock and sees Casey holding a rifle at him. He manages to take it back from her before she pulls the trigger.Claire and Marcia attempt to escape using a wire to unlock the door from the outside Marcia's room. They are unsuccessful.Karen goes to Kevin's home and is greeted by Dennis. He invites her inside and they continue to discuss The Beast, as well as "The Horde", which is the name given for the major identities that control Kevin (Dennis, Barry, Patricia, and Hedwig). Karen then becomes genuinely terrified. She goes outside and finds Claire trapped in her room, but Dennis pulls Karen away before she can help.Casey finds a laptop with videos on every one of Kevin's identities. She sees one called Orwell, who discusses philosophy, and another named Jade, who is diabetic.Dennis goes to an abandoned train car and starts to transform into The Beast. He is significantly taller and stronger than any other identity. He returns home and finds Karen writing something on a piece of paper. She grabs a small knife as he crawls on the wall and grabs her. Karen starts trying to stab him, but the knife breaks. The Beast then squeezes Karen until her spine snaps and she dies.Casey gets out and tries to find the other girls. She finds Marcia dead with her stomach having been ripped open. Casey then finds Claire alive, but she gets dragged as The Beast starts chewing into her stomach. Casey finds the paper that Karen wrote on. It says "Say his name - Kevin Wendell Crumb". The Beast finds Casey, but she repeatedly shouts his name, making him revert to normal. We briefly see a flashback of Kevin's mother yelling at him as a child by saying his full name and telling him he's made a mess. Present Day Kevin has no memory of what he's done as Casey tells him he killed Karen, Claire, and Marcia. He tells Casey there's a gun in one of the cabinets, and that she must kill him. The major identities start to take control all at once. Casey runs as The Beast starts to come back.Casey finds some shells and loads them into the gun. The Beast starts crawling up on the ceiling and starts taking out the lights, leaving Casey with no sight to shoot at him. The Beast attacks Casey, ripping her shirt and biting her leg, but she gets away. She closes herself in a cage and loads the gun with more shells. The Beast starts bending the bars to get in, but he then notices multiple scars on Casey's body. Another flashback shows Little Casey after her father's funeral, and John telling her he will be her new guardian. The Beast then proclaims that Casey is pure-hearted, and he leaves her alone.Not long after, a man goes downstairs and finds Casey. He carries her outside to safety. She looks around on the outside and sees many animals in an enclosure. Medics arrive and take Casey in.Kevin is somewhere by himself, with The Horde controlling him completely now. Patricia says that The Beast will protect them now.The last scene is in a diner where people are watching a news report on what Kevin did. The anchorwoman mentions how The Beast identity displays characteristics of the animals in the enclosure where he worked. A patron mentions that the case is similar to a man in a wheelchair from 15 years earlier. When she can't remember his name, someone next to her replies, "Mr. Glass". We see that it is David Dunn (Bruce Willis; his character from "Unbreakable" in a surprise cameo). Fade out.

Tags: insanity, violence, horror, flashback

Review:
This movie will keep you watching waiting for the next character coming out of James McAvoy.
I was surprised to see that this movie was released last year (as I'm writing this) and I didn't heard about it, taking in consideration how promising the plot is.Split is about three girls get kidnapped by a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID) that has 23 personalities.
It doesn't try to be strictly realistic though, so it's an awesome thriller anyway.The movie gives you chills since the very start with an awesome acting by James McAvoy and some seriously good still scenes.
That makes this thriller stand out in a good way.Maybe Split makes a unrealistic representation of dissociative identity disorder, and that can be a big turnoff, but this is a great movie nonetheless..
Let me start off by saying that I haven't really like Shyamalan's work since "Unbreakable", but I have to admit that this movie made me believe in his vision again.
He deliveres a great performance that really helps to carry this film, and Betty Buckley also gives a notably outstanding performance in her supporting role.Is it as good as THE SIXTH SENSE?
It is a subtle commentary on many many things, violence, abuse, human nature, relationships, sexism, modern society, the potential of a human being, racism, the idiocy of the average people, our traumas, madness, the virtue of patience, existential angst etc It is true that it is a horror movie about a sick person, which may not be politically correct but is a very old and common trope in horror flicks.
I won't reveal too much about the film as others will do that, except to say it was a great film to watch in the theater, full of suspense and in some ways quite touching and meaningful, even if you do or don't like the final twists you'll be drawn in to this story and on the edge of your seat in more of a suspense mode.
I was sorry to see a review that put this film down, those reviews are off the mark this time round in my opinion I hope there is more to come from the M Night daring to be different again, his lower budget work is outstanding and easily brings out his best storytelling.
Splits first 45 minutes are the best part of this movie with an intriguing look into the split personalities of Kevin, played by the excellent James McAvoy.
The girls have limited time before The Beast is unleashed and although paralysed by fear, their escape depends on protagonist Casey's (Anya Taylor-Joy) proactive deconstruct of the good and evil personalities that reside in Kevin.
To her advantage and through revelatory flashbacks, we learn that this wouldn't be the first time Casey would confront a monster.If Edward Norton's dual personalities was chilling in his debut film Primal Fear, wait till you get a load of James McAvoy in what is simply an outstanding performance of versatility (or should I say two dozen performances in one film?).
I wanted to watch a horror film, so I browsed on the "Free Movies" section on Xfinity Demand.
I read the plot synopsis, and I really liked the concept and watching the film for the first time was one of the best movie watching experiences I've ever had.
James Mcavoy in this film has an oscar worthy performance, playing 23 different personalities.
Anya Taylor Joy also had a very good performance in this film and she played a very interesting character.
At first I didn't understand the twist ending, but after browsing the internet, I found out it involved a character from Unbreakable, and watching that movie was also a treat.
12 years back at Sreekumar theatre Trivandrum , I was going berserk over Chiyaan Vikram's multiple personality magnum opus Anniyan - and all of a sudden James McAvoy has outweighed that very specific standard of enactment with his once in a life time role in Split.
Using the  disorder of DID, and a true story (!), to create its bonkers premise,  McAvoy plays Kevin, a man who possesses 23 distinct personalities, some  of which are male and some of which are female, some of which are  young, and some of which are old, some of which are homosexual and some  of which are heterosexual, some of which have OCD or require insulin  for diabetes, and some of which are really rather volatile and  dangerous.
While eventually serving  a narrative purpose, in the early scenes, Shyamalan's switching to this  doctor's narrative grinds the movie to something of a halt, leaving you  longing for the far more interesting story to develop and ultimately  resolve.
That being said, the movie never bores for a second, thanks to  Shyamalan's distinctive style and an ominous score, as well as Anya  Taylor Joy, so impressive in The Witch, who proves she isn't a one  trick pony.
Despite al this,  Split is a worthy work from Shyamalan that will deliver a jolt of high  octane thrills to your nerves, one which will certainly be needed in  the doldrums of the January dumping ground of films..
James McAvoy Has acted excellently in this film in all of his characters.This is one of the best movies I have ever seen.
James McAvoy gives what could have potentially been an award-worthy performance if it had appeared in a different film.He plays a man with multiple personalities who kidnaps three young girls as a part of a plot two of the personalities have hatched to unleash a powerful and unstoppable identity.
Night Shyamalan, who hasn't made a movie I've wanted to see since "Signs," crafts a nifty and effective thriller with three fourths of his film, and then sort of if not completely ruins it by taking his idea too far and pushing the supernatural elements to the point where we realize we're not even watching the same kind of movie we were at the beginning.
Just like "The Visit" a year earlier, Shyamalan's new movie "Split" offers a great mixture of psychological suspense, horror elements and an emotional drama with a lot of depth.
The restricted space in the basement, the calm and precise camera work, the gloomy light effects and the sinister soundtrack progressively increase the uneasy atmosphere of the movie.James McAvoy has the challenging task to portray eight different personalities all at once and his acting performance alone elevates this movie to a very high level.
Overall, the cast is really convincing and easily the best in the psychological horror genre since Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island".The only reason why this movie didn't get all ten points are a few minor lengths in the story telling during the first half of the film and the fact that the movie didn't come around with a stunning twist in the key of many of Shyamalan's previous works.
Even those who like to criticize Shyamalan should admit that "Split" is a success and one of the best movies in his career.
I think Split is one of the best Psychological thriller movies in the past few years.
In the end I feel the beast lives on the mind of people like Kevin (not all the personalities ) who strangely/accidentally accept the devil with a different set of ideas(Dennis and Patricia take control of Kevin's life-"we are in control") which in turn helps the beast to live and spread itself farther.
Night Shyamalan but I thought this movie would be different given the fact that it is advertised as a thriller.
For two decades his movies have attempted to impersonate the films of true humans, but they are oddly written imperfect interpretations because his brain chemistry is radically different from our own.Not a single spoken line in "Split" is something that a human being would ever actually say.
Split was sold on the performance of Mr. James McAvoy as 24 different roles and judging by the box office and the high ratings the hype seems to have worked.
He is indeed the high point of the film and the reason for the second star in this rating but compared to the hype he's slightly underwhelming - McAvoy spends the majority of the running time as just 3 or 4 characters, effectively making the whole 24 personalities thing purely a marketing tactic.The acting by the remainder of the cast is awful across the board.
Betty Buckley flounders helplessly through her lines and while she's universally terrible it's difficult to know whether to blame her or the batsh*t directing and writing as she's expected to deliver some of the worst dialog ever put on screen.By the end the whole affair devolves into a hilarious dumpster fire the likes of which we've seen in "The Happening" but by then it's far too late to find any sort of enjoyment in the spectacle.
From the start I had a bad feeling about this movie because the intro was so awkward and the dialogue was so cheesy with poor acting.James Macavoy is a very talented and versatile actor.
Amazing sci-fi and I loved it to a point where I even started asking questions whether it is possible and I have to say great split performance act by James McAvoy (Split, I know) Great film and spectacular directing and the cast was brilliant.
I've said that many times that anything, any film that is presented as a "convoluted", "complicated", "complex" story or plot will make the majority of audiences and critics to laud it as something good."Split" is another example of this type of behavior/reasoning.But in reality the whole thing is idiotic, the story has plot holes the size of Texas (e.g. the three girls could easily subdue the child personality), the child molestation subplot is totally unnecessary, the whole DID gets old very fast, and the twist (yes, there is a twist, since this is is a Shyamalan film) only works for those who watched another film released in 2000!Waste of time and waste of money....
Let me make it short, James McAvoy's best role yet....He knocked it out of the park, you'll know what i mean when you see the movie.
Casting is great, especially the performances of Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke & Betty Buckley as Dr. Karen Fletcher are remarkable....West Dylan Thordson score gets extra marks...Great Psychological Horror-Thriller with a powerhouse performance by James McAvoy under the brilliant direction by M.
"Split" is an outstanding return to form for Shyamalan and one of the best horror-thrillers in years..
Night Shyamalan who also co-produces for the second time with Jason Blum and Marc Bienstock of Blumhouse Productions, which gave us horror franchises like "Paranormal Activity".James McAvoy is Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man with 23 different personalities inside his head, but who is still able to function in society.
With the obvious exception of their captive state, the girls are unharmed, but it becomes clear that something bad is about to happen."Split" is an outstanding return to form for Shyamalan and one of the best horror-thrillers in years.
Although "Split" doesn't feature one of his trademark mind-bending twists, it's his best film in 10-15 years.Here, he has made a movie with an original concept, a compelling narrative and genuine tension which gradually builds.
Knight in this one..I don't know how someone with his kind of talent let this one slide by.Look forward to watching more of his work in the future.I have loved his work in the past and hope for his sake this doesn't set him back in creating his next project.Until than ill just watch his other films and skip over Split!.
It's sort of a sado masochism type of film in a way, except it's captor(McAvoy) has many personalities running around, all the while still under supervision of a psychologist.Shyamalan goes through all the predictable steps to make us care about the victims and the villain, we get a surprise ending as to why we have to sit and watch this predictable rubbish, and it's end is just to make the studios buy into Shyamalan's work yet another time, it's all about money to further his venture's for another feature film.Watching the entire film, and after seeing it's final scene, I felt annoyed, and I wouldn't watch this film again.
It's been a rough few years, but M Night Shyamalan's latest film Split proved that this director still has it.Firstly, James McAvoy's performance is the best part of this movie, his performance carried this film for me and kept me invested.
McAvoy charms the audience with his brilliant (at times comedic) portray of the Hedwig personality, and does a good job making other personalities like Dennis, Ms Patricia and the beast frightening and creepy in their own ways.
McAvoy does a good job separating the personalities from one another, making each seem like individual characters.The other performances in this movie are also good, Anya Taylor-Joy played her character fairly well, especially during the more dramatic scenes, and i hope to see more dramatic work from her in the future.
Shyamalan's camera-work and writing also seemed to be a bit messy at times, mainly during the first act of the movie, but was fine for the majority of the movie.However, although this isn't a perfect film, it's definitely worth a watch, and it's a good sign for Mr Shyamalan's career.
James McAvoy is too talented for this silly movie, which had a big potential in terms of plot, but it was reduced to the regular Shyamalan garbage.
Lots of actors are capable of this and I'm sure many will cite McAvoy's performance as being a key element of the film, but for me it doesn't save the movie.
Long story short, 'Split' is very different from any movie I watched and that is why I truly hope the story will not end here.
While McAvoy portrayed a convincing crazy person, his performance could not make up for the bad screen writing, nonsensical plot, and awful character development.
SPLIT - M NIGHT SHYAMALAN - The Real DealThe movie is about a man suffering from a disorder of multiple personalities.
(I do realize why Shyamalan made this creative decision, and you will too, after watching it and then reading up on it.) But I still think that this would have been a perfect film if the majority of it focused on McAvoy's personalities either aiding or misleading his psychiatrist, with Taylor-Joy's fate hanging in the balance.Two, this film seemed to suffer from the too-many-endings syndrome that people often associate with Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" movies.
And this isn't even counting the significance of the movie's final line, which works as a fantastic framing device.About that line  if you're a Shyamalan fan, then you simply must watch the film until it's very end, as the camera pans through the coffee shop.
McAvoy's outstanding performance of Kevin, a man with multiple personalities, would be enough to keep my attention through the movie, and yet, that was just a minor part of Shyamalan's thriller.
Even better news is while James McAvoy has fun in the role it's never enough to actually take you out of the movie .
McAvoy is of course a Scottish actor from a working class background and it's usually a distraction watching "one of us" in a commercial Hollywood movie but here McAvoy delivers a pivotal role playing a character suffering from dissociative identity disorder .
I think among the Shyamalan *bad* movies, and this is bad make no mistake, it's directed like a pro and the actors are all on their game, and becomes the best of them..
Night Shyamalan.I put the word thriller in quotes because I felt that it wasn't a thriller at all, but rather a drama with tense moments.Split tells two stories rather than just one and I think that's what hurt the film the most.
The first story we have is Kevin, played by the brilliant James McAvoy, who suffers from Dissociative Identity Disorder.
On the plot the main character, a man with 23 different personalities, kidnapped three girls and kept them in an underground room for some time.
Shyamalan works around this as best he can by naming DID and devoting exposition to it in the form of Betty Buckley's character Dr. Karen Fletcher, the foremost expert on DID and a therapist with a longstanding relationship with Kevin (James McAvoy), who has 23 distinct personalities.
McAvoy owns them to the point that we actually see them as different characters when they're on screen.Yet it's the mystery of Kevin's intent and what he might be capable of that keeps things tense throughout most of the film, a tension that shifts from mystery-driven to horror-driven in the final act.
At this point, "Split" becomes a much stranger movie and we're surprised at just where and how far Shyamalan will go.
Even though I have no regrets watching this movie, I found it - to put it bluntly- well, 'meh.' That being said, I don't mean to discredit McAvoy for his role as Kevin and the few other personalities.
It could have been much more.'Split' is an average horror-thriller movie, which does not belong to Shyamalans worst work, or his best.
Still, it is not a bad movie and worth to watch, because of the great acting jobs of McAvoy, Taylor-Joy and Buckley..
i can't believe the bad reviews of this film, James McAvoy is outstanding and the movie as a whole is outstanding, my advice is watch it for what it is and not what you want it to be.
Very exciting movie with excellent acting by James McAvoy.
You'd think a film with a main character who has 23 personalities would be interesting...well it wasn't.
Now I saw this film from Redbox for like a dollar so that's the best way to watch it.Another disappointment from M Night.
James McAvoy was okay I guess but if he should have developed the characters of the 23 personalities which we only saw 8 on screen a bit more instead of just changing his voice.Oh the main actress what was the point of her flashbacks in the film?