Split: The Director of Signs and 6th Sense Makes Another Must See Film

Every so often I come across trailers that get me extremely stoked for the movie.  This was definitely one of those trailers.  Unfortunately, it usually happens that I get my hopes up and the movie ends up letting me down in a big bad way. I believe one movie I even walked out on, which I never do.  This movie however, did not disappoint and actually surpassed my expectations.

Three high school girls are kidnapped and wake up in what appears to be a secluded room in a basement somewhere unknown.  They soon find out they were selected for a reason.  You see, the man who took them has 23 personalities and he is working on revealing his 24th which is known as the Beast.  The Beast wants souls who have never experienced pain as an offering and these girls seem to be who fits that requirement.  The girls continue to learn more and more about their captor and his different versions.  They try to use what they learn to trick him into letting them go.  This works for a short time and then they are even worse than where they started.  Time is drawing closer to the end where they will meet the Beast and they are trying to do everything they can do avoid that, but will they be strong enough or clever enough to do so?

This was definitely a suspenseful movie, but it was also interesting because it showed almost 3 stories at the same time.  The film focuses on Kevin, played by James McAvoy, who has 23-24 personalities, but also shares the story of his counselor who has researched and believes his disorder to be him having more use of his brain than others. For example, one of his personalities has diabetes, one is a women, one is gay, and so on.  Each one was almost willed into being.  His body chemistry even changes and all in an attempt for his mind to protect who he really is which is a man named Kevin who was severely abused as a child.  We also have one of the kidnapped girls who has her own backstory with an awful uncle.  We slowly see more and more of what happened to her which ends up saving her in many situations throughout the film.  There were so many facets and deeper stories than just a kidnapping which made this an excellent psychological thriller.  IMDB gave it a 7.6/10 and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 75%.  I would score it a 7.8/10.  James McAvoy is truly talented and the way he portrayed each personality and the internal conflict of his character was outstanding.  The movie keeps you in your toes the whole time and if you like thrillers with a mix of suspense and physiology, you'll like this film.  It is rated PG-13, but has some dark innuendos so I would leave the kids and teems at home for this one.