By Subraj Singh
M. Night Shyamalan is one of the few horror directors of the century to be nominated for a Best Director Academy Award. He was nominated for his 1999 film, The Sixth Sense, which has now become worthy of future consideration for classic status. It is one of those films that everyone has seen and everyone likes. Despite the Oscar nomination, however, Shyamalan’s output of films has, over the years, fluctuated in terms of quality.

He did direct the disaster that was The Last Airbender, after all, and perhaps it is no surprise that in recent years, moviegoers have all but forgotten Shyamalan’s Academy Award nominations, and the fact that he once made good films, and of the talent that he does possess. For a long time, people who were fans of Shyamalan’s asked for the director to make a comeback, to make a return to form, and with the director’s most recent film, the massive box-office hit, Split, it has become highly probable that their wishes are being granted. To be fair, signs of Shyamalan’s return to greatness began to manifest themselves when he directed The Visit a few years back, but Split is the movie that cements his return to the beautiful mayhem of the modern horror movie.

Split stars James McAvoy as a man suffering from multiple personality disorder, with twenty three personalities existing in his body.

These personalities either live in fear of, or worship, a twenty fourth personality who is referred to as the “Beast.” One of the personalities assumes control of Kevin’s body and kidnaps three teenage girls, including Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), hoping to use them as offerings to the Beast. Of course, many of the expected happenings do occur. There are multiple attempts at escape from the girls, multiple escape attempts foiled by Kevin’s personalities, the emergence of Casey (the socially awkward loner who is different from the other two girls in captivity) as the heroine in the way she tries to outwit rather than attack the various personae in Kevin.

However, for the most part, Shyamalan manages to make the film seem fresh and interesting even when it bounces through familiar loops. Also, it should be noted that while there are familiar elements in it, Split also offers a lot of divergences from typical horror movie tropes. For example, the use of humour in the film is a strange and beautiful thing that mixes with the horror and the suspense to create a heady mixture of cinema to expose the audience to. Then there’s the theme of “being different” represented in both Kevin, on account of his multiple personalities, and Casey, on account of her being different from the other two girls and also in another way that you should wait to see in the film.

The idea of “difference” of being an outsider is something that the director has explored in many of his other movies (The Sixth Sense, The Lady in the Water, The Village) and yet, the way it is presented in this particular movie gives off a sense of “difference” being both a source of power and strength versus a source of darkness, as presented through Casey and Kevin.

James McAvoy gives a truly stunning performance as Kevin and all the other personalities. He is chameleon-like, shifting effortlessly, disturbingly, between the different personalities. It is no easy task to play Kevin, confused and afraid of himself, and then switch to Dennis, strong and deranged, then turn into manipulative Miss Patricia, and then to Hedwig, a personality who is a 9 year old child. Yet, McAvoy does it all impeccably, ensuring that the lines between all his personalities are clearly drawn and distinct and even when they need to infringe on each other in the space that is Kevin’s body, McAvoy ensures that they do so in a way that ensures the developments are still crystal clear to the audience. The actor’s performance as the Beast, also, is a treat that needs to be seen in order to be really appreciated.

Anya Taylor-Joy is becoming one of my favourite younger actresses. Last year she delivered a masterful and subtle turn in The Witch and her performance in Split shows that she does indeed have an excellent knowledge of the craft and that she is an actress to keep an eye on. Taylor-Joy matches McAvoy every step of the way, which is no easy feat considering that he has the showier role and because, well, he is James McAvoy. Nevertheless, her performance is so stunning that there are scenes where the two actors are playing off each other and Taylor-Joy’s acting is so good, so believable, her eyes wide with fear and yet never losing sight of her aim to stay alive, that you can almost feel with each passing moment, her future stardom breaking itself out into the world.

Overall, Shyamalan’s film is tightly directed. There are no unnecessary lapses in tension or in suspense. The atmosphere is perfectly dark. The main characters are perfectly drawn. The final scenes are truly scary and are worth the wait. One can only hope that this movie does indeed signal a return to form for M. Night Shyamalan. We can only wait and hope that whatever he chooses to do next is just as good.