I was more than enthusiastic when I saw the trailer for "Split" back in 2016. The concept is interesting and I thought the trailer showed great potential. However, my opinion on the movie, like the title, is Split. I did not dislike it, but I also did not like it as much as I thought I would. I felt that there were several things that the creative minds behind this movie either didn’t think about or did not care about. Either way, I feel that the movie’s potential was better than the movie itself.
M. Night Shyamalan’s, "Split" follows Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) and two of her classmates as they struggle for survival after being abducted by Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) who has Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) and 23 distinct personalities. These personalities have their own minds and thoughts, they simply live in Kevin’s body taking turns in what his therapist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), calls the ‘Spotlight.’ What’s interesting about Kevin is that his body structure and bone density change with each personality. Just off reading this one paragraph I can tell you’re probably like, “I should see this movie.” It does sound interesting, but you should be warned about a few things before you decide to see this movie.
The first thing that I notice about this movie is how little time was spent developing the characters. I felt that the only character that had some depth was Kevin solely because he was not only Kevin, he was so many other people at one time. Besides him, every other character fell flat for me. Casey’s apathy got boring after the first thirty minutes of the movie. I don’t even remember the other girl’s names. It was clear that Shyamalan relied heavily on the fact that McAvoy was playing so many characters. It didn’t seem like he spent any time giving these characters’ purpose.
Where "Split" lacks in character development, it makes up for in overtly disturbing content. I have no issue seeing gore on screen (Tarantino is one of my favorite directors); however, it is unsettling for me when a movie is PG-13, but it features R rated content. This movie is full of pedophilic undertones and cannibalism. As the movie progresses, both of those get worse. I feel that if a movie is going to feature content like that and still be a decent movie, it needs and R rating. If it were rated R, then the presence of those things would be acceptable. The movie being PG-13 made me feel awkward. Plus, R rating or not, watching someone eat two teenage girls alive is enough to make you revaluate what you spend your money on to see in theaters.
What I disliked about this movie most was how insensitive it was towards people who have DID. The film portrays people with the mental illness as animals. Kevin lives in a sewer or abandoned train station (this detail was unclear) like a recluse and the public are unaccepting of his mental illness. It paints the picture that DID victims are less than human. I also noticed that it seemed to glorify depression and self-harm. Casey suffered with depression, and because of it she was spared by Kevin who promptly proclaimed, “You are pure.” It was disrespectful and kind of hurtful to be honest.
Overall, "Split" was a letdown. I went in expecting something completely different than what I got. However, I will not say that it was a horrible movie… It was interesting to say the least. It did make me think and do a little research about DID. So, I encourage everyone to see it if you believe you can stomach all the cannibalism.
