M. Night Shyamalan Returns to Form in Split; James McAvoy is at his Demonic best in the film
McAvoy plays a character with 23 personalities that kidnaps 3 girls
The first trailer of M. Night Shyamalan's latest movie, Split, has just been dropped and more than anything, it reveals the superb demonic performance of James McAvoy. He plays a character suffering from an extreme case of dissociative identity disorder and has 23 different personalities.
The Good and Bad Personalities
The character turns paranoid with a torrent of confusion when one of his personalities named Kevin abducts three teenage girls. The girls must fight their way out of the hell house he put them in by trying to coax the good personalities out of him to free them. Playing the 3 kidnapped girls are Anya Taylor-Joy, Jessica Sula and Haley Lu. Betty Buckley plays the role of the therapist trying to help Kevin.
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The movie trailer shows Kevin and his different personalities but there is a 24th personality that is still trying to emerge. It is called the Beast and it seems to be the most evil and terrifying that Kevin himself does not want this personality to be out.
Shyamalan's Follow-up to The Visit
This will be M. Night Shyamalan's movie after last year's The Visit. The footage of the horror film got far better and positive reviews than any of Shyamalan's movies in the last ten years or so. His last few projects such as The Last Airbender and The Happening were heavily panned by critics and they failed to earn for him the same level of recognition that he got from his earlier successes in films like The Sixth Sense.
Shyamalan found relative success however in Wayward Pines, the Fox series he executive produces. Season 1 of the TV thriller's performances and plot earned positive reviews from critics.
Second Choice
Split focuses on character-driven narratives and is definitely smaller in scope than Shyamalan's After Earth and Airbender movies. McAvoy's performance in itself is impressive based on the trailer. Surprisingly, he isn't the first choice as Kevin. Back in August 2015, Joaquin Phoenix was announced to play him. However, two months later, another announcement was made saying that it was McAvoy who signed on for the movie project.
The trailer showed some Psycho references in Split. These go by the way of the cross dressing lead and the stabbing scene soundtrack of the classic movie. Split's trailer also seems to be M. Night Shyamalan's way of announcing that he is indeed back to his most successful form.
Split will be released in U.S. theaters on January 20, 2017.
