Without wasting much time, M. Night Shyamalan dives straight into his story. Quick to the point! With a very strong, agitated opening, the premise, circumstances, our mood & expectations are all set.
When the motion picture's promoted as a guy with 23 different personalities, it's amazingly uncanny, and at the same time it left us worrying about too many characters onscreen could actually cause lack of depths in most of them. We are pleased when Shyamalan chooses to omit 20 of them by bringing in the faction property; those who believe about the beast and those who don't. In that away, he's able to omit Jade, Samuel, Polly, Ansel, Mr. Pritchard and the rest. Even the video montages do not suggest some of these psyches are any particular engaging. The runtime would definitely have had problems fleshing out all of them.
Shyamalan simply understands what makes a thriller! What makes a thriller, ladies and gentlemen? Tension. Anxiety. Tenterhooks. Tingles. Adrenaline rush. Kick. All of it! He bottles these flavours into firing his imaginations for sequences like the rooftop escape, attempts to slide the bolt lock with a hanger, walkie talkie struggle, bone-crushing Dr. Fletcher and the gripping climax! Not only it's edgy, but scary & creepy too!
James McAvoy is too good. He deserves an Oscar nod on the 90th Academy Awards. As Barry he confuses, as Dennis he frightens! As Patricia he maintains quietude, as Hedwig he cracks us up! Under the demand of the director, he brings in elements of surprise & comedy through the split personality concept. Watch out for the couple of times he instantly switches between 2 or more personas, which even brought tears to the eyes of Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley) in one of it. Hedwig is the most obvious character of the lot, with his hilarious "etcetera" among other scene stealing moments. "You might be pregnant now." by him after a small kiss is pure epic! Even the film is such, with many subtle humours sprinkled sporadically.
Another equally earnest character is that of Anya Taylor-Joy's Casey Cooke. She is not your typical horror film protagonist who decides on the dumbest decisions along the way of escapade. She's peculiar. She knows things. Instead of panicking, inducing noise & gathering unwanted attentions, she thinks and handles her situation. She intelligently communicates with her kidnapper. She locates the room key through a video journal. Something about her tells you that she has had experiences. While she is afraid of the current turmoil, she's not desperate to be out of it. When we get a chance to dig into her past, we find out about the abuses. You might want to know what happened further during the undressing episode. But, as a true filmmaker, M. Night Shyamalan never shows it. Beautiful! By the way, Izzie Coffey as the younger version, is outrageously cute!
The screenplay installs tiny little actions or speeches as plot devices that would accommodate in solving hurdles or plot points at any point in the feature, barring saving the nail alone. It gets a little slow after the initial abduction, before picking up at full throttle when the doctor's investigations begin. The mystery on the beast shoulders until the pinnacle of the ending! When the film concludes by matching 2 suffered people on the confrontation line, it resolves everything! All emotions clear. All story arcs complete. It wouldn't be wrong to say this is a tribute to all broken people out there.
In a rather technically solid picture, the blackout transitions aren't probably the best choice. But, the camerawork is stunning, especially the clip where a streetlight is canned up top, covering The Horde running across from one end to another. Beginning credits, fantastic! As common with Night's films, the talkie portions are draggy, although it serves to build characters, explain about the said 'ceremony', or push the story towards its culmination. It should be brief and cut to the chase.
While Split is a nifty movie on its own, its value & merit soars high when audiences come to learn that it is a silent sequel to the director's Unbreakable! This has to be one of the best twists to be ever pulled off! To hide something so epoch-making and delivering it as a major reveal at the end of the film is impressively satisfying! The first hint is of course, the theme music that ensues when Split's title card is shown. Before you start to wonder why does it jog your memory back to the year 2000, David Dunn (Unbreakable's protagonist played by Bruce Willis) appears to kill your doubts!
Having this in mind, when one goes back to watch the underrated art again, mind's blown away on how it all makes sense flawlessly! There's a scene where Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) explains about stereotypical hero & villain. And the villain is described to be a monster with big head attached to an abnormal body. 17 years later, we get the antagonist in the form of The Horde (James McAvoy)! The posters for both these pictures are similar too! While the hero is formed by realizing that his power is well... unbreakable, the villain is a result of childhood abuse causing multitude splits in personalities! No wonder The Horde didn't die after the gunshots; because he is a supervillain! Also, Shyamalan has been following the rules of the universe he has created all this while! Remember, Mr. Glass said heroes are the total opposites of their villains. Shyamalan stuck through with this philosophy since the first film. While Mr. Glass is physically fractured, The Horde is mentally fractured. Rumours are flying around that Kevin (the small kid who James McAvoy's character has grown from) is the boy in the house where the murder occurred in Unbreakable, provoking David to rescue him at the pre-climax. If these aren't known as absolute genius work, then what is?