Split Review

M. Night Shyamalan's latest film is a psychological horror thriller and playing to his strong suit, it gets unusual.
Starting with a very normal yet cliché scene to an abduction movie which introduces us to the captives in the briefest of detail. Then an unusual turn for a modern movie, opening credits with an immersive score, letting our ears absorb what is to be the tone of this tale. It's a slow moving piece of music with a monstrous feel hidden within it, building a sense of fear of what is to come.

The score to this movie just builds on top of the eerie atmosphere created in Kevin's living space with it's partly lit corners and its cluttered almost claustrophobic environment. The living quarters seem organised yet scattered, which is a physical representation of Kevin's mind suffering from  dissociative identity disorder.
Split is also an accurate way to describe how this story is told as it is fractured into three stories running simultaneously. We have the story of our trio of terrified captives wanting to escape, secondly we have Casey Cooke's (Anya Taylor-Joy) flashbacks and most importantly Kevin's (James McAvoy) story as his conflicting personalities struggle for power. Casey's flashbacks are required to explain her character as she seemed to be an outsider with the girls, the problem is that they are not well integrated into the flow of the film. These flashbacks do however help with suspense as we wait for them to become more relevant each time we return to the present story-line.
Kevin, although the captor, can be sympathised with for that we know he is attempting recovery as he visits his therapist Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley). The scenes with Fletcher and Kevin ground the film and bring forward Kevin's mindset, incorporate this with the story of the captives when he returns to his "lair". Forcing a refreshing dynamic in this repetitively seen ground of  captives and captor.
As McAvoy transitions through his wheel of Kevin's personalities. from a 9 year old boy with a speech impediment to a controlling mother-like figure. This performance is going to be remembered for some time due to how his composure switches so easy from one personality to another. He owned the screen and simply stole the show, elevating an average film into an entertaining thrill ride.
Split may be an entertaining thrill ride although I feel if it had took itself a few degrees more serious it would have been Superb. Fortunately a cameo right after the conclusion builds some excitement, so don't leave to soon at the end.

Mr. Cynic is rating this a 7/10