Split (2016)

While M. Night Shyamalan doesn’t always make winners, The Happening, he does know how to make a good film. Split is one of the best horror films of the recent decade and a career definer for James McAvoy and Anya Taylor Joy.

Firstly, James McAvoy deserved all the awards for his performance as Kevin Crumb, which is a pretty clever. Kevin suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder; simply multiple people live in his head. Because of this McAvoy has to play 7 different characters and make all of them feel like different people, and he definitely succeeds. Hedwig provides gravity in the tense situation, being cute but scary in his own moments. Patricia and Dennis are unsettling to say the least. Making you squirm in your seats by just how uncomfortable they make you fear. Now imagine these 3 extremely different characters, and 4 more, are played by the same actor. That’s some serious skills.

As a horror it is incredibly intelligent, not trying to force you to be scared with jump scares, but making you unsettled by incredible sound design, amazing acting and some to close for comfort camera angles. When the beast comes into play, he is haunting. McAvoy’s body and muscles unnatural swell as his wide, animalistic eyes stare into your soul. He’s scary.

M. Night is famous for his twists but Split actually doesn’t have a story breaking, mind boggling twist. The story is simple enough and easy to follow, it’s no Prometheus, but still has its moments of surprise. The Hoard’s, the collective term for the personalities, origin can be figured out through the film if you pay enough attention and the story is gripping as is. The twist at the end doesn’t affect the story and actually opens more paths for possible sequels.

Split is one of the best horror movies released in the last decades, featuring incredible performances and some masterful directing from a great film maker. M. Night may have had some bad films but this is one of the best.