Okay, so I’m a Shyamalan apologist. Some say he lost the thread around Signs or The Village, but I was with him until Lady in the Water. As a student of Spielberg, the man can work a camera and is a master in the underappreciated art of blocking. I especially love the early films for being as spiritual as they are supernatural. However, the twists became parody, so he turned to boring, bad blockbusters, which was even more disappointing. I would say that Lady in the Water is his worst film but at least it doesn’t feel anonymous like After Earth.

Now comes a new chapter in Shyamalan’s career, teaming up with prolific horror producer Jason Blum (The Purge, Insidious, and Paranormal Activity series). When The Happening was released, he claimed it was supposed to be a B-movie as a way to deflect criticism. A B-movie with a 50 million dollar budget. Between The Visit and Split, Shyamalan has embraced true B-movie filmmaking, and I mean that as a compliment. The pretensions have been shed, the thrills are amped up, and the price tag is modest.

Split begins when three girls leaving a mall, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Claire (Haley Lu Richardson), and Marcia (Jessica Sula), are abducted by Kevin (James McAvoy), the host of 23 “different and distinct” personalities. He locks them in a basement with unknown intentions, something to do with developing a 24th personality “The Beast”. Kevin cycles between the OCD Dennis, the zealous Patricia, and nine year-old Hedwig as he thwarts the girls’ attempts to escape. I’ll come right out and say that McAvoy is doing great work here and elevates the material even when it occasionally falters. It’s a fun tightrope walk to watch.

This is a setup similar to many “trapped in a room” thrillers from recent years (10 Cloverfield Lane, Green Room, Don’t Breathe). But Shyamalan is as interested in Kevin’s story as he is in the captives, so we spend a great deal of time outside the cell and in the office of Kevin’s psychiatrist Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley). She explains all the details of his condition the audience needs to know and spews pseudo-science in the ballpark of “humans only use 10% of their brain”. Aside from her function as exposition machine, her ambiguous intentions and gamesmanship make these some of the best scenes in the movie.

Kevin’s condition is given a real-world diagnosis, dissociative identity disorder (DID). It stems from childhood abuse and we come to see him as a victim alongside the girls. That makes every move Casey makes to manipulate him is as heartbreaking as it is necessary. She has a broken past as well, leaving her as an outcast from her peers. We see flashbacks to a hunting trip with her father and uncle as a child. It first made me think “Ooh! We’re going to learn she has the mind of a hunter” or “She’s going to Slumdog Millionaire her way to a solution!”. I won’t give it away but Shyamalan is playing in the deep-end in terms of subject matter with that plotline and some viewers will feel like he’s going under.

Shyamalan is also in the deep-end with his treatment of mental illness. Sure, this movie is supposed to be schlock and sure, Dr. Fletcher is treated as a quack, but it doesn’t change the fact that every instance of DID or similar illnesses on screen depicts the sufferer as a violent madman. It’s an unfortunate black mark but the movie is fundamentally tied to that callous choice.

As for the craft, Shyamalan is back in his groove. I was tense throughout and truly could not anticipate where the story would wind up. The visual compositions are engaging and the solutions our protagonist’s attempt are clever but also realistic in their absence of classic, clean heroism. Though the film does run out steam narratively. Ninety minutes is a more suitable running time for this kind of genre exercise and and eventually Kevin’s sidelined personalities become so broad and archetypal that they feel like improv characters.

I won’t give away the twist but it made me giddy as a fan of Shyamalan’s oeuvre. The way it recontextualizes the film may help some viewers sweep Split’s problematic elements under the rug as well.