After “After Earth”, people lost hope for M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, but when I watched “The Visit, I got that hope and now, after watching “Split”, I can say that he is truly back!

Three girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities, and must try and escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.

The story is really interesting and, to be honest, I never knew that Dissociative identity disorder was a thing. If you haven’t watched the trailer yet, I would recommend not watching it because it will give you a bit too much. We can split (see what I did there) the movie in two parts: the one where we learn about McAvoy’s characters and the part about his 24th personality. This movie is a combination of a thriller and horror, but not kind of horror with jump scares and all other bullshit. This movie will really creep you out because of McAvoy’s characters and his creepy personalities. We meet his psychiatrist, which is a very nice person, but she will give you some creeps as well, although she’s not supposed to. Again, Shyamalan shows us how creative he is with his endings and twists, so don’t expect something easy. There are a lot of pacing issues. The movie starts fast, but it slows down a lot, and at the end of the movie, it speeds up again.

The acting in this movie is amazing. Anya Taylor-Joy (Casey) did great. I remember her from The Witch which released early in 2016. Her character was really manipulative and interesting because she’s one of those “not-dumb horror movie” girls. Haley Lu Richardson (Claire) was also good, but her character was put in the background because of McAvoy and Anya. Like I said, Betty Buckley (Dr. Fletcher/McAvoy’s psychiatrist) was creepy, although she’s not supposed to be like that. She is one of the most important characters in this movie because she’s the only one who understands McAvoy’s problem, although she doesn’t believe him about his 24th personality. And finally, James McAvoy and his 23/24 personalities. He did an amazing job here. I was shocked by his acting skills shown here. This movie can be an audition material for any next role of his. All his personalities are different and they are all creepy as hell. Sometimes it’s so creepy it’s disturbing. I know a lot of people will think that Hedwig is the creepiest one, but… I don’t know about that.

The soundtrack in this movie is great. There are a lot of creepy music that will give you the creeps. Also, the sound editing is good. I really like that moment when he’s switching to another personality and you can hear really quiet, but disturbing cracks of his bones. The recording is good, but nothing special, as well as the editing.

At the end, “Split” is another great Shyamalan’s movie. I would recommend watching “Unbreakable” before this movie because of… reasons. I really think that he’s back and I want to see more of his work in the future.

My rating: 9/10