Being the horror movie enthusiast that I am, I was super pumped to be one of the first eight people to walk into the movie theater and see Split. Knowing nothing about the movie except from what I saw in the trailer, I expected an on-edge, skin-crawling thriller. I got what I hoped for, but in a different sense.
Beware for spoilers.
First and foremost, I must talk about Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance. Astounding. She played Casey Cook, one of the three girls to be abducted early in the movie. She played the typical conservative girl: not many friends, closed off, silently intimidating. We first see her at her classmate, Claire Benoit’s (Haley Lu Richardson) birthday party where she is the last one to be picked up. After calling her parents, Claire’s dad finally offers to take Casey home and she politely accepts. Casey and Claire were also accompanied by their friend Marcia (Jessica Sula). Every scene Joy was in, she executed it flawlessly. I saw the fear in her eyes with every twist and turn that occurred in the movie. She stayed smart and mentally tough, which led me to believe she had a rough childhood that you eventually watched play out through her flashbacks.
Kevin “Wendell” Crumb, the main character, (played by James McAvoy) suffers from a disease known as dissociative identity disorder. DID is a condition in which a person’s identity is fragmented into two or more distinct personalities. However, Kevin does not only have two personalities, he has 23. Every personality is different. From Dennis and Patricia, who “run the show” most of the time. To Hedwig and Barry, who kept the film light-hearted whenever need be.
The first conflict arises whenever one of Kevin’s personalities, Dennis, kidnaps the three girls and takes them back to his house (which later is underneath the Philadelphia Zoo, which is also his place of employment). He keeps them captive and they constantly looks for ways to get out. One time they look through the crack in the door because they hear Dennis having a conversation with someone. They see a woman in a long black skirt, red shirt and heels. The girls start screaming for help, thinking that maybe she would want to help them. The woman walks over to the door and opens it and to their surprise, standing in front of them was not a woman at all, but Kevin in women’s clothing.
It was at this point that the girls realized they were dealing with something bigger than just a psychopath. They realized that Kevin had major issues. This theory strengthened whenever they met Hedwig. Hedwig was another personality of Kevin. He was a nine year old boy that eventually ended up having a somewhat close relationship with Casey. The girls did not meet all of the personalities that Kevin’s body possessed, but they did meet the one that none of them believed imaginable. The beast.
The beast was the 24th identity of Kevin that, throughout the movie, was not presented until the very end. Kevin’s therapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher tried helping Kevin to keep the beast from surfacing but in the end it just wasn’t enough.
I think what made this movie stand out for me was I have never seen anything like it. I also enjoyed it because it’s not a typical scary movie. It has a good storyline, gets the viewer hooked from the beginning and you stay on the edge of your seat fore whole 117 minutes. The ending also opens a new story that gets moviegoers excited for a sequel.
I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves suspense and is looking for a semi-realistic horror movie. Everything involving this movie was a plot twister. From people being eaten to Bruce Willis’ surprise appearance in Split’s ending scene.
Rating: 9 out of 10
