Movie Review: Split

While it was far from perfect, 2015's The Visit was good enough to convince me that the infamous M. Night Shyamalan had made his long-awaited return to the world of competent filmmaking. The veteran thriller director promptly ensured that I looked like a dingus for believing that the Shyamalanassiance was a thing by following up The Visit with a frustrating missed opportunity in Split.

In typical Shyamalan form, Split flashes a ton of potential out of the gate. The role of Kevin, the titular man with split personality disorder that kidnaps three teenage girls (Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula) for a seemingly unknown purpose, is a tremendous display of James McAvoy's range as an actor and the mystery surrounding why Kevin abducted these girls makes the first hour or so pretty compelling. Of course, good ol' M.Night goes ahead and squanders every ounce of that initial promise in the final 45 minutes of the film.

Shyamalan has turned third-act tailspins into a tragic cinematic art form throughout his career and in that regard, Split is his fucking Hamlet. The reveal of why Kevin kidnapped the girls is equal parts underwhelming and moronic, the "predator vs. prey" symbolism is so excessive that I was considering filing assault charges against the film's producers upon leaving the theater and the patented Shymalan twist is some next level, ego-stroking bullshit from a director that is nowhere near as clever as he thinks he is. His tendency to end his stories on preposterous notes is the primary reason he's transformed into one of the film world's favorite punchlines over the past 15 years and Split reaffirms that those jokes at his expense are as justified as ever.

Split is the latest nail in the coffin of Shymalan's once-promising career. He just can't seem to break  the vicious cycle of third-act hiccups and ludicrous creative decisions that have plagued his films since Signs, and I can assure you that I'll never be naive enough to put faith in his ability as a filmmaker ever again. At this point, I'm hoping he returns to making films that are glaringly incompetent as Lady in the Water, The Village and The Happening, so we can at least return to the days where going to see a Shyamalan movie guaranteed an abundance of unintentional comedy gold.      
2/5 Stars