M. Night Shyamalan's movies are a unique animal unto themselves. While his early films were solid, many of his more recent endeavors have gone off the rails. Will his new project be a return to his old form? The director's newest film, Split, has just released its first trailer and the movie certainly looks weird and creepy. Check it out for yourself.
Movies by M. Night Shyamalan traditionally have some sort of a twist in them. At first, Split appears to give away one of its major plot points early. Three women are kidnapped by a man named Kevin, played by James McAvoy. However, the thing about Kevin is that he isn't actually just one man. He's actually 23 separate personalities. What's more, the shift between personalities doesn't simply change the way Kevin acts, it's apparently also able to cause changes in him physically. We're wondering if Split has given away its major twist. Kevin has apparently kidnapped the girls in order to serve them up to something called "the beast" who appears to be an actual monster of some kind, and probably also Kevin.
On the one hand, it's possible that Split is missing the classic M. Night Shyamalan twist. Of course, it's just as likely that there's something else going on here which will be the film's actual twist. Still, we can't critique the trailer too much for doing exactly what its job is. Split looks to be a suspenseful thrill ride and we're certainly curious to see where it goes. It's far too early to tell if this will by M. Night Shyamalan's return to form, but we can certainly hope so.
While M. Night Shyamalan's early films, like The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable were met with nearly universal acclaim, after that, the movies began to go downhill. Signs was a mostly solid movie with a terrible finale. The Village was far too predictable. And what else is there to say about The Happening other than, What? No!
We're not even going to talk about The Visit.
James McAvoy will be the one doing the hard work in Split. If he can successfully pull off the multiple personalities then this movie may be exactly what thriller fans have been waiting for. What do you think of this first look at Split? Let us know in the comments. Split is set for release in January 2017.
