SPLIT   3.0***

      M. Knight Shyamalan (Director) had his debut with the critically acclaimed 'The Sixth Sense' followed by positively reviewed movies 'Unbreakable' and 'Signs'. After that, he went through a series of duds.  But, he made a decent comeback with 2015's 'The Visit'  and he's back at his game with 'Split'.

Story: After a birthday party, three girls, led by Casey, are kidnapped by the troubled Kevin. . What follows is how the three girls are terrorized by and desperately try to escape from Kevin who himself is slowly having a mental breakdown.  Shyamalan's  uses the dissociative identity disorder (DID; also known as “split personality)   to create his bonkers premise, John McAvoy plays Kevin, a man who possesses 23 distinct personalities, some of which are male and some of which are female, some of which are young, and some of which are old, some of which are homosexual and some of which are heterosexual, some of which have OCD or require insulin for diabetes, and some of which are really rather volatile and dangerous. The catch? The 24th is about to arrive, with all hell set to break loose. 

If this sounds like an actor's dream job, you're right. With the opportunity to flex his acting muscles to the nth degree, accent-changing, mannerism-altering McAvoy rises to the challenge with a performance of breathtaking versatility. The film around him is never quite as reliable as this towering performance, however. The plot moves between an incredibly tense kidnapping/hostage situation, scenes of Kevin and his doctor who purports to be an expert on DID, and  flashbacks of the early childhood of Casey, one of the 3 girls. The movie never bores for a second, thanks to Shyamalan's distinctive style and an ominous score.

Most worthy of a warning is the film's last 20 minutes which evolves into something genuinely terrifying and quite tense, as twist upon twist piles up to create a thrilling sense of chaos and dread.  It becomes a psychological thrill and that is somewhat difficult to keep up but that adds to the frenzied feeling .. What might shock you more is the twist ending (which I won't spoil), but unlike the other plot twists Shyamalan has done in his previous movies, this twist is one you will find to be very surprising !

Rated PG-13 for disturbing thematic content and behavior, violence and some language. ( Not an “R” because there is little or no gore as this is not really a horror movie but a psychological thrill )

Clark