First Trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's SPLIT

Unfortunately, a new trailer for an M. Night Shyamalan movie doesn't carry as much excitement as most thought it might in the early years of the new millennium. Fortunately, Shyamalan seems to be finding his footing more recently as last years fairly underrated The Visit was a pleasant surprise from a director who'd taken a detour from what his predetermined course seemed to be. The Visit, which I didn't get the opportunity to review last year, was a clever little play on the handheld camera horror genre where it was still up to the characters to capture the necessary elements of the story, but at the same time retaining the elements and mystique of a classic Shyamalan script. That the writer/director has again come to operate in something of a larger genre while seemingly still applying his own twisted mentality to the situation is promising. As I watched the trailer I couldn't help but be reminded of this years 10 Cloverfield Lane, but with the added element of knowing what was wrong with our captor from the get-go rather than that mystery remaining the backbone of the movie. This hopefully indicates the film has more to it and can deliver in its third act. Besides the engaging premise that sees a man with twenty-three personalities living inside of him kidnapping three young girls and holding them hostage in his cellar the film looks to feature a show-stopping performance from James McAvoy. McAvoy, beyond his most prominent role as Charles Xavier in the new wave of X-Men films, is an interesting performer that chooses some diverse projects to participate in and it seems that the actor has found a formidable collaborator in Shyamalan who supports pushing the envelope. The film also stars The Witch star Anya Taylor-Joy, The Edge of Seventeen's Haley Lu Richardson, and Jessica Sula as the three young girls McAvoy's Kevin kidnaps with Jason Blum again producing and the director teaming up with cinematographer Mike Gioulakis (It Follows) for the first time. Split opens on January 20th, 2017.



Synopsis: While the mental divisions of those with dissociative identity disorder have long fascinated and eluded science, it is believed that some can also manifest unique physical attributes for each personality, a cognitive and physiological prism within a single being. 

Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him—as well as everyone around him—as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.


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