Home > Film > Shyamalan’s ‘Split’: Sybil-ing rivalry?

Shyamalan’s ‘Split’: Sybil-ing rivalry?

M Night Shyamalan's Split

Despite the legendary status of ‘The Sixth Sense’, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has had mixed success ever since. Will ‘Split’ divide audiences once again?


We’re not quite sure what to make of the trailer for M. Might Shyamalan’s next feature, Split.

One one hand it features James McAvoy (replacing Joaquin Phoenix who was originally ear-marked for the role)  in a role – arguably roles – that are a gift for any actor: called to physically personify a range of multiple personalities. It’s the kind of opportunity that rightly won Sally Field many awards for her memorable turn as Sybil in the based-on-fact 1976 mini-series. The trailer for Split plays out the multiple-personality concept as a kidnap/imprisonment story and modern psychological horror movie. It also sets up a bigger mystery as to why a trio of siblings are being held by their captor and his various musings about a ‘Beast’. At its heart it could eb a promising set-up.

On the other hand – and there’s no kind way to say this – this is a M. Night Shyamalan movie. After the legendary The Sixth Sense and the under-rated Unbreakable many of his subsequent films have not measured up to expectations. The likes of  Signs, The VillageThe Happening and The Last Airbender either had obvious (and now predictable) twists or pivoted around single-line concepts that couldn’t be sustained by a feature-film length running time and defied internal logic. Many feel that his concepts and results might be better suited to shorter ‘Twilight Zone‘  episode formats and that he’s a director that tends to be produce his better material when he’s reined in rather than indulged- not an easy thing if he is both writer and director on many of his projects.

But there’s no arguing he can still create a buzz about the mystery at the heart of his films and Split at least looks interesting. Whether it turns out to be a suspenseful classic or falters under that suspension of disbelief, only time will tell.

It will be released by Universal Pictures in the UK on 20th January 2017.

 

Leave a Reply