Split is a 2017 psychological horror film written, co-produced and directed by M.Night Shyamalan. It stars James McAvoy who plays a character with multiple personality disorder, the character has 23 known multiple personalities with the film revolving around McAvoy's character abducting 3 teenage girls and holding them hostage. The reason I have decided to look at this film, from both a writer, producer and overall analytical perspective, is because the main character Kevin was abused as a young child; this traumatic experience is what has caused him to have these mental health issues. At the centre of this film is death, one of the teenage girls in the film is quiet and detached, she doesn't fit in with the other people in her school, this is because she lost her father when she was really young and this has affected her to become this person in her later life. Shyamalan is interested to see how people react to lose and his films, including this one, reflect that. This film is interesting in terms of the locations that it uses. Films such as 10 Cloverfield Lane who have similar narratives (two people being held against their will) take place solely in the place of captivity, providing an intense and claustrophobic feel for the audience. However Split switches between mainly two locations, first of all the place where the main character, Kevin, is holding the girls captive, and secondly Kevin's therapists office. This allows for the narrative to move much smoother, we as in audience get to see the intensity of Kevin and his multiple personalities through the young girls but we also get reasoning and thought from the therapist.
One of the girls, Casey, is a really interesting and complex character. At the start of the film, she has a chance to escape from the clutches of Kevin when he knocks the other girls out in the back of the car, but instead she stares at him, frozen, for 20 seconds before he knocks her out. When looking at reviews for the film I have often seen people write about why she did that and why she didn't run. A lot of the audience believe she is on a journey throughout the film, her past is helping her to get through this and help others and maybe even become a better person by the end of it. The trauma that she has experienced in her past is turned into a positive rather than a negative, it helped her character become somewhat of a hero within the film.Something that we are trying to make sure we get right in our own short film, is the portrayal and accuracy of mental illness. Split did receive a small amount of backlash for the character of Kevin and his 'dissociative identity disorder'. Many argued that the representation of this character and his mental health issue, 'reinforces a harmful notion that people with mental disorders and beyond human'. The intense reality of the disorder is obviously something that can shock the audience, but the portrayal of a characters real personality, who only briefly appears, is what causes the misunderstanding. The real Kevin is hardly seen or even spoken about by his therapist, this is something that was critiqued because it undermines the humanity and the realism of the character, people who suffer with this disorder are still real people with real human emotions; this seems to have been lost throughout Split.
The writing of Split is really interesting; some scenes are particularly no dialogue and focus purely on the action that is going on in a scene. Mysterious characters like Casey are perfect for these intense, more silent scenes. Whereas other characters Dr Karen Fletcher, are perfect for the dialogue heavy scenes that are there to be informative and move the narrative along. This goes in hand with the cinematography that is used also. The shots are more standard and rigid when Kevin is with his therapist in the office, they are normalised. Whereas when he is in the basement with the young girls, the shots are more dynamic and unique.Overall, Split is an interesting film that has a unique portrayal of mental illness. I think the writing is really innovative because of the adaptability between the different personalities within Kevin's disorder. The way in which the language changes between each disorder is perfect in differentiating between the personalities.
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