Who is Kevin?
A review of the movie Split
January 25, 2017
Chills racing down the backs of the audience, the hairs on their necks standing on end and their hands gripping onto the armrests for dear life. It is only a matter of time before the collective scream erupts from the audience. These are all tell-tale signs that a horror movie has been done right. M. Night Shyamalan, Split, had jump scare lovers highly anticipating a spine-chilling horror movie to kick off 2017.
The thriller features James Mcavoy, widely known for his role as young Professor X in X-men Days of Future Past, who plays Kevin, a man carrying the curse of dissociative identity disorder (DID). Kevin kidnaps three teenage girls – Casey, Claire and Marcia – while in the persona of Dennis, one of the most hostile of his 23 personalities. Throughout the movie, the viewers watch the three teenage girls try to escape their captor while also focusing in on Casey’s childhood. Suspense is well built for the reveal of Kevin’s 24th personality, “the beast,” and if the girls will survive.
Severe mental disorders have always fascinated scientists and psychologists, however, in the recent years, film directors have begun to take an interest as well. However, a recurring discussion over horror movies that revolve around mental disorders is whether they accurately display the disease or not. Previously, Shyamalan had not had the best record of accurately depicting mental illnesses. His hit release from last year, The Visit, featured “Sundown,” a stage of dementia causing the affected to act extremely strange at night. However, the condition was over-exaggerated, causing many to dismiss the movie and some to even take offense. However, Split, breaks from dramatics and boils down to the facts of DID. Owatonna community member and former psychotherapist, Jade Weir said, “They pegged it very well. They mimicked a lot of the traits – I guess you could say.” Kevin’s case of DID is definitely extreme, but also very possible.
Overall, the film was clearly well received, seeing that it earned a 75 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ approval rate. Additionally, Split exceeded its filming budget of 10 million dollars with flying colors, raking in 40.2 million dollars in the first weekend alone. As for thriller movies go, this film is not one to see alone!
