Split

Shyamalan financed this one himself, and nine million dollars returned more than 278 million worldwide. That explains the film’s shape: almost all of it happens in a few rooms, shot around Philadelphia. The abduction is cross cut with flashbacks to a hunting trip from Casey’s childhood. Those flashbacks are not decoration; the logic of who survives at the end is assembled inside them, so a viewer who treats them as filler will find the closing arbitrary. The second structural choice is riskier: the long sessions with Dr Fletcher carry the argument of the film, yet they stop the escape thriller dead every time. Most of the horror stays off screen. For the first hour the threat is a man changing his posture and his clothes in a doorway rather than anything bloody, so anyone arriving for gore will wait a long time. James McAvoy does not perform all twenty three identities; far fewer appear, and they are separated by body language rather than makeup. He broke his hand filming a punch thrown at a metal door. The final scene ties the film to Unbreakable, which Shyamalan made in 2000, and it was withheld from test screenings to protect the surprise. Without that earlier film the ending lands as a non sequitur, so set your viewing order accordingly.