James McAvoy gives what could have potentially been an award-worthy performance if it had appeared in a different film.

He plays a man with multiple personalities who kidnaps three young girls as a part of a plot two of the personalities have hatched to unleash a powerful and unstoppable identity. Betty Buckley, in a better performance than the role necessarily needed, plays a therapist working with him and who begins to unravel the alarming plot. Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan, who hasn't made a movie I've wanted to see since "Signs," crafts a nifty and effective thriller with three fourths of his film, and then sort of if not completely ruins it by taking his idea too far and pushing the supernatural elements to the point where we realize we're not even watching the same kind of movie we were at the beginning. This particular story, and especially McAvoy's performance, would have been compelling enough without Shyamalan's characteristic inability to understand when he's ruining his own premise.

Grade: B

As said in my recent review for 'The Visit', M Night Shyamalan is one inconsistent director, with films that have fallen on both extreme sides of the film spectrum. The great films being 'The Sixth Sense' and 'Unbreakable' and the terrible films (especially) being 'The Last Airbender', 'The Happening' and 'After Earth'. It was frustrating to see a director start so promisingly and fall downhill and showing few signs of learning from his mistakes.

'Split' now replaces 'The Visit' as Shyamalan's best film since 'The Village. Neither were perfect films or were to me the returns to form often touted, both with many great things which made it more frustrating that they also had flaws big enough to stop them from living to full potential. Ranking 'Split' with the rest of the films, it's for me one of his better ones (while 'The Visit' is somewhere in the middle), not a patch on 'Unbreakable' and especially 'The Sixth Sense' but certainly better than all his previous films post-'The Village' (and that is saying volumes, due to that the least bad of his "panned" films 'Lady in the Water' was still poor).

The best thing about 'Split' is the performance of James McAvoy, who has never been creepier on film and it is a side that is just startling to watch. He has a very difficult role here, with 20 very contrasting personalities sometimes having to change without warning quite violently and absolutely nails it in a way that one wouldn't think would expect from him. Anya Taylor Joy is more than up to his level in an enigmatic turn that combines shock, spunk and pathos. As is Betty Buckley in a sympathetic role that she does a lot with.

Production design, lighting and effects have a real eeriness that adds hugely to the atmosphere, while the cinematography is significantly better than it was in 'The Visit', having an audacious and atmospheric professionalism and not done with a technique that will alienate (and has alienated) many. The music is suitably eerie, and Shyamalan does direct more than competently in building on the scares and tension.

Apart from an ever so slightly dull beginning, much of the film up to the last half an hour is genuinely scary and suspenseful, with many twisty suspenseful turns, a sense of fun, frightening chills and contortions enough to bend the mind, more than delivering on the horror and psychological thriller elements.

However, the last half an hour does disappoint, with a revelation that while certainly not obvious (far from it, actually very much unexpected) is revealed prematurely still which does hurt the momentum and tension, horror and suspense is replaced by head-scratching confusion (in the execution that is because it did feel muddled and under-explained) and behaviours and decisions that will induce groans of frustration. Unfortunately that last personality was as far from realistic or properly scary as one could possibly get (not McAvoy's fault at all, actually he did give the needed creepiness, but what he was given which was goofy), coming over as pretty silly actually and that jarred.

Writing could have been much better, with a better and less awkward flow, the dialogue could have been less clunky and forced as well as less sloppily melodramatic. The victims also were written very lazily, constantly making stupid and illogical decisions that makes one frustrated at them rather than rooting for them.

On the whole, fairly split here. A lot of great merits but could have been better. Still one of Shyamalan's better films, just not enough to make me proclaim "he's back!" 6/10 Bethany Cox

SPLIT is the latest movie from director M. Night Shyamalan, a director who, shall we say, has been delivering some disappointing results over the last fifteen years or so. Films like THE HAPPENING and THE LAST AIRBENDER have diluted his stock in Hollywood and made him a laughing stock in some circles, so it's a relief to see that he's getting back on track with SPLIT.

Not that this is a perfect film; I found it one that takes a little while to build up steam although once it gets going it really hits home. The story is about a killer with multiple personalities and the best thing about it is James McAvoy who does a great job with a very difficult role. The rest of the cast aren't so impressive, and the script at times feels more than a little pretentious, but overall this is low key and impressive, building to some startling moments, and a definite step in the right direction for a one-time Hollywood great.