6. Split

I was really excited to see Split, I had seen the trailer before seeing previous films, and psychological thrillers are exactly my type of film. This brings me on to another point in my Cineworld experience, I used to loathe the adverts, but now I am one with my fellow Unlimited Warriors, and get excited to see what I can watch next week.

I looked on imdb before we set off, as I was interested to see what genre the film was categorised as; imdb says Horror, Thiller. I was confused here, what is the genre of horror? Will it be something I like? Will it be full of gore? Traditionally I find a lot of violence and gore either boring or laughable, so from looking at this, I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into. Thankfully, in my own film categories I wouldn't say it was a Horror, but a Thriller with a few jumpy bits.

I was worried about the film, as I was worried that it would be another vehicle to throw people with mental health conditions under the bus. From the trailer I was concerned that this was another piece of propaganda against Schizophrenia (I remember when I learned about Schizophrenia in A Level Psychology, it was nothing like the concept I had in my head, which had been conjured up by the media). The film does address split personality disorder as DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) which I felt refreshed by initially, however, as the film progresses we are then identifying one of the identities as 'The Beast', adding to the taboo of Mental Health conditions. I feel like we've given Schizophrenia a break, but are we now showing the world DID and suggesting it's dangerous? I found it conflicting, as the Doctor seemed to be really understanding of disorder initially, but then I started to feel like she was glorifying DID.

Throughout the film, I enjoyed Casey's (Anya Taylor-Joy) interaction with James McAvoy's identities, negotiating with the identities, and understanding which characters were trying to help her escape, and which were trying to hinder it. I felt captured by the film here, as like I said before, I love a psychological thriller, and I found watching the manipulation and communication really interesting. I think McAvoy was great in the film and he managed to switch between the identities effortlessly, and Taylor-Joy portrayed a really interesting and clever female lead. I get the sense that the film must have been really fun to film.

I didn't feel satisfied with the ending of the film, as I liked the build up, but without spoilers, I found the ending unrealistic, the climax of the film was a bit lazy, and perhaps it was added to make it more action filled, but for me it didn't work, and I didn't feel captivated by it. I felt disappointed in a similar way to Jake Gyllenhaal film The Enemy, where throughout, I was really captivated and interested by the story, but thoroughly disappointed by the ending.

Overall, I enjoyed the plot, but felt conflicted by the subject matter, and dissatisfied by the ending. I think the acting was good, but overall, I'd give the film a 7/10, as I think it could have been so much more, and could have been written in a way that could change perceptions of taboo subjects, instead of adding to stigma.