“Tonight is a sacred night. You will be in the presence of something greater. The world will understand now. The beast is real.”

After a decade of horrible horror films, “The Sixth Sense” director M. Night Shyamalan managed to dig himself out of the grave with his new movie, “Split.”

Shyamalan not only regained the title of  plot twisting, rug pulling horror film director, but also returned with something so sinister and fervent that “Split” has now raced to the top of my thriller-horror favorites. While I was never skeptical of this film since the trailers only resurfaced my love for horror after atrocities like “Krampus,” I could understand why some wouldn’t bother to see the movie. With films like “After Earth” (2013) and “The Visit” (2015), it was easy for Shyamalan fans to lose hopes. With “After Earth” carrying a 4.9/10 on IMDb, it’s hard to vouch for the once incredible and edge-pushing horror director.  While “The Visit” sure gave us surprises (like human waste being smeared across a child’s face — yeah, that actually happened), it never really brought the surprises and terror his earlier films like “The Sixth Sense” (1999) brought into the genre. Needless to say, Shyamalan needed this movie to avenge his ruined directing reputation.

The movie starts out with three girls getting kidnapped by Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy). The viewer learns quickly that something is off about Kevin, and soon realizes he has been diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder, a.k.a having multiple personalities. This scene introduces Dennis, the first of 23 personalities in Kevin. He’s best described as a neat-freak who has a liking of underage girls dancing. After the kidnapping, he tries to force one of the girls, Marcia (Jessica Sula), to dance naked for him. In the midst of her resistance, another girl, Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), tells her to urinate on herself. Casey Cook  is established as the intelligent girl in the group of Marcia and Claire (Haley Richardson). She’s also defined as the outsider within the group, with a chilling backstory of abuse throughout the movie.

In disgust, Dennis throws Marcia back into the room with the other girls, unable to cope with the urine. This is when Kevin switches to another persona, Patricia. Patricia presents herself as a caring woman, who takes on a motherly-figure for the girls. In actuality, Dennis and Patricia work together and are the antagonists of the movie. While none of the girls trusted her kindness, she was a lot less menacing than Dennis. Not too long after she was introduced, you get to meet Kevin’s third personality, Hedwig. Hedwig is a nine year old boy who likes to make friends and break dance. When he is first introduced, Casey is shown earning his trust by telling him secrets and gaining information through him. While Casey is learning more about Kevin, so is the audience. Kevin is having frequent visits to his therapist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley). In these appointments the audience learns that Kevin’s main persona is Barry, a fun-loving fashionista. It’s explained in these sessions that all of Kevin’s personalities are allowed to take Kevin’s body, except for Dennis and Patricia (who have been banned), since they both had violent tendencies and strong beliefs. These beliefs consisted of a 24th personality, called The Beast. The Beast is a personality only Patricia and Dennis believe in and is described as non-human, someone with Rhino skin and the ability to climb walls. He feeds on the unbroken girls who have never gone through trauma (which explains why the girls were captured in the first place). When the time is right, The Beast will be unleashed.

Overall, I was insanely impressed with this movie. Mcavoy’s performance in this film was exceptional, and I truly believe this movie would’ve been another Shyamalan dumpster fire disaster movie without him. Taylor-Joy also did a great acting job by playing into her character’s intelligence and background well, except for the lack of emotion in certain scenes. The whole plot was clever and full of surprise, a quality I really did miss about Shyamalan’s movies.

On top of that, the music choices, lighting and special effects only add to the horror. The special effects were very minimal in this movie, but The Beast’s veins in the film really made me squirm, a quality I think horror movies tend to lack. The gore was so realistic, I found myself cringing and looking away from the screen. Although the music wasn’t necessarily original, I don’t think it took anything away from the film.  In a way, I wish there was more gore and fear-insinuating shots since they were breathtaking. With the minimal gore and lack of jump scares, I would classify this more of a thriller than a horror, but I don’t think the genre takes away from the overall terror portrayed in the movie.

But more than anything, I believe the characters in this movie were what made it so special. The personable traits that come with the many people inside Kevin really blew me away. Throughout the film, I found myself getting attached to Hedwig, although he’s helps Dennis and Patricia (the two main antagonists)  in the movie. In my mind, he was a young boy who just liked dancing, kissing girls and listening to Kanye West. That’s a quality that the character  Tony (Logan Marshall-Green)  in Shyamalan’s “Devil” (2010) also carried. Despite it’s bad reviews, I find myself rewatching that “Devil” every year due to the fact that Shyamalan created a likeable villain. While I do believe this movie is more of a thriller than a horror, I think every gore-geek should buy a ticket to see “Split.” 2017 is the year of scary movies, with films like “Saw,” “Annabelle,” “The Ring,” “It” and “Jeepers Creepers” coming out with remakes and sequels, “Split” definitely got me excited for what’s coming next.