SPLIT 2017

I finally saw Split, I went in unspoiled, and had my brain broke. Before we jump in I just wanna say ya'll judged me for years for supporting M.Night Shamalamadingdong. I knew he would come back. You don't make Signs and The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable and then just lose your creativity. He just needed some time. But ya'll jumped on that hate wagon while I sat here watching The Happening in support (more than once!!!!!!!! What?! No!) and now everyone's supporting him.

Just saying - maybe stop jumping on hate wagons and trust that sometimes directors and writers have some off movies, but usually they come back. And Shyamalan came back with The Visit and then came back even more with Split. And it's #1 at the box office for a second week in a row.

I'M JUST SO PROUD OF HIM YOU GUYS.

Alright, let's talk about Split and there will be spoilers so proceed with caution.

SPLIT 2017

"He's on the move. Someone's coming for you and you're not gonna like it."

Claire and Marcia are best friends and have thrown a birthday party for Claire. They invited Casey, the weirdo in class, but only because they felt bad for her. When Claire's Dad offers to drive Casey home, the three girls hop into the car, but Claire's Dad doesn't follow. Instead a stranger gets into the drivers seat and knocks them all out with some sort of spray.

The girls wake up trapped in a room and as the day progresses they realize the man that took them is insane. He has multiple personalities. Casey keeps her head and tries to use the youngest personality, a 10 year old boy named Hedwig, to help the girls escape.

Meanwhile we are being introduced to Kevin, the kidnapper, who is a man with 23 personalities. He visits his therapist, Dr. Fletcher, but usually visits as Barry (a fashion designer) who is the most dominant personality. The way he describes it is that all the personalities sit inside a room and then Barry chooses who gets to go forward. Dennis, an OCD with pedo tendencies, Patricia, a school marm type, and Hedwig have been banned from coming forward for awhile as they are the most aggressive. And Hedwig has the ability to come into "the light" whenever he pleases. But something has gone wrong inside of Kevin and those three have come to the forefront.

As Dr. Fletcher begins to worry, and the girls attempt to escape, soon they all find themselves in a fight against time, and a fight against the mysterious 24th personality who is referred to as the beast.

Overall?

I adored this movie. It was not scary by any means, so for all those worried about that, this is not a scary film. There are no jump scares and it plays out more like a thriller. But it was a wonderful horrific character piece as we learn more and more about Kevin and all his strange personalities. James McAvoy is phenomenal in this film, and if Oscars took horror movies seriously, you bet your ass he'd be nominated. An absolutely amazing piece of work. There's a scene where multiple personalities comes through at once and I couldn't even believe what I was watching. I also found myself falling for certain personalities. When Hedwig would appear, you truly believed it was a 10 year old boy, and your heart would break for him, and then you'd have to shake yourself and be like...dude...it's still James McAvoy. Stunning work.

Joaquin Pheonix was in the loop to play Kevin but backed out due to contract issues. He would've been returning of course to the Shyamalan universe after working with him a few times. This is a shame but now that I've seen it I don't think anyone but McAvoy could've played this role.

Anya Taylor-Joy, known of course for her amazing delivery in The Witch, was also fantastic to watch. As this poor girl deals with her flashbacks of abuse and the horrific things going on around her, the performance seems so incredibly real. I appreciated how smart Casey was as a character and it was fascinating watching her story line play out. I really fucking hope she didn't get out of that cop car at the end.

We also got a Shyamalan cameo as always which was fun to see. And it was quite a funny moment. In fact this movie had quite a few comedic moments, though they were quite morbid.

The movie runs just under two hours, and I know I preach a hard game about horror movies having no business being that long, but this wasn't bad. Yes, it could've used a few edits. But it wasn't a drag.

Alright so lets talk about that twist ending. What the ending reveals is that this is in fact a somewhat sequel to Unbreakable. We see David Dunn lean over the counter and say, "Mr. Glass" in response to a girl's question. So now let's take a look back at the movie with the understanding that this is a sort of sequel. Here's my thoughts - Kevin's Dad who left when he was young and caused the abuse from Kevin's mom to begin, died in the train crash from Unbreakable. The "Beast" when he's transforming does so in a train yard and on a train. And before doing so, he lays down flowers as if laying them down at a grave. So Kevin's origin story begins with that traumatic train crash, much like Dunn's story began as well.

Hedwig loves Kanye West and in fact risks Casey leaving her cell to listen to the music and watch him dance. Of course, Kanye West references Unbreakable in his song Through the Wire with this lyric; "Unbreakable, what you thought they called me Mr Glass?".

And lastly, (from what I can see - please let me know if you see more) in our final scene with Kevin the score that plays in the background and leads to Bruce Willis is the score from Unbreakable.

Could we have known all along? Perhaps. The title of Split is of course the exact opposite of Unbreakable and the posters themselves mirror each other with the cracks. And when you put the posters side by side the cracks match up:

And with Shyamalan in talks to do an Unbreakable 2, he has mentioned that we would most likely see the return of David Dunn going head to head with The Horde, what Kevin basically becomes in the end after accepting the beast as its leader. And it will be interesting to see if Mr. Glass will team up with the Horde since Glass is of course wheelchair bound but mentally incredibly strong, whereas Kevin who is mentally weak, is now insanely physically strong due to the horde. Between the two of them it would be quite the battle against Dunn....

Phew

My head hurts with theories. This will take a few more re-watches to catch it all and I don't know about you, but I really want to watch Unbreakable now.

Split is a fine piece of work filled with amazing performances and creepy moments. I highly and aggressively recommend it so we can yell at each other about theories.

10/10

Love you Shamalamadingdong, I will never betray you.

Stay spooky!

Watching The Visit while I visit my mama

I'm at the airport! Due to my control and anxiety issues I have arrived with almost two hours to spare so I've set up camp on the airport floor next to the outlet and I'm watching The Visit.
This is my first time watching it so I'm pretty stoked. Ya'll know I am a firm believer in the shamalamadingdong come back.

The Visit came out last year and is found footage, although when watching it doesn't feel like the typical found footage. There's barely any shakey cam or blurred shots, which is kind of a nice break.

Rebecca and Tyler are two kids who are going to see their Grandparents for the first time. Their mother, Paula, has a bad relationship with her parents and so has never introduced them to her kids. Paula's husband left their family for another woman when the kids were younger but now Paula is finally dating and happy, so the kids decide that it would be good for the two of them to get out of town for the week and let their mom go on a cruise with her new boyfriend.

Rebecca is filming this whole thing because she's clearly interested in filming and directing. She's decided to make a documentary on their first visit to the grandparents.


First thoughts? This movie is beautifully colored. And I really dig the two kids - they're smart, believable and not that forced awkward acting that some young kids end up doing.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Once the kids arrive at their Grandparents house things start to get strange right off the back. The first night Rebecca sneaks out of bed to get some cookies, only to find her Grandma walking around projectile vomiting. When exploring, Tyler discovers a shed and inside finds an actual mountain of shit filled adult diapers. I was gagging.

In between these strange goings on, Tyler and Rebecca continue to film for the documentary. They interview both the Grandma and the Grandpa and even interview briefly with a few of the strangers who drop by. But at night things are getting weirder and weirder - they catch the Grandma naked scratching at the walls. The Grandpa explains all of this behavior saying she has what's called "Sundowning" which is dementia after dark. To simplify it.

There's also one night where they catch the Grandma running around in the house in the dark and then crawling around and ya'll that got me creeped out. Finally the kids decide to film the Grandma at night to see what's really going on, but when reviewing the footage they see that Grandma was trying to get into their room with a knife. This is when they call Paula and tell her all that's going on. But here's where it gets Shamalamadingdong....when Paula is shown her parents on camera...THEY'RE NOT THE GRANDPARENTS.

That's right, these kids were picked up by some total nutcases who had escaped from the asylum near by, killed the real Grandparents, and were hiding out in the house. The actual Grandparents volunteered at the asylum and probably let on that their grandchildren were coming to stay, prompting the nutcases to choose that time to escape. The reason the two of them were in the asylum was for drowning their own children, but the husband decided it was time for his wife to relive having children.....are you with me?


The nutcases catch onto the fact that kids now know what's going on and decide to torment and kill them. Including one scene with a dirty diaper that made me yell out in the middle of a busy airport. And will haunt me. Forever. But thanks to Rebecca being an actual bad ass, the kids manage to escape and their Mom shows up in the nick of time.

SPOILERS ENDED

You know what? It wasn't a masterpiece. And I'm sure people smarter than I figured out the twist almost right away. But I had a great time watching it, it was fun, it was fresh, the twist was shocking for me. And there were a few minor scares that got me.

The way people were talking about this film, it was like it was another The Happening. But it's not. It's a great little horror film that didn't disappoint me in any way. And the message of the film, about letting forgiveness in, and not holding onto anger, it was an important one and it gave the film some great emotional moments.

8/10 

Anyway, as I'm finishing this up I am in my Mom's kitchen waiting for dinner. And tomorrow I get Christmas the sequel - presents and turkey!!!!

Stay spooky!