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James McAvoy Plays Multiple Personalities in the Trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's 'Sp…
What perfect timing that we get a trailer for a new M. Night Shyamalan movie the week of the DNC. Philadelphia’s own has another creepy story to tell, again set in the City of Brotherly Love. And once again, we hope it’s a return to form for the guy who gave us The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. This one is titled Split and stars James McAvoy as a man with dissociative identity disorder. All 23 of his personalities are united in kidnapping three teenage girls and hiding them away in a basement.
The plot may sound like an accidental rehash of 10 Cloverfield Lane, especially when McAvoy’s character, through one of the identities, explains that there’s a beast coming for the young women. But he could be referring to another, more violent identity. Still, this is a Shyamalan movie, so we have to expect some sort of big twist. Will it turn out that all the identities are made up? Are the girl also inside his mind? Is every character in the movie one of his personalities?
Regardless, Split is sure to be scrutinized by the psychiatric community, because any movie involving the controversial diagnosis of DID depicts or explains or refers to things inauthentically without fail. But that’s mostly because the generalized notion of “split personalities” is open to cinematic interpretation in a way that few disorders are. Audiences just need to separate the reality of DID from the enjoyment of an actor like McAvoy playing a variety of roles in one, and movies like this are fine.
Whether it will be good is another matter. We’ll find out when Split hits theaters on January 20, 2017. Watch the trailer below.
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