Directed by the sometimes good, sometimes terrible M.Night Shyamalan, his 2016 horror/thriller Split can definitely be thought of as one of his best. Never forgetting the awfulness which was The Happening though...

Starring the always brilliant James McAvoy as Kevin Crumb, who has been diagnosed with DID (dissociative identity disorder) and has 23 unique personalities, he abducts three young girls, keeping them in his underground lair and keeps switching from personality to personality. The girls have to determine which one they can trust and perhaps which one can help them escape. 

Every day, Crumb visits his psychiatrist Dr Karen Fletcher who specialises in proving his condition exists. From these visits and from talking to the young abducted girls, the audience see how easy it is for him to change personality and how each of them have a different level of violence. You start to notice when he is changing personalities, from the way his mannerisms change — from his posture to facial expression which was terrifying. 

One of the girls Casey (played by Anya Taylor-Joy), builds a relationship with the youngest of his personalities — 9 year old Hedwig and almost manages to escape. The terrifying realisation that a 24th personality is emerging however, which is animal like and incredibly evil increases the scare factor of this film to the extreme. 

The dark backstory of Casey, told in between the present scenes makes you realise how she is different from the other two girls and in the end results in her survival. (Enough spoilers for now!)

I really enjoyed this film, it scared me and really showcased how good McAvoy is as an actor. I would recommend this to any horror/thriller fans as although simple in its plot, this film is scary and full of thought provoking scenes. Thought provoking in the sense that it makes you think what would you do if you were in that situation. It is entertaining throughout and has a good ending, although I was hoping for the stereotypical Shyamalan twist. There is also a cameo from Bruce Willis, who reprises his role as his Unbreakable character, David Dunn. 

A great film through and through. I'm glad I finally saw this.