After The Visit, it looks like M. Night Shyamalan has found his sweet spot of effective thrills heading into lower budget territory with Blumhouse. They’ve now reunited for Split, which stars James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch), and follows a disturbed man whose personality gets split into 23 different people.
Although it won’t arrive until early 2017, the film got a special surprise screening at Fantastic Fest last month where it seemed to go over quite well, most notable for McAvoy’s insane performance(s) and a twist ending that lives up to Shyamalan’s best (which we are avoiding as best as possible). A new trailer has now landed which provides a bit more of the set-up for the January-bound thriller.
Also starring Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, and Haley Lu Richardson, check out the new trailer below.
Writer/director/producer M. Night Shyamalan returns to the captivating grip of The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable and Signs with Split, an original thriller that delves into the mysterious recesses of one man’s fractured, gifted mind. Following last year’s breakout hit The Visit, Shyamalan reunites with producer Jason Blum (The Purge and Insidious series, The Gift) for the film.
While the mental divisions of those with dissociative identity disorder have long fascinated and eluded science, it is believed that some can also manifest unique physical attributes for each personality, a cognitive and physiological prism within a single being.
Though Kevin (James McAvoy) has evidenced 23 personalities to his trusted psychiatrist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), there remains one still submerged who is set to materialize and dominate all the others. Compelled to abduct three teenage girls led by the willful, observant Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch), Kevin reaches a war for survival among all of those contained within him—as well as everyone around him—as the walls between his compartments shatter apart.
For Split, Shyamalan and Blum reassemble their core team from The Visit, the No. 1-grossing horror film of 2015. Their fellow collaborators include producer Marc Bienstock and executive producers Ashwin Rajan and Steven Schneider.
Split opens on January 20.