Split defied my expectations

PHOTO COURTESY OF M. Night Shaymalan and Blumhouse

PHOTO COURTESY OF M. Night Shaymalan and Blumhouse

Samantha Ruoff, News Columnist

Just like the movie’s antagonist has 23 split personalities, the movie Split made me feel 23 overwhelmingly different emotions, most of which being good.

I was skeptical as to whether this would be a movie worth seeing or not, between the overhyping that was produced by trailers combined with my peers nonstop talking about it. Almost every anticipated movie leaves me sourly disappointed because I set the bar so high and it always fails to meet my expectations.

However, Split exceeded my expectations.

Dominating the box office and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Split has earned an estimated $40.2 million in its opening weekend blowing Hidden Figures and LALA Land out of the water.

This movie follows three girls, (Casey, Claire, and Marcia), who have been captured after a birthday dinner by a man that has a severe case of multiple personality disorder. It’s so bad that he has 23 different conflicting personalities, his main personality being named Dennis.

These girls were locked in a room that resembled a basement, being virtually sound proof.

Claire and Marcia made constant daring attempts to flee the madman, and continuously failed, eventually getting all of the girls separated into different rooms.

Then there was Casey.

Casey was the outsider to the other girls and was only invited to the birthday party because they would have fet bad otherwise. She is constantly in detention and her peers judged her for running away from home at one point.

During the movie it seemed as if she had given up on life, giving into everything her captor asked of her.

While it seemed she might have developed a case of Stockholm syndrome or maybe she had given up her will to escape, she would frequently have flashbacks to what it was like when she was a little kid. All these flashbacks were flashbacks of her father and when they would go hunting.

She had remembered everything her father had taught her, making it easier for her to think things through and develop more thought-out plans. Her overall plan to be able to gain the trust of each individual identity to help her escape.

Overall, Split had a well-crafted storyline, and M. Night Shyamalan and each of the actors worked so hard into making this into a very immersive experience for the viewers. I was able to sympathize which each individual character, and even caught myself feeling bad for the antagonist at one point.

Split was able to keep me literally on the edge of my seat for the entire movie, never allowing me a moment to relax from the suspense.

Even if you are not the typical thrill seeker, this movie is definitely worth seeing.