Split will be produced by Jason Blum (The Purge, Insidious,The Gift), who paid for Shyamalan’s The Visit, which was the No. 1-grossing horror film a year ago. It served as a much-needed rebirth for Shyamalan’s filmmaking career after being confined within mainstream Hollywood’s limitations, which resulted in previous titles like After Earth and The Last Airbender to perform poorly with fans and critics alike. Night Shyamalan, and it puts Shyamalan squarely back in psychological thriller mode.
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The trailer first comes off like it will veer into some kind of Saw scenario, but that’s never enough for the enigmatic director.
Led by James McAvoy and break-out star of The Witch, Anya Taylor-Joy, the film follows a man who endures a major loss and becomes haunted by a quartet of women who vie for his identity. As the synopsis confirms, while there have been 23 documented personalities, Kevin’s trusted psychologist believes there’s one yet to surface that would dominate all others.
James McAvoy stars as Kevin, a deranged psychopath with multiple personalities, who’s kidnapped a group of kids, among them being The Witch star Anya Taylor Joy. Betty Buckley, Jessica Sula, and Haley Lu Richardson round out the rest of the cast.
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Written for the screen as well as directed by Shyamalan, Split looks like it’ll have more than a few surprises and third-act twists in store for audiences when it creeps its way into theaters on January 20.
