For this passion post I wanted to talk about a very underrated movie, Split, which was released back in 2016 and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.

As always, spoiler alerts are coming in hot!!

 

Plot: 

This thriller/horror movie is based around the story of Kevin, played by James McAvoy, who suffers from a mental disorder known as dissociative identity disorder (DID for short). DID is also referred to as “multiple personality disorder” and “split personality disorder”, hence the name of the movie.

For those of you who are not a psychology major like myself, DID is a VERY rare trauma-responsive mental disorder (between 0.01 and 1% of the population has DID) where a person can have 2 or more different personalities within one body. A person with DID subconsciously creates these different personalities as a way to get away from some kind of trauma they have experienced such as abuse. DID can cause gaps in memory as the person transitions from one personality to another. It is also common for the personalities to be unaware of each other.

You’re welcome for the psychology lesson. Now back to the movie. Kevin’s DID was created in response to abuse he experienced from his mother as a child (sad right?) and now portrays 23 different personalities.

The movie immediately starts with the kidnapping of Casey, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, and her two teenage friends, played by Jessica Sula and Haley Lu Richardson, in a mall parking lot. The girls are held captive in a basement deep underground where their screams cannot be heard. Each of Kevin’s personalities come into play throughout the movie, each having their own accent, personality, age, and gender. Kevin himself was not the kidnapper; it was his OCD-ridden personality named Dennis. Since Dennis is the kidnapper, each personality aids in holding the girls hostage, but some personalities are ashamed of Dennis and take care of the girls while they’re in the basement.

As the viewers and the girls are introduced to each of the personalities, we meet Hedwig, Kevin’s 9 year old boy personality (he’s in the picture to the left). Hedwig is personally my favorite personality; he has the funniest lisp and cracks jokes that made me laugh so hard. In multiple scenes Hedwig repeats “he is on the move” and reveals that Kevin actually has 24 personalities; the 24th one is called “The Beast”.

 

“The Beast” is a cannibalistic monster with super strength and other abilities.  “The Beast” believes that those who have not suffered or experienced trauma are impure and weak. It defines impure almost like “unbroken”and unaware of the evil in the world. At the end of the movie when “The Beast” eventually comes out, the two girls Casey was held hostage are killed, but Casey’s life is spared. We find out from flashbacks throughout the movie that Casey was sexually abused throughout her life by her uncle, who eventually became her guardian after her father died. Because of the trauma she endured, “The Beast” understands her pain and sees her as pure.

 

Analysis:

Now even though I absolutely love this movie, it is disappointing, as someone who wants to work in the psychology field, that people suffering from DID are portrayed in such a negative light because of this movie. DID has such a negative stigma against it and the people with the disorder are seen as psychotic and dangerous. 20,000 people actually protested the movie Split for portraying not just people with DID, but mentally ill people as a whole in a negative way. They claimed that the film created false connections between mental illnesses and violence

Can some personalities be dangerous/criminals? Sadly, yes. Have people been acquitted of criminal charges on the grounds of mental illness/DID? Again, yes. But the overall DID population should not be stigmatized because of a few people/personality’s actions, because not all sufferers are “dangerous”. A real, popular example of this is Billy Milligan, also known as “the Ohio Campus Rapist” (highly recommend watching the Netflix series about him called “Monster Inside: The 24 Faces of Billy Milligan” if you are interested in learning more about DID). Billy also suffers from DID and, as the name suggests, was convicted of rape, kidnapping and robbery. It was actually one of Billy’s personalities that committed these crimes, not actually Billy, so because of his diagnosis, he was acquitted of his crimes (at first at least).

Let’s discuss “The Beast” now. From my perspective I think this personality is meant to depict trauma as a whole, while the personalities are meant to be an escape from the trauma. “The Beast” is a ruthless, destructive character that takes down anyone who has not also suffered, which can connect to how someone’s mental illness can affect others and hurt them as well. People who have mental illnesses tend to attract each other and help each other, which can be seen when “The Beast” spares Caseys life because she has also been through trauma/has issues of her own.

Now besides the ruckus this movie caused, it is actually a phenomenal movie. James McAvoy truly showed his talent as he took on not just one character in this movie, but 24, and they were all portrayed beautifully. A fan-favorite character in the movie is Kevin’s therapist, Karen, who is played by Betty Buckley. Her character does a phenomenal job of describing DID and breaking down the negative stigma associated with the disorder. Maybe I love this movie so much because I enjoy learning about mental illnesses, who knows, but I highly recommend that everyone watches this movie at least once.