M. Night Shyamalan can do better than this

M. Night Shyamalan has to his credit one of the best films of the past 25 or so years, Sixth Sense, and he's been trying to replicate the success and originality of that debut feature ever since, and more credit to him! I love that he works independently, that he sets all (I think) of his movies in or near his home (Philadelphia) and shoots them on location, and most important that all of his films have high ambitions and aspirations, some achieved more successfully than others. His 2016 film, Split, is not one of his most successful, although it has some merit. The film is ostensibly a crime/horror/suspense vehicle, centering on a man who has multiple (or split) personality, known in the medical world as Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). This character - actually, 24 characters - is portrayed with skill by James McAvoy, who seamlessly shifts from one "voice" to another throughout the film. The plot - and this is problematic - gets underway when McAvoy abducts 3 teenage girls, one of whom has her own significant psychological problems, and holds the captive in an underground warren of locked rooms. It's important to note right off the top that those suffering w/ DID are not monsters and predators, and it's a real disservice to those w/ this malady to suggest that they are a danger to others. That said, MNS does capture some aspects of the illness effectively, in particular in scenes w/ McAvoy's therapist - although the therapist herself makes some serious misjudgments over the course of the film. There have been plenty of other shows about DID - notably, Sybil (a classic) and The United States of Tara, both of which were quite sensitive the nuances of the illness. MNS follow a different course and makes this a film of crime and terror - yet another of the young woman held captive genre (e.g, Lovely Bones, Room) - do we really need another? About 2/3 of the way through the film MNS seems to shift gears altogether and to focus on an identity that has not yet emerged - The Beast; the therapist believes that those w/ DID can actually change their bodies to conform to the adopted personality, and one of McAvoy's identities is a bestial, flesh-eating monster. When that ID emerges, the movie slips into the horror genre, and at the end (spoiler) we're left with dead girls, dead therapist, and a monster on the loose - heading toward a sequel, and toward a thoroughly unsympathetic and unrealistic portrayal of those suffering w/ mental illness. MNS can do better than this.