Media description
Split is an American horror thriller movie was made in 2016, directed by Night Shyamalan starring Betty Buckley, Anya Taylor-Joy, and James McAvoy. The principal photography started in November 2015 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the movie premiered at the fantastic fest in September 2016 and released to the American audience in 2017, January. Casey is a child who has been molested as a child by John her uncle, who is her legal guardian after the death of her father, which has made her develop the emotionally withdrawn nature, hangs out with Marcia and Claire who are her classmates before Kelvin kidnaps them.
Kelvin is a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder as he has been previously evaluated by his psychiatrist Dr. Karen Fletcher who realized that he has multiple personalities, which he developed as a means of escaping from the years of abuse from his mother.
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Kelvin appears to be stable, but the doctor has identified twenty-three personalities within him of which the dominant one is their ability to control his body to do many unintended actions when provoked. Kelvins psychological changes from one personality to the next change his nature and character simultaneously. Kevin takes hostage of the girls and takes them to an underground structure where he secures them in a cell. The kidnapped girls are aware of his personality disorder, and Claire attempts to use the knowledge to her advantage and escape but the same person catches them in a different personality, and she is isolated from the others in a different cell structure. Kevin keeps them locked up in the cells for several days as he keeps going to work and attending his doctor’s appointments. His doctor realizes his “Dennis” personality is dominating his other personality, “Barry” although he tries to act “Barry” to fool the doctor. Kevin in his “Barry” personality opened up to the doctor about an incident that had happened over a month ago where teenage girls had walked up to him and placed his hands on their breasts, which triggered his change in personality to “Dennis.” The recollection by the doctor makes him reach a determination of the case of the kidnapped girls, as he found Kelvin was responsible for their kidnapping.
Marcia, another victim of the kidnap, also tries to escape but is unlucky as she ends up being caught by Kelvin in his “Patricia” personality and she is locked up in isolation from others in a solitary cell. Casey makes friends with “Hedwig” a younger personality in Kelvin as it is later shown that “Hedwig” had absolute control over “the light” and provides both “Patricia” and “Dennis “ personalities with their strengths and control. Casey convinces the “Hedwig” personality of Kelvin, to issue her with a walkie-talkie, which she uses to call out for help although the individual on the other end does not believe the girl. He thinks that someone else is playing a joke on him and before she could make time to convince the individual on the other side to help before Kelvin's personality shifts to “Patricia” and he subdues Casey. Dr. Fletcher goes to Kelvin's home and reveals “The beast” is alive and real as he attributes to having an encounter with him. The doctor suspects Kelvin's personality to be “Dennis” and fakes the need to use the bathroom as an excuse to move around, studying his home where she discovered the missing girls in the underground cells. She has no time to save Claire as “Dennis” catches up with her and sprays a sedative from an aerosol spray on her face and securing her in a separate room.
After securing the doctor, the “beast” personality kicks into play giving Kevin superhuman abilities whereas Clare and Marcia attempt to escape from their cells. The doctor regains consciousness, writes out Kelvin's full name on a paper before the “beast” comes back and murders her in cold blood. Casey makes it out of her cell just in time to realize that the “beast” has attacked and killed Marcia and she watches in disbelief as the “beast” murders and devours Claire. Casey finds a piece of paper on the doctor's body while the “beast” takes strides towards her. However, she calls out Kelvin's full names, which brought back Kelvin to his usual self. Once Kelvin realizes the situation he is in and the fact that he has not been in control of his body for more than two years, he instructs Casey to use his short gun to kill him. The statement he makes about being shot by the short gun makes the different personalities inside him to begin fighting to be in control of the “light.” After a while, the “beast” takes over prompting Casey to escape from his quarters into the underground tunnel where she shoots him twice, although the bullet shells have little impact on him making her seek refuge in a small caged area. The “beast “catches up with her and is about to pull the bars to her cell open and attack when he sees the faded scars all over her body which signified her past emotional struggles and attempts to end her own life.
The “beast’s” initial plans were to eliminate those who are untouched from the face of the earth and those who bear impure hearts because they have not gone through suffering in their lives. The scars on Casey’s body align with his hypothesis as he perceives her to be pure and spares her life as he walked away from the tunnels. After a while, Casey is rescued from her cell and later realizes, she had been held captive in the Philadelphia zoo where Kelvin worked as an employee. The police make a formal request to Casey whether she would consider going back home with her uncle and she hesitates to answer out of fear and uncertainty for the future. In a different hideout environment, kelvins “Dennis, Hedwig, and Patricia” personalities are exerting a collective control in Kelvin's body as they admire the power “the beast” enjoys and measures to use to execute their plans of changing the world. A news reporter reporting on kelvins case refers to him as “the horde” a name, which he has earned concerning his several personalities.
Depiction of mental health
Dissociative identity disorder which is formally referred to as multiple personality disorder is a disorder in a personality of a person as they bear distinct sates f personality and is a rare condition in people as it is majorly caused by abuse (Moline, 2013). It is characterized by a change in personalities, which present in an individual as particular personalities only emerge after they are exposed to specific circumstances, which are triggered by psychological stress. Sachs & Galton (2008) assert that people who develop identity disorders are often because of severe sexual and physical abuse especially during childhood as they are more vulnerable and lack any defense mechanism to support them
Those with personality disorders in the United States of America are estimated to be 90% percent caused by parental abuse to their kids at their early tender age although they manifest at any age. Individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder may encounter nightmares, startle responses and flash backs. Several studies suggest that personality disorders are common in close biological relatives although this rarely occurs in the general population. The principal treatment of personality disorders is engagement in long-term psychotherapy, which have the goal of deconstruction of the various personalities as they are united into one (Schwarz, 2013). Additional treatments of these disorders include creative and cognitive therapies, as there are no precise, specific treatments, which treat the particular disorders as anti-depressants, tranquilizers mostly, are prescribed to assist in the control of the symptoms that are associated with the disorders. \
Proper treatment to the victims of the disorder is essential in improving their ability to operate in a normal setting and carry out their occupations to make a living (Ringrose, 2012). This mental disorder is present in the film as Night Shyamalan develops Kevin, a person who has personality disorders as he does not have ultimate control of his body and his actions because he keeps switching from one personality to the next. The mother who used to torture him physically and psychologically when he was a small boy is the principal cause of Kelvin's personality disorder. The torture that was meted to him made him develop multiple personalities to relieve the pressure and escape from his constant battering from the guardian. He is subjected to torture from the guardian. Kelvin has multiple personalities, which makes him creepy as he bears different characters of different people, which came into play whenever he is provoked by the conditions.
Kevin has personalities of Barry, Hedwig, Patricia and the beast. His troubled personalities within Kelvin make him concoct a plan to take hostage of the two girls. Split shows Kevin slipping into persona to persona as he is shown to shift from an angry freak to a flamboyant fashion designer and an innocent precious kid. At the end of the movie, Kelvin is referred to as “the horde” which takes into consideration his nature of Shyamalan divorcing the characters that are vulnerable and make him compelling. Kevin loses his human nature as his mental state turn him inhuman as he harms others and even goes as far as murdering his doctor. The movie uses up to date terms of dissociative identity rather than multiple personalities about Kelvins disorders. The film also offers a solution to the disorders of the brains potential to change psychosomatically and change the body’s physiology.
The movie uses kelvins analyst, DR. Karen Fletcher who often spells out her controversial theory of the disorder giving their victims supernatural powers. This is evident when the producer Shyamalan introduces kelvins “beast” character, which had superhuman capabilities and a monstrous appearance. Dr. Fletcher spent time with his patient in his office trying to control the effects of the change in personality through psychiatric analysis as Kelvin was shifted from one character to the next. This made her realize Kevin had a dominant personality, which dominated and suppressed some of his other personalities within his mind. Kevin is a mentally ill serial killer as he shifts from his multiple personalities, which emanate from his unstable psyche.
Media critique
This article depicts people with mental disorders as being psychos as they frighten the public by showing the extrapolated nature of the character in tragic dimension, which makes viewers sympathize with his victims, which sticks even after watching the movie. The idea of the mentally ill character in the horror movie is not right as it does little to acknowledge the disorder as it moves along. Instead, it is used to instill fear and scare the audience who may end up perceiving the victims in a negative perspective. The representation lacks merit in the quest to increase awareness and promote therapy for the victims to control the effects of the disorder, instead of the fear that it brings along in scary scenes brigs stigma to victims. For instance, Kelvin murdering his doctor who had come to visit him at home depicts a negative perception towards people with split personalities according to Hoffman & Jordan (2016). These mentally ill people are perceived not only be dangerous but cannot also show improvement even when they are seeking therapeutic measures to control the effects of the dominant personalities that come up often. Many of the fiction movies make use of disorders to drive their point and make their work to be more enticing and distinctive without regarding the stigma it brings in the victims of mental illness who live among people in the open society.
Split makes use of mentally sick persons to bear superhuman characters, which make the public to perceive such people as being harmful and mischievous as the normal persons cannot contain their superhuman abilities. For instance, when Kevin is shot at by Casey, the bullet bear little effect on his physique as he kept on coming towards her prompting the lady to run and seek refuge in one of the isolated cells. The movie portrays the mentally unstable as demons as it did not use any other main character with a different disorder, which solely represents the mentally ill as evil people.
Mental illness does not have a place in the horror genre because it is scary to make note that your brain cannot follow commands it is issued and cannot be trusted, leaving one at the mercy of internal forces which have one does not have control over them. The film has the responsibility of offering the victims of mental disorders with empathy and sympathizes with them even when they develop more severe characters and more delusion.
References
Split Ending Spoilers/Analysis.” YouTube , YouTube, 18 Jan. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWWvBw_oEb0
Hoffman, Jordan. “Split Review – James McAvoy Is 23 Shades of Creepy in M Night Shyamalan Chiller.” The Guardian , Guardian News and Media, 27 Sept. 2016, www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/27/split-review-james-mcavoy-m-night-shyamalan-fantastic-fest-austin .
Moline, R. A. (2013). The diagnosis and treatment of dissociative identity disorder: A case study and contemporary perspective . Lanham: Jason Aronson.
Ringrose, J. L. (2012). Understanding and treating dissociative identity disorder (or multiple personality disorder) . London: Karnac.
Sachs, A., & Galton, G. (2008). Forensic aspects of dissociative identity disorder . London: Karnac Books.
Schwarz, H. (2013). Beware of the other side(s): Multiple personality disorder and dissociative identity disorder in American fiction . Bielefeld : Transcript,
thugnotes. “Hidden Meaning in SPLIT (M. Night Shyamalan) – Earthling Cinema.” YouTube , YouTube, 22 Apr. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UbtTtrFG-M .
