Is Split an Unbreakable Sequel?Īs for the actual final scene: it is a direct reference to Unbreakable, of course. The implication is that Casey will confirm the already clouding suspicion about something being rotten in the state of her proverbial Denmark, and with an evil, lecherous uncle no less. The authority figure’s attention, like our own, is instantly drawn to the fire in Casey’s eyes. Likewise, she refuses to be escorted back to hell with her uncle. She couldn’t pull the trigger on her uncle as a child, but as a young woman she’ll fire the shotgun at the Beast. Whereas earlier she allowed a classmate’s father to gently shepherd her into his driving her-with no more resistance than she had when watching Dennis knock out the two girls in the backseat and then come for her-she is now done with letting herself get wordlessly pushed into one prison after another. While this is more open to interpretation, the intent of the scene is clearly that Casey has stopped being passive in her victimization. She is told by a police officer that her uncle has arrived to pick her up, but Casey does not leave the squad car. There is a bit of ambiguity as to what happens to Casey after her horrific ordeal. Also appropriate to the material, there is a steely authenticity to the way Taylor-Joy underplays her often mute heroine. And while I believe the film is open to that reading, I would argue that McAvoy and Taylor-Joy are both so good in their roles-with the Scottish actor being exceptionally brilliant in a scenery-chewing tour de force-that they ground the ugliness with some semblance of truth. Still, there is an obvious argument to be made that this is exploiting real-life traumas for genre thrills. In other words, because Kevin Wendell was abused by his mother, he’d empathize with Casey’s signs of similar abuse. Intentionally, the filmmaker is working from the analytical research that suggests DID is sometimes borne as a form of neurological protection or relief from the neurotoxic effects of traumatic stress. Undoubtedly, Shyamalan broaching such heinous and heartbreaking subjects will be challenged and critiqued for weeks to come. Tragically, she is unable to pull the trigger and all too realistically says nothing to her father about the abuse… which only continues for the rest of her adolescence after her father dies of a heart attack and she is forced to live with her abuser. After being beckoned to take off her clothes on a hunting trip, the film cuts away from the unimaginable evil to some time later when Casey attempts to shoot and kill her uncle. This is first discovered during one of several intensely disturbing flashbacks to Casey’s childhood. As it’s been confirmed earlier in the picture, Casey was abused repeatedly over the years by her uncle. However, upon Casey’s shirt being ripped off in their final struggle, it is revealed that she has scars on her stomach-scars caused by self-inflicted harm and cutting. And apparently it did, hence the Beast being able to dismiss the shotgun shells that Casey ( Anya Taylor-Joy) fires at him in what at first appears to be a traditional thriller showdown between a proverbial monster and his final girl prey. So the alter Dennis is convinced that the elusive 24th personality, the Beast, has skin as hard as a rhino’s and fingers strong enough to dig into stone, allowing it to climb walls. Now, does this mean that an individual who lives with DID could will themselves into having the power set of Spider-Man? No, but hence the aforementioned pseudoscience, which is the refuge of many creators in the genre, going back to its progenitor, Mary Shelley and her obsession with medieval and renaissance alchemy in Frankenstein. Further, alters have demonstrably shown differences in visual parameters, including corneal curvature and pupil size. This is based on recent studies in the last 20 years that indicate individuals diagnosed with DID have shown physiologic differences between their ‘alters’ (personalities), including dominant handedness, response to the same medication, and allergic sensitivities. Karen Fletcher (wonderfully played by Betty Buckley) repeatedly stresses, there is evidence that individuals with multiple personalities can change their body chemistry.
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