By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
M. Night Shyamalan burst onto the cinematic scene with audacious plot twists in “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable” and “Signs.” But “The Lady in the Water,” “The Village,” “The Happening,” “The Last Airbender,” “After Earth” and “The Visit” were subsequent disappointments.
Now he’s back with a vengeance, infusing “Split,” a horrifying abduction story, with preposterous pop psychology and surprise linking to one of his earlier films. No spoiler here. That’s tantalizing enough.
Psychologically disturbed Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) kidnaps three high school girls. According to his compassionate therapist, Dr. Fletcher (Betty Buckley), he suffers from DID (dissociative identity disorder), manifesting 23 different personalities with a 24th, the Beast, about to surface.
Imprisoned in a subterranean bunker, his teenage victims are terrified. There’s popular Claire (Haley Lu Richardson), her bestie Marcia (Jessica Sula) and their disconsolate classmate Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), a loner whose deeply disturbing back story is gradually revealed.
While Claire and Marcia are trying to escape, Casey cautiously chats with their captor, particularly when his personality surfaces as prattling Hedwig, a nine year-old boy who feels menaced by his elders.
Because when he’s take-charge Dennis, orderly Miss Patricia, or flamboyant fashionista Barry, they don’t stand a chance, having been told they’re “sacred food” for the Beast when he arrives.
Best known as Professor Xavier in “X-Men,” James McAvoy’s transformations are stunning, moving from one guise to another, subtly sifting his posture, demeanor and speech patterns. With her subtle manipulations, sad-eyed Anya Taylor-Joy fulfills the sly promise of her breakout work in “The Witch.”
Produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse on a $10 million budget, Shyamalan’s taut yet playful thriftiness, coupled with Mike Gioulakis’s haunting cinematography, has already paid off at the box-office,
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Split” is a suspenseful 7, a supernatural thriller that becomes a teasing origin story, perhaps propelling a sequel.
Originally intended for mid-December release, “The Space Between Us,” a teenage sci-fi adventure/romance, was moved to coincide with Valentine’s Day.
Because Earth’s resources are being depleted, Genesis Space Technologies, founded by eccentric visionary Nathaniel Shepherd (Gary Oldman) — channeling Elon Musk/Richard Branson — is determined to colonize Mars.
Working with NASA, Genesis launches a pioneering team to spend four years in an experimental colony called East Texas. The astronaut crew of six is confidently led by Sarah Elliot (Janet Montgomery), who declares: “Courage is fear that has said its prayers.”
Complications arise mid-trip when Sarah discovers she’s pregnant. Afraid of losing vital funding, Nathaniel insists on total secrecy, even when Sarah dies giving birth to Gardner.
Skip ahead 16 years. Now a precocious, inquisitive teenager, Gardner (Asa Butterfield) has been raised by Kendra Wyndham (Carla Gugino) and her fellow scientists in an antiseptic, artificial environment.
Isolated Gardner strikes up a secret internet friendship with Tulsa (Britt Robertson), a cynical, angst-riddled Colorado teenager, shuttling between foster homes.
Gardner is eager to meet Tulsa and explore his origins, but he’s told that since he was born on Mars, his internal organs (heart, etc.) could not adjust to Earth’s atmosphere. In short, it would kill him.
But Gardner boards a shuttle spaceship, breaks out of quarantine, finds street-smart Tulsa and they embark on a road trip, searching for his father. Pursued by Nathaniel and NASA officials, Gardner races against time to discover who he is and where he really belongs.
Melodramatically scripted by Allan Loeb from a cliché-riddled story by Stewart Schill & Richard Barton Lewis, it’s inconsistently directed by Peter Chelsom, who makes it difficult to sustain believability.
Nevertheless, it’s visually stunning and surprisingly tender. The most memorable moments reflect Gardner’s surprise and authentic amazement at Earth’s wonders, along with his ingenuous imitation of courtship, based his favorite movie, Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire.”
On the Granger Gauge, “The Space Between Us” is a sweet 6, achieving only a lukewarm launch.
“Don’t think it! Don’t say it.” That’s the cautionary phrase propelling “The Bye Bye Man,” a horror-thriller, based on an urban legend.
In the prologue, deranged Larry Redman (Leigh Whannel) goes on a shooting rampage, killing eight neighbors along with himself. That was in 1969.
Cut to the present, as three University of Wisconsin students — nerdy Elliot (Douglas Smith), his sexy girlfriend Sasha (Cressida Bonas) and a jock named John (Lucien Laviscount) — rent a large, if decrepit house in rural Madison so they can live off-campus.
Then Eliot makes a discovery: mysterious inscriptions inside his bedside table, a repeated warning that reads: “Don’t think it. Don’t say it.” And the scrawled words, “Bye Bye Man.”
No one seems to know what that means but, at a housewarming party, Sasha’s psychic friend Kim (Jenna Karnell) conducts a séance which reveals a malevolent, supernatural presence.
Soon after, Elliot glimpses a ghastly ghostly, hooded figure (Doug Jones of “Pan’s Labyrinth”), as lethal hallucinations and more sinister questions arise.
Adapting from Robert Damon Schneck’s 2005 short story, “The Bridge to Body Island,” screenwriter Jonathan Penner and his wife, director Stacy Title, go with the evil boogeyman curse concept, rather than developing an intriguing back story, relying on predictable jump-scares and misdirection to sustain the tension which culminates, not surprisingly, in grim ambiguity.
While the three primary characters are stereotypical, familiar faces surface as Faith Dunaway appears as Larry Redmon’s aged widow and Carrie-Ann Moss circles as a suspicious police detective.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Bye Bye Man” is a tiresome, tepid 3. My advice? Don’t watch it.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
