Editorials
M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ is a Smash Hit; Let’s Talk About it!
I don’t report on the box office very often anymore simply because it’s not only irrelevant to us, but it’s often misreported. And because a film’s success or failure is tough to gauge based on public information, its impact on future films is also hard to assess. Nit-picking a smaller movie’s small box office “take” is like kicking a dog that we aren’t really sure is down, which is why it’s way more fun to report on one’s monstrous success.
M. Night Shyamalan was once considered frontrunner to become the next Spielberg. The Sixth Sense set the bar so high that he’s never been able to reach it again, and honestly was never even close. Since the 1999 blockbuster, which is one of the biggest genre box office hits of all time, Shyamalan has floundered…and although you’ll find a lot of people who love Unbreakable, Signs or even The Village, I’d be hard pressed to find supporters of Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender and even After Earth.
It took 15 years for Shyamalan to lower his own bar, and for audiences to stop expecting him to out-twist them. Instead, on the heels of the 2010 Devil (which he produced), the director appears to be more focused on just telling an engaging story. I am a huge, huge, huge fan of the first season of “Wayward Pines” and thought The Visit was a solid horror flick, held back by the found-footage approach that many of us are tired of. This weekend’s Split is really the first time he’s directed something mainstream for us genre fans since 2008’s The Happening, allowing almost a decade of healing between films. It’s been so long, really, that younger audiences don’t even know who Shyamalan is. There’s no expectations anymore, which is allowing him to focus on one thing and one thing only: making a good movie. Sure, he’s still trying to force a twist into his product, but I don’t think general audiences care anymore, which is allowing him to fly again.
[Fantastic Fest Review] James McAvoy is the Reason to See M. Night Shyamalan’s Split
Split is proof. Being back in Chicago allows me to really vibe a film’s awareness. I can tell if a movie is going to break through simply by how many people are talking about it. Everyone was talking Split, and surprisingly I never once heard anyone mention Shyamalan or “twists”. It just looked fun, engaging and interesting, which is something a lot of us needed this past weekend. People showed up, in troves, propelling Shyamalan back to stardom. I can only hope that this time he puts his mistakes of past behind him and gets behind a project that meets his expectations, not ours….
With that said, it’s being reported that Split is estimated to take in $40 million this weekend on a $10 million budget. Since nobody else breaks it down, here’s the best guess: $10 million budget, minimum of $10 million marketing, with a 50/50 split (no pun intended) with the box office puts Split at break even after just one weekend. The full domestic life of Split, assuming there’s no surprise boost (word of mouth should be strong) or drop, could land it over $100 million, putting it well into the profit range. This doesn’t even include international numbers, which I couldn’t even pretend to guesstimate.
This is a huge win for horror because this success isn’t based on twists, Shyamalan’s name or expectations, but knowing that people will show up to see a movie that’s being supported by the press, and that just “looks good”. While it did cost $10m and star James McAvoy, Split does give hope to independent filmmakers that their little film could be the next to break out, would a studio give it a chance. What a wonderful way to kick off 2017…
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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