Movies
[Review] ‘Split’ is a Tense and Moving Thriller
M. Night Shyamalan is on a roll. I never thought I’d be typing these words, but it’s true. Between 2015’s funny and chilling ‘The Visit,’ and the great if a bit uneven TV show, “Wayward Pines”, M. Night Shyamalan has been quickly and intelligently finding his footing. With Split, I can confidently say he’s finally found it.
The star of the show in Split is James McAvoy’s Kevin. He’s a clean-cut, meticulous man who lives alone underground far removed from society. His labyrinth of a home is the perfect place for someone with 23 totally unique personalities to reside. You won’t see all of them emerge throughout the film, but the ones you see the most (Dennis, Barry, Patricia and Hedwig) each command a different type of reaction when they’ve “taken the light” as the film puts it, and they never fail to be interesting.
As if Kevin didn’t have enough to deal with already, he lands himself in a bit of trouble when he, as Dennis being lead by Patricia, kidnaps Casey, played by Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Barry) and her two classmates. They’re promptly locked up in Kevin’s bunker, and they’re told that they have a greater purpose to fulfill – they’ll be fed to Kevin’s 24th personality, The Beast, once it reveals itself.
[Related] Shyamalan’s Split Has a Bit of a Twist Problem
Casey’s story is told through flashbacks, and even though it’s telegraphed pretty early on what they’re about, they’re engaging and they do a great job of showing you why you should care about her rather than telling you through dialog. Her other friends aren’t built out nearly as much, if at all, but the film doesn’t suffer for it since Casey and Kevin are so much fun to watch.
The one thing that didn’t really work for me in terms of characters is that Shyamalan uses Dennis’ OCD as a way to get the girls to strip down to just their underwear. Every time they try to escape, they get dirty and Dennis insists that they change clothes, but each new outfit is skimpier than the last. It didn’t add anything to the story and it lessened the impact of Dennis as a character.
That gripe aside, the film works because instead of relying on a big reveal or shocking twist, Shyamalan makes a play for pure, raw tension and he undoubtedly achieves it. Shots are intimate and claustrophobic but rarely sloppy and the film’s modest budget rarely makes itself apparent. Shyamalan knows exactly what kind of story he’s trying to tell, and he does it masterfully. The soundtrack only adds to the tension. It’s full of roaring, deep cello beats and in the more emotional moments the heartfelt and hopeful tones hit me deep.
On the topic of the criticism Split has drawn on its villain using mental illness as a catch-all excuse, I personally think Shyamalan treats the disorder with care. A not-so-subtle undertone of the film focuses on Kevin’s therapist’s struggle to bring Dissociative Identity Disorder as the key to unlocking the potential of the human brain – and it works. Additionally, the way Shyamalan carefully uses Casey’s past as a tool to show why she’s able to keep a cool head and outsmart Kevin’s different personalities shows that he went the extra mile to delicately show his respect for those struggling with mental illness.
Shyamalan’s low-budget return to horror is proving itself to be exactly what he needed to make great films again. Being forced to hone in on the story of his films and to draw out the best performances possible from his actors paid of in ‘The Visit’ and it definitely pays off in Split. He’s even shown a strong ability to draw a laugh for some levity in the darker moments of both films, and I hope he continues to play to his newfound strengths.
Split is the first must-see horror gem to rise above the dumping ground that is January. It releases today, January 20th.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
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