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by Jeff Beck

First Trailer for M. Night Shyamalan's Split Debuts


It's no secret that once-promising writer/director M.Night Shyamalan has been having a lot of trouble coming up with a project to equal those that once made him the talk of the town. It seems like everything he has put out in at least the last decade has been a disaster in one way or another, including "After Earth," "The Last Airbender," "The Happening," and "Lady in the Water." In fact, the last decent project he did, at least in this critic's opinion, was the highly-underrated "The Village" way back in 2004.

That being said, a long list of failures hasn't stopped him from continuing to try to return to his glory days, which brings us to his latest project, "Split." The film follows a man (James McAvoy) with at least 23 different personalities as he abducts three teenage girls and holds them captive. The first trailer for the film has been released today and, surprisingly, the film actually looks like it could be a decent little thriller. McAvoy seems more than up to the challenge of playing multiple personalities, and the plot could lead to some interesting twists and turns (something that used to be Shyamalan's specialty).

The only small concern I have is that the film is being given a January release date, which tends to indicate that the studio wants to dump the film out in theaters knowing full-well that it's not very good, and given Shyamalan's recent streak, it could end up being just that. We'll just have to wait and see.

M. Night Shyamalan's "Split" arrives in theaters on January 20, 2017.

Do you think this will be the film to turn Shyamalan's career back around? Let us know in the comments below!

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