Wow three weeks in a row. Split, a movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan (the same director who's produced some of the decades worst films) and produced by Blumhouse has dominated the box office for three weeks in a row. This is big, not only for Shyamalan, but for small indie horror in general.Split has knocked out Star Wars, trampled over XXX The Return of Xander Cage and Resident Evil, and held out against Rings a sequel to one of the most beloved horror movies of all time. Though Split's box office sucess could be credited to the lack of quality movies in its January time slot, it would be ignorant to assume its sucess won't have any repercussions. Also rest assured I will stay away from all spoilers for the purpose of this editorial, my objective here is just to speculate the impact that this movie may have down the line.
So Split is a hit, it made back ten times its budget and received positive criticism all around (Rt:75%, CS:B+, MC:62); the logical next step for any studio is to consider a sequel. Shyamalan has already considered adapting a follow up to his latest thriller releasing a statement in a cryptic tweet saying "I have an 11 page outline for my next film in the bag..." hinting at a connection to Split. It's very possible this could be a direct sequel to his film, though if you have seen Split yourself, you may find tweet a little more revealing than it would first appear.
Another important thing to consider is Split as an pivotal launching point to Shyamalan's career. Not since the early 2000s had he made a movie as critically successful as Split. Since then movie fans such as myself have been treated to abominations such as Lady in the Water, The Happening and After Earth. These movies weren't just bad, they were laughably bad, piss pour dramatic missteps posing as thought provoking cinematic art, imitating inaccurately the formula of his early hits such as The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable. In 2015, Shyamalan released The Visit, and while there were many people who praised it there were just as many who labeled it on par of his less beloved works much like his 2004 film The Village. Split however recaptures the critical reception of his early works, combining great preformance with dynamic storytelling and interesting camerawork. Split is a movie that feels like it was made from an M. Night Shyamalan fresh off The Sixth Sense, and while that doesn't quite make up for all of it's flaws it certainly helps put Shyamalan on the right track in earning back popular trust.
It's no secret that a horror movie can be made for next to nothing, earning back massive returns at the box office without even cracking the top three of that week. This is the model Blumhouse has been using for years, but with Shyamalan its done something bigger. 40million dollars opening weekend, for reference thats about as much as the new Ghostbusters (+150mil$) made on it's opening weekend, a movie that costed almost twenty times more than Split. For three weeks, Split has been the most talked about and viewed movie released in nationwide cinemas, thats almost a full month!
While it's certainly not going to be in the top ten movies of the year (by money or critically), Split proves Shyamalan and Blumhouse are a winning combination, and I'm willing to bet I'm not the only one eagerly waiting for his next movie. Split put a big smile on my face, with one more movie like this I will be confident to say I look forward to Shyamalan movies again. If you want me to say anymore, look for my review up tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment