Interview (Written): M. Night Shyamalan

A conversation with the writer-director of the movie Split.

A Crave interview with M. Night Shyamlan (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable) about his new movie Split starring James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Haley Lu Richardson.

Crave: This is an interesting film, and I think one of the things that unlocked it for me — because I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to be taking it — was when you were talking about how this was based on a character you created for Unbreakable.

M. Night Shyamalan: Mmm-hmm…

It occurs to me that there’s a lot of overlap between how we think of supervillains and how we think of horror movies. Was that on your mind, or were you thinking about Split purely on a thriller aspect?

Well no, I mean I always felt it was… We’re going to talk about this?

Anything spoiler-y we’ll save until it’s out.

You know, it was always an origin story for me. I just didn’t want you to know it was an origin story. Just slowly build it, mythologically, step-by-step, through the eyes of this girl, and what is the value system of this villain-slash-hero, you know? What is his value system? And then she would ultimately be the representation of his good side, his value system on his good side, which would/should confuse you. But it was always kind of a thriller on his face, but meant to be an origin story.

Here is a trailer for Split:

For the rest of the interview, go here.