James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula, Betty Buckley, Brad William Henke

M. Night Shyamalan

I kind of feel sorry for M. Night Shyamalan. Despite the fact that the majority of his directorial efforts make people want to drown kittens, I want him to prove his doubters wrong. Yes, this reeks of Stockholm syndrome, but it is true just the same. Somewhere in that head of his is another killer story.

But “Split” isn’t it. Shyamalan explores some interesting ideas about the true worth of a person, the power of belief, and the lengths that the mind will go to normalize things that just aren’t normal (insert your own current events joke here), but the whole turns out to be much less than the sum of its parts. He also pulls a stunt at the end that seems cool in the moment, but sad once removed from the moment.

Kevin (James McAvoy) is a horribly broken man. As a result of childhood trauma, he has developed 23 different personalities, but with the help of therapist Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley), he has managed to keep them in check and live a normal life, all things considered. One day, though, one of the more dominant personalities assumes control and kidnaps three teenage girls in a mall parking lot. This personality assures the girls that he won’t hurt them, but that is only because he is saving them for The Beast to do with them what he will. Doctor Fletcher has heard about this Beast for years but considers it a bogeyman story the dominant personalities tell the others to keep them in check. The girls’ best chance to escape appears to be Hedwig, the youngest personality in the bunch who has aligned himself with the other dominants.

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Olivia DeJonge, Ed Oxenbould, Kathryn Hahn, Peter McRobbie

M. Night Shyamalan

It has been a rough decade for M. Night Shyamalan. The once promising filmmaker behind the chilling smash hit, “The Sixth Sense,” and its beautifully somber and superior follow-up, “Unbreakable,” hasn’t connected with audiences for a long time now. “The Last Airbender,” “After Earth” and “Lady in the Water” failed to connect with critics, audiences and plenty of the director’s own vocal supporters. This year, though, marks the return of a new and improved Shyamalan, who has delivered an unpretentious, darkly funny horror movie with “The Visit.”

Spending a week with grandma and grandpa – what could possibly go wrong? But in this story, it turns out that the answer is “everything.” Becca (Olivia DeJonge) and Style (Ed Oxenbould) don’t know what to expect when they arrive at the home of their grandparents, Pop Pop (Peter McRobbie) and Nana (Deanna Dunagan). The kids’ mother (Kathryn Hahn) hasn’t talked to her parents in years because of a heated disagreement they once had, and this is their chance to finally get to know their grandparents, which aspiring filmmaker Becca is documenting with her camera. Soon after their visit starts, however, the two kids realize that something is very, very wrong with grandma and grandpa.

“The Visit” is a refreshing found footage movie. Technically, the label doesn’t apply, since it’s not exactly “found footage,” but nonetheless, it plays with the form in some creative ways. Most found footage movies are bafflingly polished, with seamless cuts and the camera often in the right place at the right time. In this case, the camerawork makes sense. When a character holds a camera in a tense sequence, it makes sense: Becca is a filmmaker who wants to capture everything about this vacation. There’s only one scene that screams, “Drop the camera already!”

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