November 4, 2017 – This suspense movie features some incredible aspects of horror and science fiction, but its main draw is the very convincing performances of its actors.

James McAvoy of “X Men: Days of Future Past” stars as mental patient Kevin Wendell Crumb, who has Dissociative Personality Disorder (AKA DPD or Multiple Personality Disorder) which is the result of childhood trauma. He exhibits 24 different personalities, each of which exert exclusive control over him (referred to by Crumb as being in the “light”) at various times. The most agreeable personality is that of Barry, but a more dangerous personality, that of Dennis, has recently taken control of his body.

Crumb's psychiatrist, Dr. Karen Fletcher (played by Betty Buckley of “The Happening”) suspects that Dennis, who is pretending to be Barry, has secretly taken control. Other personalities within Crumb are alarmed by Dennis' actions, sending emails to Dr. Fletcher, crying out for help. Meanwhile, an even more dangerous personality is emerging from within Crumb's fractured brain.

Dennis, a new personality, is, as Dr. Fletcher suspects, dangerous. He kidnaps three teenagers and locks them in his secret underground lair. One of the kidnapped women, Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy of “The Witch”) seems to have an intuitive understanding of Crumb and is able to manipulate some of his more vulnerable personalities to an extent. The other two women, Claire Benoit (Haley Lu Richardson of “The Edge of Seventeen”) and Marcia (Jessica Sula of “The Lovers”) are desperate to escape the trap. They don't have Casey's intuitive grasp of what they are up against.

The movie starts off with an interesting premise that becomes increasingly absurd as it goes along, but the fine performances of McAvoy and Taylor-Joy, along with the other actors, kept me interested in the film, even as it devolved into horror and slasher genre clichés. Characters conveniently walk right into the villain's traps, one after another, failing to save themselves time and again, too easily outsmarted by a mentally deranged man.

The premise, that people with multiple personalities like Kevin Wendell Crumb can instantly change their bodies, just by believing they can, gets stretched way too far. A person can't instantaneously become bigger and stronger, just by believing it. There is a strong mind-body connection, but there are limitations to the mind's control over the body which are exceeded in this film. However, if you are willing to suspend your disbelief, a lot, you could maybe swallow the premise.

Regardless of all the film's obvious plot problems, there are some excellent performances in this film, and the story is compelling, especially the story about Casey's background, and her strange affinity to Crumb's personalities. One one level, the story is just pretty girls in a trap, with sexual overtones of course, but it is more than that. This film rates a B.

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Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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