M. Night Shyamalan used to be somebody. In 2002, after the smash successes of his first three feature films, the writer-director found himself on the cover of Newsweek. The caption, with no uncertainty, read “The Next Spielberg.” Hindsight is 20/20, and Shyamalan would spend the next fifteen years destroying his positive reputation. His first three outings, “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” and “Signs,” were all critical and box office successes, but from there, Shyamalan’s films started getting worse. Then, in 2008, he made “The Happening,” a truly awful movie about Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel running away from killer ferns. And what did he make to follow that trash fire of a film? A whitewashed mockery of one of the most beloved cartoons ever made, “The Last Airbender.” But was Shyamalan done? Nope; his crescendo of garbage only hit its final note in the scientology-filled, Jaden Smith-starring “After Earth,” which saw Will Smith playing a character named Cypher Rage. Somewhere between the billion dollar budgets and complete creative free reign, Shyamalan lost his ability to tell believable, interesting stories. But with his latest film, “Split,” Shyamalan proves that he just might be worthy of a second chance.

The movie centers around the kidnapping of three girls, but there’s more going on than first appears; the kidnapper suffers from a heightened version of dissociative identity disorder, with 23 different personalities vying for control of the kidnapper’s body (he happens to be named Kevin). What first comes across as a pretty standard horror set-up almost immediately gets more engaging, mostly thanks to the actors’ performances. “Split” lives and dies on the performance of James McAvoy, who gives life to each and every one of Kevin’s many facets. McAvoy completely commits to the role that I could see a lesser actor dismissing (on account of the role’s inherent silliness). In fact, any time McAvoy was on screen, I really couldn’t take my eyes off of him, and there’s something electric about the energy he brings to the film.

As for the other performances in the film, our protagonist, Casey, is played by Anya Taylor-Joy, who does a solid job as the main kidnapping victim. Shyamalan has clearly been keeping his eye out for recent horror talent, as Taylor-Joy starred in last year’s “The VVitch,” and “Split’s” cinematographer, Mike Gioulakis, also worked on 2014’s sleeper hit “It Follows.” And let me give credit where credit is due — “Split” is an extremely well-shot film. The director uses more than a few long, plodding takes to escalate the tension in an almost Hitchcockian style. There’s a level of craftsmanship on display here — craftsmanship that produces an extremely visually engaging movie.

But this is not a perfect film by any means. “Split” gets a little long and over-complicated in its second act, and while the third act does what it can to make up for the unnecessary moments, “Split” could have come in closer to ninety minutes instead of its actual two hour runtime. There are also a couple of moments when the dialogue comes out a little bit inhuman. Shyamalan has always struggled a little bit with realistic -sounding characters, and there are a couple of beats here where the characters just don’t sound right. It’s hard to describe, but there were a couple of moments in the film in which a character would say a line and it just wouldn’t sound like something a person would actually say. Finally, anyone going into this movie thinking it will be a realistic depiction of mental illness is sure to be taken aback. This is a heightened and highly fictionalized look at a real disease, and while I don’t find it particularly offensive, I can see how someone could take issue with the way dissociative identity disorder is presented.

Regardless, I’m glad to see that Shyamalan is back. He may not be the next Spielberg, but if you’re a fan of horror or looking for a good thriller, I can certainly recommend that you see “Split.” Of everything I’ve seen recently, “Split” actually reminded me most of last year’s “10 Cloverfield Lane,” another tense, bunker-set story about a strong female protagonist escaping from the lair of a crazy person. If that’s your cup of tea, “Split” won’t disappoint.