Split

I worked on this film a bit and did not know it even got made since the working title was "Starker" if I remember right. Saw it only about 10 years ago. It is better than I thought it would be since I only had a vague idea what the film was about. A lot of this film was shot in Santa Cruz. Really a slice of the 80's underground mindset.

I am visible as the spaceman watching Starker argue in the gallery. I and several friends appear in this scene since we were recruited from a costume party that was held about a month before at the Catalyst. You can also see singer Max Strom in the crowd. Most of the folks are wearing their own costumes.

Starker is wearing my prescription glasses.

Not the M. Night Shyamalan thriller, this earlier film of the same title revolves around a man living 'off the grid' in a society in which the government keeps tabs on what everyone does through purchases made, routines and habits. To evade authorities, our protagonist has to constantly change appearance and never interact with the same people for too long - something that leads to him living an existence a la Denis Lavant in 'Holy Motors'. Innovatively shot and edited, the film is film is as engaging visually as it is intellectually with the lead's head framed in neon signs, shots from inside wine glasses and an offbeat opening in which he appears to turn around and talk to the camera before it is revealed that he is conversing with a brick wall! The plot is sometimes hard to decipher, especially in term's of the government's motives and a quest for immortality subplot, but the pure weirdness of it all renders the film compelling from start to finish. More vexing in any case are the wild changes in tone throughout. At times, the film is borderline comical as our protagonist snorts sugar, talks with over-the-top fake accents and converses with an avant-garde artist, while at other times, the tone is deathly serious with a genuine sense of danger and unease in the air. Like it or not though, this is certainly one of the most unique and strangest films ever made and while certainly elements might be off-putting for some, at its best, the film ranks alongside the finest paranoia thrillers out there as the main character finds him pursued by mysterious forces for which few others believe even exist.

The movie is idiotic and is obviously geared towards persons who are into using drugs. The part at the end where he has some kind of petry dish that he is trying to put in the water - and then, the LSD-like effects over the film with the echoing of "Things are changing?" Is it some type of twisted, drug-using radical 'fantasy'? of the main character possibly putting a psychotropic or hallucinogenic drug in the water supply of that city in the movie? It's mad, in fact, maddening. Throw this movie in the trash where it belongs with the drugs the makers used while making it.

FYI: LSD was synthesized in 1937 by a Swiss chemist. The monster Hitler, in the monster's bunker, actually used a multitude of psychotropic drugs, possibly including LSD.

When I first started watching this movie I thought it was a student film. It certainly has a raw quality to it in the camera work, the filmstock, and the acting/directing. But as I continued to watch I was intrigued by the story. Its basically The Matrix idea done on a students budget. But don't dismiss it! The computer work in the movie is particularly inventive. Keeping in mind that this movie was shot in 1988/89, the use of computers is intelligent yet trippy. The acting takes some getting used to. It's not slick and natural. It's more forced, but it ends up adding to the plot of the film. I have to say that the ideas used in this film are quite clever and would recommend a viewing to anyone intertested in 1984-esque themes.

If you Listen to Ween (The Pod, God/Satan), then you know what's going on with "Split" I found that watching the film under the influence of LSD helped to deal with Audio/Video tracers from fantastic editing job. The plot was only important from second to second. The acid helped to interact with the sounds, subliminal and general pace of this masterpiece. Don't bother writing about something out of your comprehension's reach...There just isn't enough of these great independent attempts at expression at it's most raw , amateur level. I dare anyone to make a movie that can equally Mess with my head and change the way I look at visual arts and the world's reality. Not to mention the many realities that haven't yet been explored by this humans mind. I love the vision of Chris Shaw. I also appreciate the texturing terroristic film "The Begotten" by E. Elias Merhige.