SPLIT is simply one of the world’s great unknown science fiction films. Not to be confused with any other, better known films bearing the same title, this SPLIT is a no-budget feature hailing from 1989. It has more in common with the previous year’s THEY LIVE than anything by M. Night Shyamalan, with a paranoid yet humanistic gist that’s directly opposed to the values of Reagan-era America. It was the first and only feature by writer-director Chris Shaw, who claims to have “never picked up a camera” prior to making SPLIT; if that’s true he certainly hid his inexperience quite well, as this is one of the decade’s most visually inventive films.
Filmed on location in Santa Cruz, CA, SPLIT was accomplished with what in the late 1980s were state of the art computer effects. Shaw’s MacArthur Genius Grant winning brother Rob accomplished those effects, together with Peter Broadwell and Chris Shaw himself (who claims he was contacted by a Hollywood producer after the latter saw a special effects still from SPLIT, which he replicated in ROBOCOP). Obviously those effects are primitive by modern standards, but (speaking as one who viewed SPLIT during its initial festival run) I can attest they were quite mind-blowing in their day, and utilized in a manner that remains unique and (as one early reviewer gushed) mind-rattling.
The late Timothy Dwight plays Starker, a seeming nut who eats garbage, constantly dons different guises and accents, and believes a shadowy band of technologically advanced overseers are lording over the human race. It turns out he has good reason to think this way, as there is indeed a cabal of techno-fascists playing god, ruled by a middle aged crank who really hates Starker. The latter is an enthusiastic adherent of chaos theory, and a threat to the autocratic rule of the overseers; his constant unpredictability keeps them from tracking him down, despite heavy-duty surveillance that includes invisible drones and an army of robotic preppies.
Starker has interactions with a pretentious artist, to whom he reveals his true identity, and Susan, a waitress who lives with an imaginary husband. All the while Starker amasses a cult-like following of artists and hippies, which further alarms the God-players. He also plans to release a toxin into a lake that promises to free peoples’ consciousness from the forces that have been enslaving them.
It all makes for a jarring, disorienting and downright psychedelic viewing experience. Some (notably Psychotronic’s Michael Wedlon) have called it “downright irritating,” and the film does indeed contain its share of irritants. The visual pyrotechnics, which encompass every conceivable budget-lite imagistic quirk, tend to grow wearying, and the narrative is only semi-coherent. Yet the irrepressible forward momentum is one of SPLIT’s main attractions. The fact that it never entirely explains the perimeters of its universe or pauses to allow viewers to catch up with it is crucial to the film’s anarchic aesthetic, which of course mirrors the mindset of its chaos-infused main character.
Of the performers, Dwight is quite charismatic and unpredictable in his one and only film credit, and Joan Bechtel more than matches him as Susan (with smartly written dialogue penned by Bechtel herself). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the weakest performance is by Chris Shaw as the Agency Director, although he at least has an imposing physical presence that fits the role. Also featured is the late Gene Evans (of THE GIANT BEHEMOTH, PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID and quite a few Samuel Fuller films) in what was to be his final role, as a deranged street corner preacher.
SPLIT never received much in the way of theatrical distribution. It was released on VHS in the early nineties by Action International Pictures (with nifty cover art), only to go MIA until the long-awaited 30th anniversary Blu-ray release by Verboden Video. That Blu-ray contains a newly discovered 104 minute version of the film that runs a full 21 minutes longer than the original cut. The new version differs from the old in its juxtaposition of certain scenes (the opening of the theatrical version, in which Starker shouts at the air in a bus depot, occurs much later in the new cut) and added background action. Whatever form you view it in, SPLIT is a must-see for adventurous sci fi fans, and a true unsung classic.
Vital Statistics
SPLIT
Starker Films
Director: Chris Shaw
Producer: Barbara Horscraft
Screenplay: Chris Shaw, Joan Bechtel
Cinematography: Chris Shaw
Editing: Chris Shaw
Cast: Timothy Dwight, Joan Bechtel, John J. Flynn. Chris Shaw, John Martel, Jack Wiley, Barbard Horscraft, Debra Gordon, Rusty Lapioli, Ray Bencharian, Jim Yates, George Amis, Rod Schoenlank, Wendy Bowers, Rebecca Rae Adams, Bhavananda Lodkey, Martha Curtis, Larry Raphael, Steve Bennett, Gene Evans