James McAvoy Gets Beastly in Latest 'Split' Trailer

M. Night Shyamalan’s long road back from After Earth — his personality-deprived 2013 sci-fi saga starring Will and Jaden Smith — began last year with the sturdy found-footage thriller The Visit. However, he seems on the verge of making a complete return to form courtesy of his upcoming Split, which received an enthusiastic response when it premiered at September’s Fantastic Fest. And now, its second trailer more fully lays out its mad mayhem.

Split stars James McAvoy as an unhinged loner who abducts three teenage girls from a parking lot and stashes them away in a secret cell. That behavior alone would make him a psychopath, although as it turns out, that’s just the beginning for this madman, who boasts multiple personalities — 23 to be exact. Such a condition makes dealing with him a bewildering ordeal for his captives (The Witch‘s Anya Taylor-Joy, Jessica Sula and Haley Lu Richardson). To make matters worse, one of his identities is known as “The Beast” — and, from the looks of this second promo, that name isn’t just a euphemism.

All this bodes well for audiences — The Hollywood Reporter’s John DeFore wrote that “genre fans should embrace what is arguably the director’s most satisfying picture since The Sixth Sense.” Split doesn’t premiere in theaters until Jan. 22, but you can check out its latest unnerving promo above.