15 Split Personalities Movies that Will Make You Thrill

Movies made on the split personality concept are featured in most sections, like horror or thriller. You may wonder about the incident that one does and still not remember and think about someone else’s action.

Split personality is a severe issue or mental disease for the person who has it and those around them. It is officially known as ‘dissociative identity disorder.’

Mostly the person who has this holds dual personalities, sometimes more than this, and it happens due to some trauma or mental issues from previous experiences or current issues.

When this type of movie breaks into the theatre, they give goosebumps to the audience. Now it’s your time to experience the same horror with these incredible mind-bending movies. Here are some shortlisted films based on the split personalities theme to thrill you with horror.

Magic

Director: Richard Attenborough

Casting: Anthony Hopkins, Ann-Margret, Burgess Meredith, Ed Lauter, Jerry Houser, E.J. Andre, Lillian Randolph

The movie’s plot deals with a man named Corky, who works as an assistant to a magician. His career falls when the magician dies, and his manager advises him to work as a ventriloquist. 

His dummy ‘Fats, manipulate Corky,’ and his career begins to thrive. Fat Corky represents his most sinister impulsive behaviour. He returns to his hometown, and his childhood sweetheart Peggy, happily married, has been murdered by Corky.

The Three Faces of Eve

Director: Nunnally Johnson

Casting: Jim Carrey, Renee Zellweger, Michael Bowman, Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee, Jerod Mixon, Shannon Whirry 

The movie plot deals with a woman suffering from a dual personality disorder. It is based on a case study of one of the patients, Chris Costner Sizemore, who has three faces. They all perform. 

First, Eve is white, obedient, quiet, and a dull housewife. She suffers from memory lapses and is entirely unaware of her alter ego. Second, Eve black, who is wild, loves dancing and cheating on her husband. She later discovers her third face, Jane, while in psychotherapy.

Me, Myself & Irene

Director: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly

Casting: Jim Carrey, Renee Zellweger, Michael Bowman, Anthony Anderson, Mongo Brownlee, Jerod Mixon, Shannon Whirry 

The movie plot deals with a lovely man named Charlie, who gets abused and assaulted by people. These constant years of pent-up rage developed a dual personality which is rude, named Hank.

Due to his second personality, which holds rude, unfeeling, sneering characteristics had killed someone accidentally and got arrested by the police. Later he was assigned to escort a lady named Irene, who fell in love with his Hank personality.

Sybil

Director: Daniel Petrie

Casting: Sally Field, Joanne Woodward, Martine Bartlett, Brad Davis, Jane Hoffman, Charles Lane, William Prince

Sybil is based on a real-life psychiatric patient, Shirley Ardell Mason, who was treated by an American psychiatrist named Cornelia Wilbur. 

Shirley has sixteen multiple personalities and attempted suicide numerous times. Her mother was the reason behind all of Sybil’s trauma, and she used to abuse her a lot. Numerous times, Woodward saved her life in her suicide attempt. 

The Machinist

Director: Brad Anderson

Casting: Christian Bale, Jennifer Jason Leigh, John Sharian, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Michael Ironside, Lawrence Gilliard Jr., Reg E. Cathey

The movie’s plot deals with a man named Trevor Reznik, a machinist in the titular factory. He is withering away because he did not sleep for the entire year.

He was made fun of for his extreme weight loss, which affected his mental health. He had made a fantasy world to avoid the guilt of killing two people, which was just an accident. No one else, except his boss, acknowledges Ivan’s existence and Trevor’s dual personality, and Trevor blames Ivan for all the problems.  

The Shining

Director: Stanley Kubrick

Casting: Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Danny Lloyd, Scatman Crothers, Lisa Burns, Lia Beldam, Louise Burns, Lia Beldam

The Shining movie is a classic horror movie based on a Stephen King novel. Its title has been derived from the five-year-old Danny, who has telepathic abilities, referred to as ‘The Shining.’ 

Danny’s visions go more disturbing when, one bitter winter, Danny is isolated in a hotel where he experiences terrifying visions and converses with a supernatural being,’ Tony,’ who is the split part of his personality. He is hell-bent on terrorizing his family.

Identity

Director: James Mangold

Casting: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, Pruitt Taylor Vince, Clea DuVall, Rebecca De Mornay, John C. McGinley

The story deals with a sadistic serial killer named Malcolm Rivers, who got the death penalty by law. Ten strangers got stuck in a motel due to a freak rainstorm that flooded a vicious storm that broke out in the Nevada desert.

One by one, these strangers got murdered, but the motel was not real. It was just in the murderer’s head. The lawyer’s only work here is to send his client to the asylum to recover from several personalities.

Black Swan

Director: Darren Aronofsky

Casting: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder, Barbara Hershey, Benjamin Millepied, Sebastian Stan

Black Swan, a psychological thriller, is quite confusing for an audience. Natalie Portman got an oscar for her role as Nina in this movie. Nina is a passionate dancer. She ruled every facet. An art director wanted to appoint her for his new production ‘Swan Lake.

Nina was thrilled to receive the white swan role in the swan production, but she met lily, who will play the black swan role. They both don’t like each other, but gradually they grow in friendship and keeping all the differences aside, they hallucinate about having sex. But was Lily honest, or it’s just a part of Nina’s personality?

Psycho

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

Casting: Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, Pat Hitchcock, John A. Gavin, Virginia Gregg, Martin Balsam 

The movie plot deals with a serial killer named Norman Bates, who holds intense guilt for killing his mother. So he dresses up like his mother and acts like her to hide his shame.

Marion Crane, a phoenix secretary, steals forty thousand dollars from her employer so that she can run away with Sam Loomis, her boyfriend.

This movie confuses audiences about whether Norman is a serial killer because if he were a serial killer, then he would not hold guilty and has this split identity of his mother. He has an idea that what he has done is wrong.

Split

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Casting: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, M. Night Shyamalan, Jessica Sula, Haley Lu Richardson, Bruce Willis, Betty Buckley

Split is the second part of the ‘Unbreakable’ movie. The movie’s main character deals with split personality disorder and has twenty-three personalities.

So one day, his one personality kidnaps three teenage girls who are leaving a birthday party, takes them to the basement, and torments them. Then his twenty-fourth personality, named Beast, tries to kill the girl who tries to escape from him.

Primal Fear

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Casting: Edward Norton, Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Maura Tierney, Frances McDormand, Andre Braugher, Jon Seda

The movie plot deals with Aron Stampler, who murdered Chicago Archibishop, and a retired lawyer, Martin Vail, who thinks this murder is not as simple as it seems.

So he further investigates the case and learns that this murder was performed by Aron’s split personality ‘Roy’ who Chicago molested. But all these proofs will not help me save Aron because it will motivate him to do so.

Hide and seek 

Director: John Polson

Casting: Robert De Niro, Dakota Fanning, Famke Janssen, Elisabeth Shue, Amy Irving, Molly Grant Kallins, Dylan Baker

The movie deals with a small girl named Emile, who suffers from a dissociative identity disorder. Emile and her father move to New York for a fresh start after her mother commit suicide.

She holds too much grief in her heart and could not make any friends over there. She soon makes an imaginary friend named ‘Charlie’ whose aim is to make the team terrorize team.  

Shutter Island 

Director: Martin Scorses

Casting: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Emily Mortimer, Max von Sydow, Patricia Clarkson

The movie plot deals with World War 2 scenario where Teddy Daniels, a police detective, was sent to an asylum to investigate a female patient.

He got trapped there due to the flood and witnessed the cruelest psychiatric experiments on them there. Now, he investigates all these horrifying incidents, and Teddy realizes at that very moment that he needs to confront his o
]] island alive.

Fight club

Director: David Fincher

Casting: Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Jared Leto, Meat Loaf, Holt McCallany, Zach Grenier

This movie story is based on the same-name book, ‘Fight club.’ It represents pop culture to show a split personality.

Here, Tyler Durden losses his mind to insomnia and has a split personality within the club. Tyler Durden lives in a filthy house after his perfect home gets destroyed. This film does social commentary on consumerist culture.

Glass

Director: M. Night Shyamalan 

Casting: James McAvoy, Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sarah Paulson, Spencer Treat Clark, Diana Silvers

Glass is the third part of the movie Unbreakable where Kevin Dunn thinks that he has some supernatural powers but has his alter ego, which he calls ‘The Oversees.’ 

In the end, he has to meet a female psychiatrist who has doubts none of them has any supernatural powers. And we, as the audience, know that David Dunn has no control and he has delusion.

This movie focuses on the concept that superpower exists among us and informs that humanity is the only superpower in this world.

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