Movies On Multiple Personality Disorder

People with Multiple Personality Disorder (MPD) have more than one personality triggered in specific situations. They develop this disorder due to past trauma, learning their own personality cannot face the situation. However, the alleged patient must be diagnosed with the disorder multiple times to arrive at accurate results.

It inspires the story writers to write multiple characters for a single actor. Similarly, the actor might nail it if performed gracefully. Otherwise, a single actor portraying multiple characters one after the other might turn into a mess before the camera.

Movies On Multiple Personality Disorder Are:

1) Aparichit: The Stranger

Ramanujam Iyengar (played by Chiyaan Vikram) is an innocent and conformist lawyer. He always raises his voice against injustice. He gets rejected by his love interest due to his nature and attempts suicide. However, he drops the idea at the final moment because committing suicide is a crime.

He suddenly finds a website under Aparichit’s (stranger) name after which his powerful alter ego, Aparichit, surfaces whenever Ramanujam witnesses injustice. Ramanujam’s other alter ego, Remo, surfaces occasionally to charm his love interest.

When the law does not work, Aparichit takes it into his hands and punishes people according to the punishments written for their sins in ‘Garud Puran.’ Meanwhile, everyone including the police gets furious at innocent Ramanujam because they do not know about his MPD.

Ramanujam’s second alter ego, Remo, disappears forever when his love interest starts loving him. Ramanujam’s first alter ego, Aparichit, gets discovered, and he undergoes treatment for two years, but Aparichit secretly lies in him forever.

It is a Tamil psychological thriller action film, Anniyan (2005), dubbed as Aparichit: The Stranger in Hindi. Besides that, the movie was released in the UK, Australia, Germany, Malaysia, the UK, and Singapore. It became the first Indian film to be dubbed into French and released in French-speaking countries.

Aparichit Poster (Credit: Oscar Films)

2) Me, Myself & Irene

Me, Myself & Irene (2000) is an American slapstick comedy black comedy film. Co-written, co-produced and written by the Farrelly brothers. A police officer named Charlie Baileygates (played by Jim Carrey), who always gets insulted by the town, marries Layla, who cheats on him with a black dwarf genius named Shonte.

Layla gives birth to three black sons and runs away with Shonte. Charlie raises those sons and develops an alter ego, Hank, to cope with the situations he cannot face. His senior police officer sends him to protect a beautiful Irene Waters dealing with a hit-and-run case, where his adventure begins.

Viewers found the plot unsatisfying, though Jim’s comedy made them laugh. They considered it Jim’s best movie after The Cable Guy (1996). However, it shows schizophrenia as a split personality disorder, which is a myth. Moreover, the movie makes fun of the disorder which offends several viewers.

Still From Me, Myself & Irene (Credit: 20th Century Fox)

3) Split

Split (2006) is an American psychological horror thriller movie where Kevin Wendell Crumb (played by James McAvoy) has twenty-three alter egos, ‘Barry’ being the superior. Barry decides which alter ego to give control over Kevin’s body.

Later, Hedwig turns out to be the dominating alter who often gets influenced by Patricia and Dennis. The viewers consider it a perfect blend of horror and therapy. There are no special effects, but acting. So, James’ ability to switch from one personality to another between the scenes is appreciable.

Moreover, the movie has one of the shocking endings and upsets people already suffering with it. However, there is no big twist. The director, M. Night Shyamalan, messed up similarly with Knock At The Cabin (2023), which has no big twists throughout the movie.

 

James McAvoy In Split (Credit: Universal Pictures)

4) Glass

Glass (2019) is the final installment of the Unbreakable trilogy. David Dunn (played by James McAvoy) takes his son, Joseph, to hunt for Horde. The duo arrives at an abandoned factory where Horde had forcefully kept four cheerleaders as offerings to his only god, a Beast.

Dr. Ellie Staple kidnaps them and tries to convince them that they are not superhumans, though they have superhuman-like abilities. On the other hand, they try to convince her that superhumans do exist. The movie ends with proof of the existence of superhumans.

Once again, M. Night Shyamalan was disappointed at the conclusion, and it became the biggest disappointment of his career. The movie got an overall B+ grade with several negative reviews.

Glass Poster (Credit: Universal Pictures)

5) Primal Fear

Primal Fear (1996) is a legal mystery thriller film whose center of focus is Martin Vail, an arrogant defense attorney. An altar boy, Aaron Stampler, gets charged with Archbishop Rushman’s murder after getting caught running away from the crime scene.

However, Aaron claims to be innocent and prone to amnesia, and Martin promises him to help free of cost. Aaron had an abusive childhood which makes him suffer from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID). He has a dominant alter ego, Roy.

Richard Gere and Edward Norton In Primal Fear (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

The movie has a shocking ending where Martin learns there was never any ‘Roy,’ but Aaron corrects him by saying there was never any ‘Aaron.’ It is a straightforward and entertaining movie with tangled subplots. Edward Norton was appreciated for portraying his debut character, Aaron.