Split : I need clarification after seeing it (SPOILERS)

I went to a screening of Split last week. There was even an intro by M. Night practically pleading with the audience to not let out what the big reveal in the movie is before the film is released. And critics who have seen early screenings also mention there being a good twist like that of his earlier work.

So after seeing it, I still didn't totally get what the twist is. Is it that the character does in fact become The Beast? Someone else posted a thread on here saying it's not really a twist. And I must agree, James McAvoy alluded to the beast the whole film. A twist is something you don't seem coming.
Also, the way the film plays out it almost seemed like him living at the zoo was the twist - since that happens afterwards and usually a twist would be close to the very end of the film. Living at a zoo didn't seem worthy of a good twist either - it's just revealing where this was all taking place but doesn't affect the story really.

And what was the significance of the flashbacks - just to show what made her strong and into a survivor? Why have a brief scene revealing that her father died? I kept thinking that would tie into something.

Finally, I had to wonder if the cameo at the end was the twist. But it was after the final title shot which would be too late for a twist. To me that was just a cameo saying the story takes place in the same universe. When the film ended and people applauded, I thought maybe I missed a deeper reveal. Like if David Dunn was really her father and that's why we saw all the flashbacks. But otherwise, I find the conclusion to be a little disappointing. Unless I did miss something. I kind of misheard the final line of what the woman asked, leading to David's reply of "Mr. Glass". What about The Beast character was comparable to Mr. Glass? Did the news reporter refer to him as The Beast and so the lady was saying it was a similar villain-type of name?

I couldn't agree with you more. My wife and I saw it a week ago and neither one of us know what the "twist" is. Most people seem to say it's the cameo and the relation to another movie, but that seems so weak.

I agree 100% - I loved it (not using spoiler tags because I'm not going to say anything).

There are a ton of posts on here arguing that it's not really a twist, or why is everybody calling it a twist? That's just a semantic argument for you to say that you just didn't like it. Fair enough, but it certainly IS a twist

"Hello, hello, what's all this shouting? We'll have no trouble here!"

One can argue that there are several "twists."
1. Kevin actually turning into the beast could be seen as a twist because, throughout the film, even though Dennis talks about the beast and what it looks like, even the doctor didn't believe that a human body can morph so dramatically like that, "there have to be limits as to what the human body can do." So, to actually see a human body grow taller, muscular, be able to climb walls and take shotgun shots to the chest is pretty incredible.
2. Casey's past of struggle and sufferring opens her up to be in league with "the open" or the "saved" in that Dennis and Patricia couldn't stand the other two girls "the weak to feed off off" because they were pampered and spoiled and had not gone through any true sufferring. Casey lives her sufferring everyday and throwing it back to the MNS movie referenced here, only when a person who has endured a great tragedy or hardship/sufferring can they open themselves up to the full capacity/potential of the mind/body. So she is seen as elite.
3. Kevin working for the zoo might be a nod to human evolution and how far mankind has come.
4. Lastly, yes, this movie is connected to MNS previous work. So, I suppose in these two movies it speaks of these humans with abilities that are only brought out under extreme stress/circumstances and not everyone can tap into this part of their evolution.

At least that's what I got out of it.

I just find it odd for the "twist" to be after the actually movie has concluded and the title SPLIT has come up on screen indicating the movie you just watched. At that moment, I was very disappointed since it seemed there was no twist until then seeing David Dunn show up after.
(And I also still don't really see the transformation into The Beast as a twist because it did not catch me off-guard as a surprise at all since he keeps saying he's coming.)
It was a good film but as someone who loves to be genuinely surprised by a great twist I just didn't have that emotion this time. I actually preferred the twist in his last film The Visit much more (of it not being the grandparents at all).

I think the twist is that Casey's suffering from her past abuse as physically seen by the cuttings on her body are what ultimately save her from the beast. Similar twist to Signs where past sufferings turn out to have redemptive purposes in the future.

The twist is that the whole movie you thought you were seeing is not actually that movie, because it's actually a sequel to Unbreakable, and on top of that, you don't know that until literally the last 10 seconds of the movie. Which is probably a better twist than The Sixth Sense. It's the biggest bait and switch I've ever seen pulled off. M Night is a genius!

I gotta say I disagree with a lot of these theories on the twist. You can't just make a reference to another movie in the final 10 seconds and call it a sequel to it. That's rather lazy.
One more question though: Why did he need to get on the train to transform into the beast? Like why go to the train station at all? He could've transformed right at home (the zoo).