If you’re like me and hear a description of Tony Maylam’s Split Second you’d likely think that it has everything that you’d want in a sci-fi/horror/detective thriller.

You have Rutger Hauer playing the detective with the addition of a monster intent on killing him.

Add an noir-adjacent atmosphere and one might think that they’d stumbled into genre movie nirvana.

Which might have something to do with the overwhelming disappointment in discovering that overall Split Second just doesn’t work.

And those reasons are legion though the most we should be concerned about are the motivations and nature of the antagonist, or perhaps I should phrase that as the lack thereof.

I get why there’s so much water everywhere – the story take place in a future where climate change is overwhelming the UK and seemingly returning it to the sea – but unless water in the future possesses the ability to suck the color from the environment there’s no explanation as to why this movie seems realized in various shades of gray.

Split Second is certainly watchable, but it’s not nearly as good, or as rewarding, as it should be.