SPLIT SECOND (1992)

DIRECTED by Tony Maylam

SCREENPLAY by Gary Scott Thompson. 

  

STARRING - Rutger Hauer as Harley Stone

Kim Cattrall as Michelle McLaine

Neil Duncan as Dick Durkin

Michael J. Pollard as 'The Rat Catcher'

Alun Armstrong as 'Thrasher'

Pete Postlethwaite as Paulsen

Ian Dury as Jay 'Jay-Jay'

Roberta Eaton as Robin

Tony Steedman as O'Donnell

Steven Hartley as Foster McLaine

Sara Stockbridge as Tiffany

PLOT - The year is 2008 and global warming has finally caught up with mankind. The city of London lies partially submerged in water after forty days and nights of endless rain. Morale in the city is low and law and order is breaking down.

If things weren't already bad enough a serial killer who removes the hearts of their victims now stalks the streets of this beleaguered city.

It's up to cop Harley Stone and his unwitting new partner Dick Durkin to bring the savage killer to justice.

However - it soon becomes apparent that this particular serial killer is unlike any they have come across before - because this killer may not even be human...

May not even be from this world...

PERFORMANCES - The role of Harley Stone initially appears to be a checklist of the type of hard man roles that Rutger Hauer is best known for. He's dressed in black, he's tough with more than a hint of craziness about him and you really don't want to mess with him.

However, scratch the surface and a deeper character is soon revealed. Stone is a cop with a past (aren't they all ?) - his partner was killed on the job (aren't they always ?) and Stone sought solace in the arms of his dead partner's wife - Michelle. This relationship consequently turned to shit as Stone felt bad about nailing his dead partner's missus (well, you would wouldn't you) and as a result Stone promptly hit the bottle (as you do).

Fast forward a couple of years and Stone has quit drinking, developed a replacement addiction for copious amounts of Coffee and Chocolate (along with smoking huge cigars) and generally has an embittered bad attitude and is generally seen as a bit of a loose cannon/head case by his increasingly bemused colleagues.

It's quite funny how Stone takes his frustrations out on his colleagues - you could honestly watch this film and do a drinking game - take a shot every time Stone either slams a fellow cop against the wall/grabs them by the throat/punches them in the face and I GUARANTEE you that you'll be so drunk you won't even be able to remember what species you're from.

As the story progresses though we start to see a warmer side to Stone both through his reawakening friendship/romance with Michelle (Kim Cattrall) and his initially reluctant partnership with Dick Durkin (Neil Duncan) - and before you ask - yes - we do get a lot of "Dick jokes" pertaining to Mr Durkin's first name. Hauer is a perfect fit for this role and I really like how he brings out Stone's more human side to make him seem like a genuinely traumatized man hiding behind a tough guy exterior.

Next up we have Neil Duncan as Dick Durkin who acts as pretty much the comic relief to Hauer's character.

Durkin is a forensic specialist who's main skill seems to be profiling serial killers - he's assigned to assist Stone in the case, but you also get the feeling that he's there to keep a watchful eye on Stone to make sure he doesn't go too far. 

Initially Dick pretty much lives up to his name - he's a condescending know it all (albeit a well meaning one) and he straight up just gets on Stone's nerves. However, as the film progresses he sees lots of weird shit which opens his mind up to Stone's way of thinking - at one point he seems to even have a minor mental breakdown - so much so that eventually he almost ends up idolising Stone as a hero/mentor. As with Hauer, Duncan gives a nicely layered performance which once more gives a bit more depth to the character than the standard "buddy cop" movie vibe would suggest...oh, and he's great in the scene where Dick has his breakdown (and please - no broken dick jokes...).

Finally we have Kim Cattrall as Michelle - she's still got the same Vulcan hair cut here as she does in Star Trek 6 - The Undiscovered Country (she filmed this literally days after that film wrapped) - she doesn't get a huge amount to do (her character seems to spend a lot of time in the shower) but she's got a decent chemistry with Hauer and gets some nice little scenes with him as thier respective characters get closer to reigniting their romance (is it just me though or does Michelle seem REALLY flirty with Dick when she meets him near the film's end ? Perhaps she just likes Dick...)

SEX AND VIOLENCE - As mentioned above we get to see Michelle have quite a lot of showers in this film - although it's nothing overly explicit.

We also get a couple of topless waitresses in the seedy nightclub that Stone visits at points in the movie (The nightclub scenes are great incidentally - Stone only orders Coffee when he visits them which seems to strangely offend the staff for reasons known only to themselves. The club also has some brilliant graffiti scrawled on it's outside wall - it says ACID BASTARDS - which just struck as funny for some reason)

Most of the killings happen off screen but we get to see some pretty decent gore regardless as we view the mutilated corpses (they've had their ribcages ripped open and thier hearts pulled out). The killer also has a nasty habit of scrawling it's own occult graffiti in the victim's blood.

SFX - Apart from the gore FX the other main practical effect is the creature itself. I don't think it's a major spoiler for a thirty odd year old film to reveal that the "serial killer" turns out to be a demonic creature that may or may not be from either Hell or Outer Space. 

The creature is at it's most effective when it's only briefly glimpsed. We get the odd hand here or a shot of the bottom half of it's face there, or we see it looming out of dimly lit mist, you get the general picture...

The problem comes when we see the beast fully - it's basically a man in a rubber monster suit cosplaying as a Xenomorph from the Aliens movies...all whilst forgetting to take his shades off.

I can get the Xenomorph similarity (it's one of THE classic monster designs for good reason) but WHY in the name of EVERYTHING HOLY did they give him that RIDICULOUS VISOR ?????? He looks like his head's made out of an old motorbike helmet for crying out loud !!!!! Let's face it...it probably was...

RATING - Whilst being far from perfect I did have a good time with this film. Hauer's great, there's some good intentional (and unintentional) comedy and I do get a strong 90's vibe from it (so it's a good nostalgic watch).

4 demonic serial killers out of 5.

File under flawed but fun.

ART -