The Divide

"This ain't exactly the garden of Eden." After a nuclear bomb is dropped and earth is uninhabitable a group of tenants of an apartment are forced to live together in the basement of the building. What starts off as a tense situation quickly explodes into something much, much worse and everyone's views of each other change. This is not what I was expecting. I thought this would be more of a Sci-Fi type movie and what it was was a very disturbing look at what different people will do when pushed to the edge. For those that have seen the movie "Blindness" you will know what to expect. For those that haven't be warned, this is a very, very disturbing look at the human condition and makes you wonder what you would do in this situation. Overall, more disturbing then anything. Not bad, but you must be ready for what you will see. I give it a B-.

Be warned. This is not an easy movie to watch. It's the story of a group of people who have survived a nuclear attack and are sealed up in an underground bunker. Essentially that's the story, with one minor (as it turns out) addition that presents a problem with the movie as I'll note later. It's not pleasant to watch. Basically, the group, suffering from radiation poisoning and closed off from everything except each other, starts to go mad; more and more deranged with the passage of time - turning on each other without mercy, in at least one particularly disturbing subplot, a couple of men using one of the female survivors as a sexual toy. I say again - it is not a pleasant movie to watch. Disturbing and at times quite gory. Not for those easily offended.

However, if you can get over the uneasy squeamishness that the story brings forth - it's not bad. There's even a sort of uneasy reality to it. After all, how would any of us survive or even hold it together in the same circumstances. Nothing that happens here seems beyond the capacity of normal human beings as time passes in this situation. That's probably the most disturbing thing about this. It's not impossible to read yourself into this situation and wonder whether you could handle it any better.

The performances from the cast were decent. I was familiar with Lauren German as paramedic Leslie Shay on the TV show "Chicago Fire" - but in all honesty I didn't recognize her as Eva, who's probably the main character in this movie. But she, along with everyone else in the cast, did a fine job in their roles - perhaps a bit over the top at times, but that seemed in keeping with the basic story and dilemma that characters were facing. The ending of the movie was kind of unexpected and incredibly sobering as well in the last scene, looking out at the nuclear-devastated skyline of the city.

The one part of the movie that confused me and in the end that seemed unnecessary was the "lab" up above and the "soldiers" (if that's what they were) that raided the bunker and carried off young Wendy. I didn't think it added anything to the story aside from a few minutes of suspense that weren't really necessary to add, and, in the end, it was left hanging. What was the purpose of the lab? Who was running the lab? I've seen speculation in some of the other reviews on here, but I don't believe anything definitive was ever stated in the movie. As far as I know it was just left hanging - open to speculation, I suppose, but with nothing definitive to base the speculation on.

Again - it's unpleasant, disturbing, gory. It's a very dark exploration of human psychology. And yet I found it quite riveting. (7/10)

I don't usually write reviews but I found this movie deserved one. I am a fan of the apocalyptic "end of the world" type movies so I gave it a try. The acting is phenomenal, great actors and they all play their roles so well. Some disturbing scenes, but I found it to be a realistic idea of the human nature in a life or death situation & how our true nature may possibly reveal itself. The divide is intriguing & kept me watching, not a movie I'd suggest before bed, I watched it once, don't think I will again, but worth the watch.

Im not sure why some people here have given The Divide one star. One person even called it torture porn (Im not sure how many movies this reviewer has seen but I reckon he certainly doesn't know what the torture porn genre looks like). I cant say it was an "art" movie either which has been indicated (by some) for some reason. The Divide is an apocalyptic tale based on the aftermath of the destruction of NYC by nuclear attack and how a few survivors, sheltering in a basement of a building, slowly fall apart as their grim situation becomes apparent. As already stated, the acting is quite good for the most part, and as the movie develops some scenes will be a little unsettling for some but its all in the vein of the story. I enjoyed it immensely, all the more so for not hearing of the movie anywhere in the media. At the beginning it seemed as if it would just be another load of emotional drama loosely attached to the apocalyptic situation above (something which plagues TV series like The Walking Dead (just not enough zombies for me, and far too much chitty chat) but it soon became apparent that this was not the case. The Divide descends into a dark hell of humanities worse attributes and two characters in particular cause the viewer to cringe as they play out their terrible roles. All in all, The Divide was excellent, and any mockers here really should stick to movies polished and shined by the big Hollywood multiplex puppetmasters. This ones recommended by me.

I found this film by chance, without having heard anything about it, so I went in with no expectations. But I love me a good apocalyptic flick, even though most are very predictable. This one is not predictable. And even though the setting is after the apocalypse, the story is really about human nature, a la Lord of the Flies.

The peoples reactions to the events, and to each other, are extreme, yet believable. The acting is very good, among the best i've seen lately in a sci-fi picture. Yet it was the writing that truly took me in. The story is paced very evenly, and proceeds towards it's inevitable conclusion without pause or remorse.

I have to say that this movie is not for children or even most adults. There are strong elements of violence and sexuality that are far beyond what most people can stomach. With this in mind, however, I found the psychological elements to be far more disturbing than the graphic scenes. We don't like to think that people are capable of certain things, but in extreme conditions people can be pushed to do the unimaginable.

This is the the important point of the film, rather than the storyline, or "how the world ends". It's about how we can self destruct, as individuals.

While I will be disturbed by the imagery for a few days, I really still loved this movie, and recommend it to anyone with a strong stomach.