The Divide (2011)

I attended the almost sold out screening of "The Divide" at Montreal FantAsia Film Festival with special guest Xavier Gens (director), Michael Biehn (actor) and Michael Eklund (actor).

The crowd, as always at FantAsia, was very engaged and energetic. However, as the horror story unfolded (not exactly horror genre film, save for a few scenes, but horrific in the psychological debacle of its characters), the crowd got quiet and silently absorbed the very well-crafted human drama. The performances felt real. The mood was perfectly dark and doomish. This post-apocalyptic take on humanity is not the most positive, but it is positively one of the best! The cinematography and few special effects are good, especially for the budget. We learned in the Q&A that the film was going to be canned, but that an intern in Winnipeg (Canada), said that his parents could finance the film and fork the few millions needed to finish the project. Great thing they did! This detachment from market-driving founding also allowed for greater artistic freedom and the three guests really explained how Xavier Gens challenged his actors (and some times cameramen) to improvise, be creative, immerse themselves in their characters, and serve the story and the film. The two Michaels were thrilled to worked this way and brought many contributions, while they also mentioned how Lauren German was a more by-the-book actress and they all had to event ploys to get her to be surprised and spontaneous. They all genuinely felt it was the best filmed to work on in their lives, although staying in character after shooting made for some tense sets and after-set (hotel) interactions. Gens choose to film the movie in chronological order, encouraged his actors to starve themselves (which Eklund did to the maximum) and let their mind go as the film reel rolled. Having written a novel in chronological order, I understand exactly what latitude that gives in character development. The story takes unexpected turns, but feels right, cognitive and consistent.

The story with its sci-fi elements briefly introduces a world of wonder, before shutting the door closed on hope and humanity. It is saved by sparkles of effective comedy, but transgresses into a struggle to survive at any price. What is there left? Humanity? Dignity? Love? Compassion? Not really.

As dark is it it, this vision hopefully encourages us to do better in our own lives. No need to wait for a nuclear explosion to figure out what is our desired behaviour for betterment.

Fmovies: -- www.Ramascreen.com --

THE DIVIDE is dirty, disturbing, uncomfortable, and I like it! Post-apocalyptic thrillers are usually a messy business and that's what this Xavier Gens-directed film delivers. It's sheer madness, a terrifying look at society going down the drain and at humanity when it's lost its senses, of what could happen when the chips are down and fear takes over. THE DIVIDE is not for the faint of heart..

Turning a fallout shelter, a save haven and protection into a hellhole is the aim of this film. The tagline says it all, 'the lucky ones died in the blast' and so the remaining characters are not. I wasn't a fan of Gens' previous works, Hit-man was generally disappointing but that was to be expected of any video game-based movie, but THE DIVIDE goes to show that Gens may not be a lost cause after all when it comes to filmmaking. There have been movies in the past where they'd collect a number of people, lock them in one inescapable location long enough and you'd get to see who'd endure, who'd rebel, who'd break down, and who'd take charge. Give it enough time and they'll turn on each other and ask the question of 'who died and made you king?!', that's exactly THE DIVIDE's mission, when suspicions fester and morals go out the window.

Because the story is set in a basement room, the film dwells in the dark the entire time. And because of its R-rated horror approach, the characters find themselves eventually doing something that they themselves did not know they were capable of and we the audience have the options of either sticking around or looking away. Fantastic job by the cast ensemble, you've got Eva (Lauren German) who tries to remain sane and level-headed through the ordeal, and there's Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) who suffers mental problem after the failure to protect her daughter, and then there's Delvin (Courtney B Vance) who at first may seem to be the reasonable one of the bunch, and you also have the cocky sh*theads Bobby and Josh, played by Michael Eklund and Milo Ventimiglia respectively, the shelter itself is owned by an ex-firefighter Mickey (Michael Biehn) who'd rather not share if he had the choice. The movie is a character study that's not too hard to crack but it's not an easy chew either. Right from the start of the beautifully done CG nuclear explosion, you know that it's not going to end well, because there is no way that these characters could stand each other, not with the limited resources they have and the frustration that comes from being self-imprisoned. And so the story shows how their interaction crumbles and insanity creeps in. THE DIVIDE is an excellent sci-fi horror that demands attention.

-- www.Ramascreen.com --

I saw some reviews about this movie and all were that it was "sooo bad", "waste of time" and "terrible movie" and at the same time people told me it was an "shocking post-apocalyptic masterpiece" First i didn't want to watch it because of the ratings.

Ill never trust the ratings again !

This is the most criminally underrated, hated, boycotted movie EVER ! Some people are MAD, they launched an Internet hate-agenda. They HATE this movie. WHY ? Well someone got really butt-hurt and offended about it ! I say you MUST watch it and judge for yourselves....

I give it a 9/10 because of all the BIAS and HATE and it surprised me. normally i would give it a 7/10.

The Divide fmovies. Well, yes. I'm another person who got suckered into watching this piece of garbage. The most important thing you need to know about this movie is that it's just not worth spending two hours of your life to watch it. It's just bad.

You already know the plot, so there's no need to go over that. What you don't know is that, after quite an interesting start, things simply go to hell in every possible way - the plot is thrown out the window, the characters start behaving completely stupid 5 minutes into the movie, and the are really no explanations for anything that goes on from that point.

The acting is actually not bad - it's simply that the characters these actors put life into make no sense. Their decisions and actions that get them spiraling into gore and violence, simply don't add up at all. Here we have a group of random individuals that start arguing, fighting and provoking each other just moments after a nuke bomb has taken the city apart. And most of them act like total a**holes every single minute. When they find out crucially important information, they don't share it, but rather keep it to themselves. They don't stop for a second to think about rationing food and water. They don't care how long before the power runs out, or the toilet fills up, or air is spent, or... Well, they just don't care about anything that's really important. And it get's really frustrating to watch - REALLY fast.

I'm writing this as a person who has actually spent time in a similar situation - stuck in a basement with bunch of neighbors while the bombs hit the city above you for days, even weeks. And I can honestly say that, while this movie clearly wants us to believe we're all sick f*cks ready to snap and start beating, torturing, beating and raping each other, it's just not true. Also, speaking from my own experience, people want to survive and actually talk constructively and work together while utilizing common sense and common interest. Yes, there are conflicts, yes some people lose it, yes there is trauma, yes there are groups formed, but this... This is simply over the top.

This movie desperately tried to be the new Lord of the flies / The Road, but failed completely. Because it didn't make any sense. The violence and the perverted situations are obviously more of a director's reflection of his own mind, rather then a portrait of a realistic situation. Which would be fine, but the problem is the movie is constantly trying to come off as a real possible scenario. It's just not.

Worse of all, even if you go through this mess, you'll get no answers to anything and no hope at the end.

Oh, and btw, just to clarify - I'm a big movie buff, I devour serious cinema from all over the world and from all kinds of genres. I have no problem with gore, violence, exploring the dark side of human nature, sci-fi etc.

So, that's why I am going to recommend to skip this awful pretentious piece of trash and watch a much, much, MUCH better Spanish post apocalyptic movie, called The cold hour - a film that has all the same elements and then some, ends up just as bleak, but actually works!

After the first 20 minutes I would have given The Divide a 1/10. The characters are cliché and the dialogue is so cringeworthy that any self-respecting horror lover would quickly roll their eyes.

So I stopped the movie. I could've sworn I'd seen very good reviews here on IMDb. I flipped open my laptop and re-read some of the reviews and sure enough, they were mostly positive.

Weird. Rarely a mention of the bad acting and awful script. At this point I just figured most of these reviews must be from 14-year-olds or people who were invested in the film. I decided to watch on.

It got better. The acting remained appalling but they introduced a bit of a sci-fi element that was kind of cool. The intensity ramped up and I became locked into the film. I watched it through to the end. All the way 'til the end of the credits.

And I was left with this very bad feeling. Very bad indeed. I guess it reminded me of being a scared kid. I'm not talking about my-brother-freaked-me-out-on-Halloween scared, I'm talking about I-saw-my-neighbour-drown-a-bunch-of-puppies-in-a-barrel scared.

Remember when you were seven years old? Did you ever see something you were much too young to see? Remember that feeling? Scared and a bit ashamed? Seeing something you're just not emotionally mature enough to handle? Remember how your heart raced?

Did you ever want to un-see something? I want to un-see The Divide.

One part of me wants to rate it a zero. But I'm a horror fan and it scared me, riveted me. How can I rate it less than a six? I would prefer I never saw the movie. So perhaps that makes it 'good', I'm not sure. It depends. I mean horror is supposed to freak you out. And it really has some original story elements. I suppose I respect it. Bottom line, it gave me nightmares. How can give a horror film that gave me nightmares less than a six?

Having said all that, every copy of this film should be incinerated and the ashes buried somewhere in the arctic tundra, away from people.

Some films require you to commit. Some demand a hefty price. For The Divide, it's a price that must be paid in advance and there are no refunds.

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.