The Divide begins at the end. But not like Memento, which presented its story in reverse chronological order. Rather the second English Language film by French director Xavier Gens opens at the end of civilization as we know it. A woman’s beautiful blue eyes reflect red and orange explosions as a familiar New York City skyline crumbles. We’ve just passed the tipping point.
Released in April on a Blu-ray/DVD combo, Anchor Bay presents The Divide, starring: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, Courtney B. Vance, Ivan Gonzalez, Michael Eklund, Abbey Thickson, Ashton Holmes, and Rosanna Arquette.
Read the film’s synopsis and my review after the jump…
In this graphic and violent, post-apocalyptic thriller, nine strangers—all tenants of a New York high rise apartment—escape a nuclear attack by hiding out in the building’s bunker-like basement. Trapped for days underground with no hope for rescue, and only unspeakable horrors awaiting them on the other side of the bunker door, the group begins to descend into madness, each turning on one another with physical and psycho-sexual torment. As supplies dwindle, and tensions flare, and they grow increasingly unhinged by their close quarters and hopelessness, each act against one another becomes more depraved than the next. While everyone in the bunker allows themselves to be overcome by desperation and lose their humanity, one survivor holds onto a thin chance for escape even with no promise of salvation on the outside.
This reviewer loved The Divide, but you need to know a few things about me. Not only am I an avid Horror film fan, but I’m also an ardent admirer of a sub-genre known as New French Extremity. Films that fall under this umbrella are known to be especially violent, frightening, and gory (films like Inside, Them, and High Tension). Many mainstream cinema fans will find this specific brand of entertainment too intense and/or offensive to enjoy. So while I found The Divide stunning and fascinating, I cannot recommend this film to any but the most hardened of gore hounds. If that sounds like a dare, it’s really not; it’s a warning.
Xavier Gens achieved fame as a writer/director for his début film Frontier(s), a shining example of New French Extremity and one of my personal Horror favorites. This admitted, it was hard for me not to draw correlations between Frontier(s) and The Divide. In both films, a central female character is subjected to unimaginable terror, mental and physical. By the end of Frontier(s), our female protagonist has clearly been pushed so far beyond her limits, her mind is blown (her head twitches, her eyes have that thousand-yard stare). The same is true of our heroine in The Divide (Lauren German); yes, she survives, but there is little comfort in that fact alone. She is transformed—and hopeless. The film comes full circle with a final shot of a woman’s beautiful eyes; a blank emotionless stare from where once tears flowed.
Lauren German (Hostel Part 2) and Michael Biehn (Aliens) have great chemistry as strangers who don’t trust each other, but must work together to survive. This relationship is one of the most compelling aspects of the film. Milo Ventimiglia (TV’s Heroes) is brilliantly unsettling as Josh, a sane rational man who devolves into something near demonic.
The Divide is told completely from the prospective of the trapped survivors and the audience knows nothing more than they do. Therefore, some of the story’s most intriguing questions are never answered. Who bombed New York and why? Who are the intruders in Bio Hazard suits? What’s going on in the rest of the world? For some, this lack of detail will be annoying. You have to realize, of course, that The Divide is not a story about surviving a nuclear blast, it’s a story about humanity and the slim divide that separates us from animals. Gens is unflinching in his nihilistic vision so please, do not expect a happy Hollywood ending.
Rumors abounded about the cast growing to hate each other as the shoot progressed. Since The Divide was filmed in chronological order and the characters subject each other to such lavish abuse it’s not difficult to imagine why. I bet Rosanna Arquette could go the rest of her life with ever seeing Milo Ventimiglia again!
Pure gold for fans of extreme cinema, most movie-watchers will likely find The Divide too brutal to be palatable.
4 out of 5 skulls!
Saucy Josh writes a blog for intelligent Horror Movie aficionados called Blood and Guts for Grown Ups: https://bloodandgutsforgrownups.wordpress.com/