Macabre…ish Horror Review: The Divide
The Divide, 2011/ 2 hr 2 min
Bombs are destroying a city and is shaking a building apart, it’s being blasted from all sides with concussive force. A residential building filled with people who are all running for their lives, some toward the street side door, others to the basement. Outside has turned to fire and orange dust but the building is falling apart so those that get into the basement risk being buried alive, underground.
Very few residents actually make it into the basement before the door is slammed shut. All told, 9 tenants have taken shelter there, among them is one child and 2 women.
The maintenance man, Mickey (Michael Biehn) tapes up the seams of the door to keep the radio active dust out. There are lights in the basement but the weight bearing columns are and have taken serious damage. No signal
but there are radios they can try. There’s an outhouse, shower, storage and janitor’s quarters. And Mickey has some food stores.
After just a few hours, 2 of them decide they are leaving but Mickey threatens them when they go for the door. He tries to explain the facts of fallout and radiation exposure symptoms. And so they wait.
Soon they hear movement on the other side of the door and people in white suits, with weapons, force their way in with a torch and take the child. This is not a peaceful rescue mission. They are shot at and forced to fight back, a few of them die.
When one from the group finally get the nerve to go check out what’s outside the basement door, they encounter more men in white suits in a make shift lab with people in observation tanks. The sad bleak reality drive the hopeless survivor back to the basement. And this time, the basement door is welded again but this time to seal them in. This is now meant to be their tomb.
And they commence to evolve into a feral kill or be killed hedonist apocalyptic cult of fear and personality. Clean cut New Yorkers transform into vile violent ruffians fighting for the lead position and control over the food and women. Torture comes a little to easy for some of them. Meanwhile, the woman who lost her child is rapidly unravelling and in her grief her body is being used up for other’s sexual gratification. Who ever has control doles out scraps of food and chooses to starve those who won’t bend.
Either from violence or starvation, they will all die here if there is no way out and nowhere to go.
This is a scifi horror and also in this is Milo Ventimiglia, Lauren German, Rosanna Arquette, Courtney B. Vance, Ashton Holmes, Michael Ecklund and Peter Stormare. This movie is paced well. It gets graphic and some what gory. It gets violent and trigger warning for sexual violence.