The Divide (2011) Reviews

• Most underrated and hated movie EVER, don't know why though!

  sonusingh-zeus2016-09-10

  This has to be one of best physiological thriller movie I have ever watched and I have a watched a lot.. a lot of thriller movies. I don't know why people hate this movie so much. Don't go for negative comments, you would miss a great GREAT film. This movie has so many negative comments because this movie has very strong elements of violence, graphic and sexuality which can't be digested by many people. This movie is definitely not for children and even teens. This movie may have a strong physiological effect. Me and friends discussed this movie for months. You need to have a strong stomach to watch this movie.

• Surprisingly well written, yet not for everyone

  yourpaldan2012-03-27

  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.

• A surprise for me.

  horizon20082012-03-28

  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.

• Very difficult to review.

  moonbeaver2012-04-01

  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.

• Hell is other people...

  elaine-1052011-06-23

  John Paul Sartre hadn't seen The Divide when he declared that 'Hell is other people', but believe me, the film would do nothing to dispel his belief. It begins predictably enough: as a nuclear explosion ravages New York, the residents of an apartment block take refuge in the bunker-like basement, which also happens to be the home of survivalist janitor Mickey (Michael Biehn). From the start, the combination of characters is not a happy one: quiet, determined Eva and her weak husband Sam (Lauren German and Iván González), shell-shocked mother Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) and her young daughter Mary, short-tempered Delvin (Courtney B Vance), arrogant bully boys Bobby (Michael Eklund) and Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and Josh's sensitive brother Adrien (Ashton Holmes). Of course they immediately start bitching, bickering and ganging up on each other, but when armed, biohazard suited soldiers burst in to the bunker, snatch Wendy then, after a surreal, aborted sortie by Josh, weld the iron door shut, the trouble really starts. What follows is a powerful, disturbing, down right nasty depiction of the mental and physical deterioration of a band of desperate, disparate people suffering from cabin fever, radiation sickness and, eventually, full blown certifiable lunacy. The performances in the film are of a calibre rarely seen in this kind of genre picture. In particular, Milo Ventimiglia (from Gilmore Girls!!) descent from regular guy to Lord of the Flies-style underground overlord is horrifically chilling, but even he is outshone by little known actor Michael Eklund's extraordinary turn as the psychotic, sexually depraved Bobby, whose sordid treatment of Marilyn is nasty in the extreme. (Poor Rosanna Arquette – what did she do to deserve this?) The Divide is seriously not for the faint-hearted – with some scenes you'll really need your mental floss handy. But it's a stunning achievement for director Xavier Gens (whose last output was the creaky action flick Hit-man, which even Timothy Olyphant couldn't save) and a must for any self-respecting horror fan. Just don't expect to come out of this bleak drama smiling: as the nuclear ash falls silently across a desolate New York City, we are left with the feeling that, to misquote Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds, there is nothing worth fighting for in the spirit of man.