The Divide (2011)

Directed by: Xavier Gens | 112 minutes | thriller, horror | Actors: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia, Courtney B. Vance, Ashton Holmes, Rosanna Arquette, Iván González, Michael Eklund, Abbey Thickson, Jennifer Blanc

Xavier Gens’ ‘The Divide’ is straight forward: in the opening scene we see a large (nuclear) explosion and panic and chaos soon break out. Leading actress Eva (Lauren German) is seen looking through the window in shock at the impact of the disaster before she is dragged along. This flight leads her, along with seven others, to the basement of her apartment complex where the group is then locked up and can only hope for help, not knowing if it will ever come.

Anyone who thinks this has laid the foundation for an exciting post-apocalyptic film will be disappointed. What follows is a film that piles error upon error and becomes more repulsive by the second. The premise could have made for an interesting study of what humans are capable of in such extreme circumstances, but the characters remain one-dimensional and unbelievable, which is why ‘The Divide’ doesn’t work.

The characters who are dependent on each other in the basement – ​​how could it be otherwise – each have their own issues. The marriage between Eva and Sam (Iván González) was not going well. With all the tension in the basement and Eva’s secret love for Adrien (Ashton Holmes) it doesn’t get any better. Brothers Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and the aforementioned Adrien also grow further apart during the incarceration. Then we have the owner of the cellar, Mickey (Michael Biehn), who clearly does not want the company and is acting extremely strange, aggressive and agitated. The mentally weak Marilyn (Rosanne Arquette, for whom you will have a mixture of admiration and pity in this role) and the downright unsympathetic Bobby (Michael Eklund) complete the company.

Soon a battle ensues for the remaining food. Survival of the fittest, then, but the unsubtle way in which this is done only evokes disgust. Piece by piece, all the characters turn into beasts (not just figuratively). They know no boundaries anymore. For example, Marilyn is repeatedly raped and abused by Josh and Bobby and there are a number of filthy torture scenes in the film. You will rarely feel such a strong dislike for the characters as in ‘The Divide’. The only ones who escape this fate are Eva and Adrien, the other characters show how much evil can be in a person. Filmmaker Xavier Gens (who previously made ‘Frontière(s)’) seems to have added these characters just to shock.

The scenario raises more questions than it answers, because you will never find out what actually happened to Earth. The sporadic short scenes that take place outside the basement only create more confusion and also look clumsy. ‘The Divide’ is therefore certainly not a film for everyone. With ‘The Divide’, Xavier Gens has made a bleak film that does exactly what the title promises with the audience: half will be fascinated by the premise and its idiosyncratic effect, the other half will have trouble suppressing the tendency halfway through the movie. to stop watching the movie.