The Divide just might be the most depressing movie that I have seen. I don’t like depressing movies, but some are engaging enough that you can’t resist holding on to the end. And when the depressing movie in question is labeled as a horror/sci-fi/thriller, you do expect an exciting twist here and there, and not just humans giving in to their primal urges, and starting to destroy each other-as if their situation wasn’t killing them fast enough.

Maybe it is the Hollywood-loving clichéd side of me, but I do like to find a little hope in a movie. This movie offered none. There were 2 characters that acted reasonably enough, and one that could have made a difference, had he the balls to do so.

Before I start a rant, let me take you over the plot a bit – let there be (some) spoilers!

Eva (Lauren German) and Sam (Iván González) can barely make it to the basement of their building with several other neighbors when several nuclear explosions occur. The basement was designed by the superintendent Mickey (Michael Biehn) to keep him alive and well for as long as possible until the explosions stop, and the after effects are minimized.

Unfortunately he has to let the neighbors – Sam and Eva, half brothers Josh and Adrien, Josh’s friend the wacky Bobby, Delvin and Marilyn with her young daughter- in.

Mickey wants to be in control, and he is annoyed by the unreasonable requests and demands of “guests”. At first he is somewhat successful as he explains why they can’t go out and how they can survive by optimizing their resources.

But the group, especially Bobby (Michael Eklund), Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and Delvin (Courtney B. Vance) are irritated by Mickey’s controlling attitude, and they hate the fact that he has given himself more privileges.

However things really start going south when men in bio-hazard suits invade and attack. They fight them off, and manage to kill a couple. But the men take the daughter, and Adrien (Aston Holmes) gets shot.

After her daughter is gone, Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) starts losing it. Josh decides to put on one of the man’s suits and explore-but he ends up making things worse for everyone-also declaring that the daughter is dead.

Moreover the men weld them in, so they can’t go out even if they don’t want to.

From then on chaos, primal urges and egos take over. Eva starts forming a connection with Adrien, who seems to be the calmest and the most easy-going of them all. After Mickey kills a threatening Delvin, Josh and Bobby take Mickey hostage, and take over his food. Unfortunately they turn out to be much worse “leaders” than Mickey. And as their health deteriorates, so does their humanity.

At this rate, no one will remain alive unless someone does something drastic, and Eva takes some desperate measures.

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The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

Let’s get the unpleasant stuff over with first.

The Bad and the Ugly

For a movie that is labeled as horror, sci-fi and thriller, I’d have to say it really fails in the horror and sci-fi departments. I’d say it is a psychological thriller/drama, with the depressing and annoying situations far outdoing any other elements.

There are so many things I’d have liked to know:

– Why were there nuclear blasts?

– Who attacked who and why?

– Why were the suited men doing their experiments and killing there?

– How come Mickey was the only one rightfully paranoid and prepared as Jerry Fletcher of Conspiracy Theory was?

– How come Mickey didn’t skip town or country? Was the whole world under attack?

I have more. And if they are answered at some point in the movie or hinted at, it is possible that I missed it as I was crossing my fingers to be the final parts to be over with.

Yes, the human psychology is fragile at best, and PTSD, along with constant anxiety and being deprived of Maslow’s lowest level of the needs pyramid. But are we that bad?

It is so depressing that the movie makes you think that the people who died instantly with the blast had the best ending.

There are unanswered questions, unlikeable characters, people being ready to bite each others’ heads off.

So you are dying and the best solution is to have sex? Or force yourself on women and try raping them? Really? What good is that going to do? You’ll be %0.5 less miserable? You are going to die a horrible death, and your hair is falling out and instead of trying to escape, you are acting like you should hang out with the killer from Seven.

It has some good moments, but it goes the typical humans-are-just animals-in-disguise route (aka anyone is capable of anything if they are pushed enough): there is a death toll, rape toll, psycho toll….and in the end, there is a chance you will say “Dude, I wish this was a short film and they all died in the blast.”

It is not that bad as a whole, but  it could have been so much more, had they used more sci-fi than just chilling human nature.

It makes me want to avoid the post apocalyptic stuff for a long while.

The Good

The acting: The acting is really good, and the actors have gone to extra lengths to look the part. In fact I don’t think I want to see Michael Eklund for some time. He was that repulsive real.

The basic idea: I fell in love with the trailer, but I’d have loved a little more screen time for what happened before the explosions began.

Engagement level: It has a weird engaging quality. Even when you want to stop watching, you can’t. You might want to press fast-forward, but you don’t want to stop watching.

 

*

Directed by Xavier Gens (the director of Hitman and Frontiers).

*

Recommended for movie fans not afraid of or annoyed/depressed by the darker side of human nature and don’t mind many unanswered questions.