Review: The Divide (2011)

The Divide

IMDB rate: 5,8

Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Survival

Today I broke my movie watch schedule to watch The Divide. I've watched the movie once and I was not sure what to think of it. It has some good moments but also some bad moments. Some parts of the movie are very slow and annoying, but it also has brutal and touching moments. It's a difficult movie to watch.

After a nuclear attack, seven dwellers of an apartment building seek refugee in a bunker in the basment of the building where the super, Mickey, lives. He rations water and supplies among the group formed by Eva and her boyfriend Sam; two guys Bobby and Josh and his brother Adrien; Marilyn and her daughter Wendi; and Delvin. When five invaders break into their shelter wearing protective clothing and breathing apparatuses, they abduct Wendi but the survivors succeed in killing two of the men. Josh wears the only clothing that was not damaged and discovers a strange research center where he find Wendi dead. He shoots at three men and returns to the shelter. Soon the group learns that the invaders have welded their acces door from outside and they are trapped inside the bunker. Marilyn and Sam get crazy and the tense situation and the lack of water and food brings friction among Mickey, Delvin, Bobby and Josh. When Delvin finds a panic room hidden in Mickey's room, they fight and Delvin is killed. Bobby and Josh subdue and torture Mickey to get the combination of the room and they discover that the place is a store of supplies. Now the two perverts control the situation and submit the other survivors to sick games and humiliations. 

I'm still not sure what to think of it. The movie is more annoying than good I think. The music is quite good, it fits the movie quite good and makes it very tensed. But there are also so many irritating parts, constant yelling and repeating of words. It makes the movie not only hard to follow but it also makes you lose interest. 

I'm not sure what to think of the acting. Milo Ventimiglia acted very well, but he plays a real asshole which makes you hate him. That might be a good sign because he played the asshole character very well. Another good actor was Micheal Eklund, who also plays one of the assholes. I really hated him in this movie, again because he played such an asshole. He played the fucked up role very well and when he was finally bald he looked creepy as hell. I think he reminded me of one of the creatures of I Am Legend. The main character Eva, played by Lauren German, was not too impressing. She was like a blank canvas the entire movie, I had not idea what to think of her. I know that I disliked her at the end of the movie because she abandoned her boyfriend. I liked her boyfriend Sam played by Ivan Gonzalez, he was very cute and innocent. I think he was my favorite character in the movie.

What I liked in this movie were the effects of isolation on people. They go insane, get horny, lose hair because of not enough vitamins. I think the movie got the right image of that. You really saw them decay. Also, in the beginning of the movie you saw that the people were fairly nice at each other, but sometimes showed a few nasty traits, in this movie you really see those nasty traits improve. It's done very well.The movie is not really a horror movie, I think it's better described as a drama/thriller. The movie is very brutal because it shows human nature. 

Unfortunately you never know what the cause is of this disaster, you don't know what experiments the people were doing and you don't know why they kidnapped the girl. The movie leaves a lot of questions behind. I think the moviemakers did that on purpose to really show human nature instead the story behind the disaster.

It's really hard for me to decide what was more important; the annoying yelling/screaming/talking or the very well shown truth of human nature. As I mentioned, the movie has good sides and bad sides. The location of the movie is very claustrophobic since it's only a basement. It's annoying that you don't know the reasons behind everything, but I most confess that after a while of watching you don't really notice that anymore. The music in the movie is excellent en gives me goosebumps because it's at exactly the good time. The acting is decent.

I don't think everyone will like this movie. Also it's not a real horror movie, even though it shows some brutal images.

My personal rate: 6,5/10