Xavier Gen’s The Divide tells the story of a group of New Yorker’s who seek refuge in a the basement of their apartment block after America is hit with a deadly nuclear attack. As radiation leaks into the this bunker and food supplies dwindle; tensions between the residents appear and they begin to face war with one another.
The Divide is not for the faint of heart – it’s a particularly graphic and disturbing genre piece, that said, it’s incredibly effective and I found myself thinking about the film several weeks after seeing it. Boasting a magnificent cast featuring the excellent Michael Biehn, as well as a terrifying turn from Milo Ventigmilia and an unhinged performance from Michael Eklund. Lauren German also stars as Eva, the voice of reason and sanity in the film, who really hits her stride towards the film’s climax. All of the acting is generally fantastic and Gens gets some magnificent work from the cast in what appears to be an incredibly tense shoot.
The film becomes particularly disturbing when Gens focuses on the characters slowly mentally and physically deteriorating through the claustrophobic setting and radiation poisoning. These characters (particularly Ventigmilia and Eklund’s) become cruel and animalistic, as well as physically disgusting. After speaking to one of my friends about the film, we both agreed that the best word to describe it was ‘nasty’ – you just feel a bit dirty and disturbed after it, with several of the shots and events playing back through your mind.Overall, Gens’ The Divide is an original and well directed film, it’s incredibly dark and disturbing due to several strong performances. I wish I could make this more specific but it was four weeks since I’ve seen the film (and my memory is rather sketchy), with this being the first opportunity I’ve had to write the review.
