Throwback
There is no shortage of films, TV series, and other media that suffer from the apocalypse theme. Each year, this genre seems to have oily saturations in the film industry and so many television companies and streaming platforms. While it’s easy to point out hits like 28 Days Later, Mad Max: Fury Road, or The Walking Dead, these movies / TV shows do not appear to be exceptional anymore. So, how did the film The Divide from 2011 fare? Spoilers ahead!
There Is No Such Thing as a Good Day The Divide, the most beautiful day in the nuclear wasteland starts with an atomic bomb being dropped on New York City, which makes residents of a condo race all the way down into the building’s underground as a means for safety. Eight people and a miserable landlord trap the door of his bomb shelter, locking themselves inside and quite literally extinguishing the outside world.
As the movie portrays it, “the fortunate ones were utterly obliterated”, there is a volatile and chaotic atmosphere that quickly descends upon the audience and, the characters, as life in a cellar rudimentary emerges as the last place on earth they’d want to be in.
The situation is quite predictable in many ways. This is because a diverse group of individuals with distinct characters is forced to reside together in very harsh and distressing circumstances. They, just like ourselves, have no idea what is taking place outside, who the culprit of the assault is, and if there is any rescue on its way. I think that does help with the heart palpitating moments in the film because it allows us to pause the action and pat our hearts as we wonder how we would behave in that scenario.
The Divide is unsettling, monotonous, and at times rather nauseating. You also have those peculiar points in the movie that do not quite add up, such as when the housemates are attacked by armed men in hazardous suits. This early on sequence may even be viewed as the inciting moment of the remaining occurrences in the film; not only did these ‘intruders’ abduct the young kid within the circle but also force ‘exposure’ to the radiated atmosphere. We observe how such occurrences affect the psychological being of even people such as the little girl’s mom, and how stress occurs on the already fragile constructed ties of a family.
A genre subversion comes into play here; the film does not deliver visceral drama. We don’t see scenes of destruction like in Mad Max: Fury Road or any other exciting car chase punctuated by fire and heavy metal guitar. The film is focused on the development of those who were imprisoned in this atom shelter. It is fairly the opposite of The Walking Dead: the fall from civilization is far too rapid and transformation, rather than civilization, is essentially disorganized violence.
Milo Ventimiglia and Michael Eklund star as close pals Josh and Bobby. At the very beginning of the movie, their relationship seems quite bland. They could easily be the type of guys whom you would find to be living next to you in an apartment. However, this transforms very rapidly as it’s not only apparent that Josh and Bobby have been infected with radiation but, Bobby is the one who offers himself to cut up a dead corpse to avoid the smell unpleasant smells from settling in. Even though he offered to do it, it can be understood that it does have an affect on Bobby and his relations with Marilyn (the mother who lost her daughter) become extremely unhealthy and abusive sexually.
After dethroning the landlord Mickey, Josh decides to rule the group whom he has just dethroned. He rationed the food, as well as attempting to force himself on Eva (Lauren German), who in time deteriorated from the ‘safe’ person to a dangerous person. Out of all the uncomfortable, distressing adjectives one could think of to describe these two, it can be the sick and toxic need of each one of them as to why this film worked as a horror film. By no means are them physically intimidating but the way their minds are messed up combined with their impulsive actions is scary.
Josh and Bobby, in some way, are also the realists in the group. You cannot get out of a bomb shelter, so there is no point pretending their illness won’t take them completely\ Eklund and Ventimiglia complimented each other so well that I cannot wait to see the two work together in newer pieces.
With the apocalypse, loyalty is in short supply. Right at the very end, Bobby turns around and shoots Josh if Eva doesn’t kill Bobby first. The thought of dying down in the basement seemed normal to everyone, but not to Eva, who lost her boyfriend and a friend but manages to scream ‘f– it’. The final part of the movie was indeed weak, at the same time, gruesome. Cities like New York are relevant facts and as such there is nothing left of it-it is a barren land.
So, based on this observation, this is not the film for you if you want consistent thrilling scenes. However, if you are prepared for an unfiltered, dark, and slow realistic interpretation of the life of survivors after a nuclear war, it is a terrific film to watch. It is scary, where the antagonists are not creatures but rather humans devolving into their most vile instincts. It does not show how people unite in times of distress but rather how societies becomes increasingly barbaric and goes back to a primitive state.
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