After this devastating attack, it will be difficult to cope for nine strangers together in the basement-like basement of a New York apartment building. It is that view of a group of events that embodies the group trapped for underground days without hope of rescue. The film describes the unspeakable horrors that await her on the other side of the basement door, where there will be more physical and psychological torment.
The tale quickly degenerates from a dramatically promising clash of personalities under pressure to a gratuitous display of rape, murder, torture, dismemberment, madness, ugly misogyny, naked racism and yelling.
Whatever edge of fear and tension the movie might have possessed is traded for blistering annoyance as the cast near-cannibalizes one another while screeching at top volume for over 120 minutes.
Delivers everything that horror fans might want from a post-apocalyptic thriller - rape, self-immolation, youngster harvesting, throat-slitting, more rape - everything, that is, except a reason to care.
"The Divide" is an ugly film, both visually and thematically. But it only really rubs you the wrong way if you take it seriously, which we can't imagine anyone would.
It isn't long before the plot and characters have nowhere left to go but down to the depths of human depravity. And by the end it's impossible to see the point.
Its nihilism feels cynical rather than authentically bleak, and the increasingly histrionic scenes start to resemble an indulgent actors' workshop that has spun out of control.
