The Divide - DVD

Film: The worst nightmare seems to have come true: New York is burning before Eva's (Lauren German) eyes in a nuclear fire. Who can not save themselves in time in a shelter, burns miserably in the all-consuming flames. Together with her husband Sam (Ivan Gonzalez) and a small group of survivors, Eva manages to save herself in the basement of a collapsing high-rise building. There is the realm of grumpy caretaker Mickey (Michael Biehn), who is less than pleased with his new guests. In particular, the quick-tempered Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and his buddy Bobby (Michael Eklund) smell a hell of a lot like trouble. Although the small group pulls themselves together at first, the certainty soon sets in that there is no outside rescue to be expected. And it doesn't take long for the horror that has gripped the outside world to spread to the bunker-like basements as well...

With The Divide, director Xavier Gens (Frontier(s), Hitman) presents a claustrophobic end-times thriller that manages to maintain a high level of tension, especially at the beginning. The great opening sequence and the dark, yet somehow fascinating sets of the basement vault create an excellent starting point for a gripping psychological thriller of truly apocalyptic proportions. The fact that the character constellation and some of the dialogue turn out extremely clichéd hardly bothers at first.

But the film ultimately struggles with two problems that could significantly diminish the enjoyment for some viewers. First, the increasing escalation of the trapped characters is unsurprising and, at times, grossly overplayed. To be sure, there are quite a few intense moments here that frighteningly demonstrate what humans are capable of in the face of hopelessness, hunger, and despair. Still, the whole thing seems a bit too thick and overdone in terms of shock effects. The claustrophobia and panic that seems very realistic is unfortunately lost as a result.

On the other hand, a lengthy sequence hints at who might be responsible for the nuclear massacre. But in the end there is no real explanation for the who and why. This is actually not of essential importance for the story. But since there is said sequence, which already takes up an important part of the film, a further explanation would have been necessary here in order not to leave the viewer with the feeling that the makers ran out of ideas at the crucial moment or that this part of the film merely served to artificially drag out the story.

However, if you can overlook these less successful aspects, The Divide undoubtedly offers thrilling end-time horror that scores with a great opening sequence, gritty sets and some good moments of suspense. Not quite a big hit, but well worth watching for fans of apocalyptic thrillers of the slightly bloodier kind, despite its flaws!

Image + Sound: The action is primarily dominated by gritty imagery that is, by and large, convincing both in terms of coloration, black level matching, and overall sharpness. The presentation of smaller details, on the other hand, suffers, but only to a minor extent. The sound is dominated primarily by dialogue, especially in the first third, with minor sound effects and atmospheric ambient noise here and there providing a bit of surround movement. Good!

Extras: The bonus material has a fairly decent making of (approx. 23 mins) to offer as well as the trailer for the film. Not mind-blowing, but well worth watching.

Conclusion: The Divide builds its claustrophobic story on a promising premise. Its execution turns out to be quite thrilling in the first half, but then gets lost in an increasingly muddled story that is still quite exciting, but also gives away much of its potential. The DVD of the apocalyptic thriller is technically well implemented, the bonus material is clear, but not uninteresting. Therefore applies: despite some weaknesses in content as well as staging for friends of solid end time thrillers well worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp