After a nuclear attack, seven dwellers of an apartment building seek refugee in a bunker in the basement of the building where the super Mickey (Michael Biehn) lives. He rationalize water and supplies among the group formed by Eva (Lauren German) and her boyfriend Sam (Iván González); the gays Bobby (Michael Eklund) and Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) and his brother Adrien (Ashton Holmes); Marilyn (Rosanna Arquette) and her daughter Wendi (Abbey Thickson); and Delvin (Courtney B. Vance). When three invaders break in their shelter wearing protective clothing and breathing apparatuses, they abduct Wendi but the survivors succeed in killing the three men.

Josh wears the only clothing that has not damaged and discovers a strange research center where he finds Wendi dead. He shoots on three men and returns to the shelter. Soon the group learns that the invaders have welded their access 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 bring frictions among Mickey, Delvin, Bobby and Josh. When Delvin finds a panic room hidden in Mickey's room, they fight and Delvin is murdered. 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.

"The Divide" is a disturbing and gruesome view of the worst of mankind, with character study of a group of survivors of a nuclear attack in a hopeless story. The heterogeneous group is under stress and fear most of the time and their reactions under stress are depressing most of the time. This unpleasant movie is recommended only for specific audience and will not please most of the viewers. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Abrigo" ("The Shelter")

"No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized. Tonight's very small exercise in logic from the Twilight Zone."

Whenever I see a bomb shelter movie, I always think about this "Twilight Zone" episode. It is the one where there is limited room in a bomb shelter as a Civil Defense announcement is made. The neighbors turn violent. Likewise in this film, it is the examination of people's character. Plot continuity is unimportant to the film. As a side note, notice the importance of plastic sheeting and duct tape during a terrorist attack.

The action starts from the opening clip. No time for character build-up. The reason why there is no character build-up is that the people represent different aspects of society/human psyche. Mickey, (Michael Biehn) the super of a NYC apartment building has made a shelter in the basement...for himself. He ends up with a group of tenets which he resents and they likewise despise his cigar smoking rough ways. While he is hard-nosed, he looks out for everyone's safety. He won't win any congeniality contests.

The tenets get on each others nerves. Some question Mickey's sanity. Things turn weird as there are outsiders of unknown origin. The film contains some realistic and horrific scenes of killing, torture, dismemberment, menstruation blood, and rape. It examines our core psyche and how it relates to our society: The desire for power and control among men, the competition of age and youth in women for suitors, and the many uses of duct tape. The bunker is a microcosm of society that starts out on equal footing and evolves into a "haves" vs. "have nots". There is a struggle for their world's finite resources...which on a larger scale has happened outside the basement.

F-bomb, sex, explicit sex talk, no nudity.

There is not much you can say about the story (though I won't reveal anything, not even the general storyline, which can be read here or seen in the trailer),but that doesn't matter that much. What does matter is the fact, that the movie can create a mood, a tension and hold it throughout. Which is a real achievement.

And the Kudos have to go to the screenwriter and the casting people. Which of course falls back on the actors chosen. This could have easily felt very cliché, but it doesn't. There are choices to be made and the actors are very convincing. You may see where this is heading (general direction),but it still has a big impact. It touches on many emotions and has drama in it, that will leave you interested how it evolves and where it will lead to ...