The Divide 2012

David DeWitt, New York Times: We wait, from one cringe-inducing, hide-your-face-from-the-screen act after another, to see how much worse the behavior will become. Read more

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out: One lesson for future generations rising from the ashes: Avoid the shelter containing whiner Rosanna Arquette. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Better performances might have sold The Divide, but aside from Arquette's fine work as a single mother driven to self-degradation, the cast amplifies the impression of a canned, one-act theater piece. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: It's doom that we're meant to feel here. And repulsion. I hate to say, but I shrugged. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: 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. Read more

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: Relentlessly unpleasant and nihilistic in its approach and execution. Read more

Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times: When a character swims through raw sewage to escape at the film's climax, it's hard not feel a certain solidarity. Read more

Mark Jenkins, NPR: As the loosely aligned band of survivors turns into a pack of sociopathic loners, the only reasonable conclusion is that they were all pretty rotten to begin with. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Gens and his screenwriters have nothing but contempt for the characters, the cast and, especially, the audience. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: The only possible relief from director Xavier Gens' abusively bleak survivalist scenario is how implausible it is. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: If the objective is to make the audience ill, The Divide succeeds. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film's only point appears to be lurid delight in topping one atrocity with another. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: It's a rare movie where the most likable character onscreen, and the feel-good hero of the damnable show, is none other than the hardy cockroach. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: It's by no means a complete success, but it knows how to make you squirm. Read more

Nigel Floyd, Time Out: 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. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: In the end, the pace of the film is just too sluggish to maintain our interest and, at under two hours, it feels longer. Read more

Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice: The Divide is so busy mixing metaphors to explain our dog-eat-dog contemporary world that it never bothers filling out relationships beyond a thumbnail-sketch level. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: 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. Read more