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Wei Dai
Professor Holly Batty
ENG-113B
28 April 2015
The Basement Shelter in the Film The Divide
Basement is always a scary place that rooted in peoples memory. There are many
horrible movies, such as The Basement, The Divide or Dont look In the Basement, that evoke
fear to people. The dark and wet basement always makes us feel alone and produce the endless
imagination in our mind. In one ward, People regard basement as a scary space are normally
because of our imagination. For example, people put the dead bodies in the underground so it
makes the basement looks like a grave or some other place that associated with the dead people
or we can say ghost. In fact, the reason why the basement is scary is because the atmosphere of
basement can evoke the feeling of loneliness and evoke the claustrophobia, and these two feeling
are listed in the fifth and ninth place in the Top 10 Strong Human Fears concluded by Medrano
(Medrano). Therefore, although people generally are not afraid of ghost any more, the fear of
basement is still entrenched in mind. In the film Divide, it dosent use the normal setting of scary
movbie, such as the monster or ghost in the basement. In the contrary, it use the atmosphere of
the basement itself to evoke audience a feeling of fear which are the loneliness, hopelessness and
the mental sickness caused by claustrophobia.
First of all, what is fear? In the article Fear, Phil Barker states that fear is an unpleasant
and often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. Fear is completely
natural and helps people to recognize and respond to dangerous situations and threats. However,

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unhealthy or pathological fear can lead to exaggerated and violent behavior (Barker) He claims
that fear could be different kinds of form, and the unhealthy fear can make people do some
extreme actions. The environment of basement evoke the fear of loneliness, hopelessness, death
and claustrophobia and they are encapsulated in the film The Divide that is entirely set in the
basement of a New York City building.
The Divide is a 2011 released horror film that is rated as science fiction movie based on
the post-apocalyptic events of nuclear bombing in the United States City of New York. The story
line revolves around nine characters mostly tenants of the building that has just collapsed owing
to the effects of the nuclear bomb. A superintendent, rather, the caretaker of the building known
as Mickey takes the leadership role on the basement. He immediately establishes his dominance
over the other group members making it clear that listening to him is how they were going to
survive. The after effects of the nuclear bomb leads to tremors making those trapped in the
basement fear for their lives. Mickey explains that the tremors are from falling buildings and the
dust in the basement is internal, and no radiation has entered the basement. The story starts here.
In the beginning of the movie, a radio is in the possession of the nine which is used to call
for help although no one answers. The occlusive information of outside world makes the nine
survivors start to feel alone. The fear of loneliness spread among the people since they cannot
receive any information from the outside world. In the Top 10 Strong Human Fears, Medrano
indicates that loneliness is the fifth strongest fear in the human fears, he said: The fear of being
alone is that dreadful feeling of emptiness caused by the absence of interaction with another
human being. This fear has also evolved from one of our early survival instincts: we fear
loneliness because it is more likely that we would survive if we live in group.(Medrano) Exactly
like Medrano said, under the junction of building and sealed basement with horrible nuclear

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explosion, loneliness becomes the first fear appear in this group of people. They do not know
what is happened outside world and whether they are the only survivor or not. The noise from
the radio is likely telling them that they are the only one survived, and nobody can help them.
The fear of hopelessness domain the front part of the movie.
When the movie transits to the next section, the basement is breached by suited men who
for no reason whisk away the only child in the group Wendi to a secret lab facility that is
wrapped in white tape using only tunnels made of plastic perhaps to protect the lab from the
radiation. Josh opts to retrieve Wendi from the invaders by dressing in one of the suits of the
dead soldiers Josh disguises himself as one of the invaders and enters the lab to investigate.
Eventually, he fails and is discovered when his ID doesnt match his face. However, the mission
is partially accomplished since Josh learns that in the lab there was a host of children Wendi
included all of whom had bandages on their eyes, and their hairs were completely shaved off.
Josh makes his way back to the shelter in the basement barely with his life having to shoot down
two enemies to make it. The unknown soldiers and scientists totally subvert the outside world
that they familiar few hours ago. The fear of unknown introduced quietly and gradually, and the
fear of unknown is exactly the 9th strongest fear in the human beings. In the article Medrano said
This fear has been with us for thousands of years, and it is a great part of what has helped us
survive as a species (Medrano) It is true that fear of unknown helps us thousands of years to
improve so that we can know the volcano eruption is not the anger of god or the Kraken is not
that horrible since it is probably a giant squid. However, all these fears of unknown can be solved
are mostly attributed to the huge number of human beings who are grouped together to fight the
fear of unknown. In the movie, only nine of them obviously cannot counter the fully armed
soldiers without speaking of that they have no weapon. The power of nine individuals is too

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weak comparing to the army. Unknown army and outside world drag these people into a deeper
worse fear.
It is after that when the hopelessness for survival when Josh arrives with news that the
surface is full of hostiles in that there was no help coming to them that the storyline begins to
unfold. The film takes a turn from the focus of the apocalyptic idea of the end of humanity and
rather begins to show the desperation for survival and the fear of death among the people in the
basement. Foremost, the confined space in the basement leaves them very little to no choice at all
in regards to working together to survive, and this confined space exactly provides the space for
claustrophobia. Kulbarsh, a frequent guest speaker related to psychiatric emergencies, wrote in
her article Claustrophobia: Are you A Victim that shows how claustrophobia affects people.
When in a small confined space, someone with claustrophobia may start to show the following
symptoms: sweating, accelerated heart rate, increased blood pressure, hyperventilation, and light
headedness, fear of actual harm or illness, and panic attacks.(Kulbarsh) Later on as the films
storyline develops into dementia after individuals break down into mental insanity caused by
distrust and emotional apathy. Marilyn for instance after realizing that her daughter Wendi is
dead from Joshs confirmation she opts to enter into a sexual relationship with Bobby. Eva learns
of the sexual relationship between Marilyn and Bobby and realizes that her depression is what
led her to do so. Not only this time, but also the time when situation when the groups begins to
suspect one another at the beginning. Delvin suspects Mickey is holding out for the group and
arms himself with a Taser gun that he uses to threaten Mickey. The group turns on Mickey and
cuts his finger in order to make him reveal the combination to the door where the supplies are.
Mickey gives in after one of his fingers is cut, and he shows the combination of the other group
members. Soon after, Marilyn is turned into a sex slave by Bobby and Josh who physically,

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sexually, and verbally abuse her. For now, the effects of claustrophobia expends rapidly. It is
even worse than Kulbarsh described in the real world. Josh and Bobby take control of the
basement and begin to make decisions on behalf of the others pertaining to the running of routine
issues such as rationing the food. A sense of fear within the basement develops into another
level: the crazy before death. People use their crazy actions to pretend to be not afraid of death.
Desperation turns into panic as a tied up Mickey secretly reveals to Eva that there is a
gun hidden in the room with the supplies and later tells her that she could escape via the
basement through a tunnel in the septic tank. Bobby and Josh have gone mad and assaulted
Marilyn till she died, they now have their eyes set on Eva the only other female in the group.
Sensing danger, Eva colludes with Sam to distract Bobby while she distracts Josh so that Sam
could later steal the gun. The plan succeeds but not without a lot of endurance of pain, Eva is
raped by Josh, Sam is beaten up half to death, and Adrien is shot and killed. It all culminates to
the survival of the fittest as Josh sets the shelter on fire making Eva elude Mickey and Sam who
are desperately trying to put it out. She locks the two in and remains as the only survivor making
it onto the surface through the septic passage that Mickey had revealed to her. The movie stops
here, the basic trust in humanity has gone. The selfish side of human beings that in front the fear
of death exposed totally. It makes me anxious. In the face of fear of disaster, is it true that the
basic humanity will disappear? Merely from the movie that director wants to tell us, the answer
is yes.
However, in the end it is all in vain because as Eva comes to the surface the world is in
ruin as New York City is destroyed by the effects of the nuclear bomb. What remains is a mere
shell of the infrastructure that once was and dark clouds in the sky a sense of hopelessness is

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what is depicted at the end. At the end of movie, the theme of this film turns back to the
beginning of the movie --- Hopelessness.
In the article Why the Divide is the Most Disturbing end-of-the-world flick we've ever
seen, the author says As the minutes tick by days become weeks, weeks become months,
time starts to blur causing the audience to get just as confused and lost as the survivors. It's
almost impossible to tell just how long everyone has been trapped in this bomb shelter
(there's no daylight to indicate time or clocks). The characters start to lose their sanity. Little
grievances spark massive fights and soon enough, we're going full-blown Lord of the Flies,
only with more sexual assault, dirt and lunacy(Woerner) The Divide is a tale of desperation

at its peak where the nine individuals are trapped in the basement of a building in New York City
for days that turn into weeks and then months. It is unclear how time passes since the enclosed
space in the basement doesnt give the cast or the audience a sense of time, yet makes audience a
sensation of asphyxia.

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Works Cited
Barker, Phil. "Fear." Beyond Intractability. Eds. Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess. Conflict
Information Consortium, University of Colorado, Boulder. Posted: July 2003
<http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/fear>.
Medrano, Caty. Top 10 Strong Human Fears. September 30, 2011
< http://listverse.com/2011/09/30/top-10-strong-human-fears/>
Kulbarsh, Pamela. "Claustrophobia: Are You a Victim?." Officer.com, (2012):
< http://www.officer.com/article/10694138/claustrophobia-are-you-a-victim>
Woerner, Merdith. "Why the Divide is the Most Disturbing end-of-the-world flick we've ever
seen." io9 We Come From The Future 11 3 2011. Web. 21 4 2015.
<http://io9.com/5781913/why-the-divide-is-the-most-disturbing-end-of-the-world-flickweve-ever-seen>.