Teaser Trailer: The Divide, By Xavier Gens

Last year we heard that Xavier Gens (Hitman) would be directing a film called The Fallout that was said to be in the mode of Assault on Precinct 13. The story has a group of people taking refuge in the basement of an apartment building after an explosion devastates New York City.

Now the film has a new title, The Divide, and a teaser that does a good job of setting the mood for the tense, almost certainly violent flick.

The teaser is up for 24 hours at the official site (via FirstShowing) and, Inception musical overtones aside, I really like how it plays. OK, we've seen these beats before in other movies, but there's something here. Granted, I'm still a bit worried, given the director's history. Gens has made two movies that I very actively dislike: Hitman and Frontier(s). Hitman had contentious issues in post, so Gens might get a pass there. I thought Frontier(s) was just a slog, with elements borrowed from other films and not used very well, and characters that didn't hold my interest.

But I liked the early stuff I read about this one, and post-apocalyptic movies are so often fun. Plus, the teaser looks pretty fantastic.

Here's the official synopsis:

When a cataclysmic explosion devastates New York, eight strangers take refuge in the basement of their apartment building, a converted fallout shelter designed by their paranoid superintendent Mickey. With just three connecting rooms it's barely big enough, but with stockpiles of food and water, the group are at least safe from the horrors outside, and they settle in and attempt to fathom the catastrophe that has ended the lives of so many of their loved ones.

But suddenly men in HAZMAT suits storm their shelter and open fire. The strangers join forces in a desperate bid to take on this enemy, with no one understanding what these HAZMATS are looking for and what drives them to be so merciless. With fatalities on both sides and the remaining HAZMATS temporarily pushed back and locked out, the worst is yet to come for the group. Cabin fever sets in as the perception of the shelter shifts from safe-haven to claustrophobic rat-trap.

And here's the teaser. Underneath that is a quick walk-through of the film's basement set.