The Divide (2011)

  This movie starts out with a nuclear strike and does not get more cheerful from there.  You have been warned.

A handful of residents from a New York City apartment building manage to get inside the fallout shelter built by the crazy super, Mickey (Michael Biehn).  We don't really know anything about their lives before the blast, nor do we need to.  None of it matters.  All that matters is survival, a task that gets exponentially harder the longer they spend together.  It begins when their shelter is breached by what appear to be soldiers.  Instead of a rescue, however, they are only interested in removing Wendi (Abby Thickson), the only child, and they are not above using lethal force.  Josh (Milo Ventimiglia) puts on a containment suit and attempts to find the girl but this action results in them being welded inside by the unknown combatants.  The bonds of society shrivel after that, aided by radiation poisoning.

I will say it again:  this is not a feel-good movie.  This is a "worst-case scenario" movie.  Do not look for the inherent nobility of the human soul to assert itself here.  Don't expect any exposition or answers to why any of this is happening.  Mickey has all sorts of theories about terrorist attacks but there is absolutely no indication of some greater cause to blame.  The evil here is not external.  It is in the hearts of everyone trapped in that bunker. 

The energy of the film is very tight, very claustrophobic.  There are parts that make your skin crawl but I found I had difficulties connecting to the characters emotionally.  For that, it was only so-so for me.  I think I was annoyed at the extent the majority of the characters allowed themselves to be bullied by a fringe minority.  Did nobody in this movie watch Old Yeller?  Mad dogs have to be put down.