F

A claustrophobic post-apocalyptic thriller that retells the “Lord of the Flies” scenario in the basement of a bombed-out building, “The Divide” is one of the drearier, more unpleasant pictures to appear in quite some time.

It begins with a group of people who scramble into the basement as NYC is about to be hit with a nuclear device. The most notable among them is the super (Michael Biehn), an eccentric survivalist type, an anxious mother (Rosanna Arquette) with a young daughter in tow, a macho young stud (Milo Ventimiglia) and a girl (Lauren German) with a milquetoast boyfriend (Ivan Gonzalez). But there’s also a logically-minded African-American (Courtney B. Vance), a sultrier femme (Abbey Thickson), and a couple of other young guys (Michael Eklund and Ashton Holmes).

Manners deteriorate as the group’s situation grows more desperate. The basement is assaulted by radiation-suited attackers and the food supply evaporates. One of the cellar-dwellers is snatched by the attackers, and others are severely injured. But the plot primarily focuses on the deterioration in conduct as the days and weeks drag on. By the end, one of the survivors becomes a brutal tin-plate dictator; another winds up a tortured prisoner; and the others are trapped between them, either giving in to their basest instincts or retaining some principles, however tenuously.

This trajectory is a fairly predictable one, but it’s played out in a peculiarly nasty fashion, the grimness of it all accentuated by the gloomy setting and the crummy production values. The ending is distinctly downbeat, a thoroughly pessimistic portrait of human nature and mankind’s future. Presumably the last shot is intended as an ironic counterpart to the iconic spaceman of Kubrick’s “2001”—no hope for greater enlightenment here, merely confirmation of the worst.

But that sort of observation makes “The Divide” sound more intelligent and potent than it actually is. Thematically this is an obvious movie, and a visually ugly one. As a result you’ll find as trapped watching it as the characters are in the story. And only a fool walks into jail and locks the door behind him.

Speaking of fools, most of the cast outdo one another in scenery-chewing. Though German, Holmes and Vance are comparatively restrained, Biehn plays super Mickey as a wild-eyed hayseed, and Ventimiglia’s villainous preening toward the close is equally over-the-top. Ultimate recognition in that respect, however, must go to Arquette, who embarrasses herself by playing a sex toy, and Eklund, who prances about in drag.

“The Divide” won’t divide audiences. Everybody should hate it.