Editorials
[Closer to Death] ‘The Divide’ Nukes New York City
Almost nothing is more fatal than the nuclear bomb. Just two of them killed an estimated 225,000 people between Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, and we live our lives with the threat of thousands of them being unleashed over our heads at any given moment.
In The Divide – now available on DVD and Blu-ray – Michael Biehn and others are subject to the fury of a massive nuclear bomb attack on the outskirts of New York City. As brutal an example of degenerating humanity as the film is, The Divide still circumvents the mind shattering reality that gets implied for Manhattan Island. The walls of fire, the collapsing skyscrapers. The atomic force blasts that would have rocked the flesh right off the population’s bones.
Outside that New York City basement shelter, its easy to say that ten million would have perished. Those not crushed like gnats by the falling debris of a thousand steel and brick buildings would have been baked alive in the fire, or sickened to fatality from radiation poisoning. In this Closer to Death, we take a look at when man becomes victim to one the deadliest forces in human history: The Atomic Bomb.
THE BLAST
In The Divide, several atomic bombs fall. Back in 1945, the US dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan, one each in the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It ended the second World War like a shotgun blast at a house party.
The use of those bombs still ignites debate today. Before the nukes fell, Japan and the United States had lost 2 million soldiers. An American invasion of Japan was being planned that would have doubled, or even tripled those casualty numbers. The shock and awe of nuclear weaponry ended a war that would have claimed millions of more casualties, for the price of 225,000 Japanese civilians. President Truman offered the chance to surrender before the bombs dropped. Its hard to admit but perhaps these blows did save lives down the line, and deter nations from such scales of war for decades to follow.
The harsh incendiary death only implied in The Divide had unfortunately been experienced in reality in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. A fire that burns hotter than the surface of the sun was opened up, searing anything and anyone near ground zero. It melted steel, and turned sand to glass.
After the blazing infrared and incendiary death, further damage is caused in the form of blast force and winds.
Most of the material damage caused by a nuclear air burst is caused by a combination of the high static overpressures and the blast winds. The long compression of the blast wave weakens structures, which are then torn apart by the blast winds. The compression, vacuum and drag phases together may last several seconds or longer, and exert forces many times greater than the strongest hurricane.
Acting on the human body, the shock waves cause pressure waves through the tissues. These waves mostly damage junctions between tissues of different densities (bone and muscle) or the interface between tissue and air. Lungs and the abdominal cavity, which contain air, are particularly injured. The damage causes severe hemorrhaging or air embolisms, either of which can be rapidly fatal. – Wikipedia
One jaw-dropping documentary on the nuclear explosions of WWII is called Hiroshima, and it can be found on Netflix instant. Some of the stories it told from first hand witnesses were harrowing. Scores of people, burnt black with flesh hanging from their bones, staggered (some for miles) away from the blast only to die once reaching other survivors.
Countless skeletons, seared of their flesh, were found in the debris and ashes of Hiroshima, up to a mile away from the blast. And worst of them all, the tale of a mother who could not free her 5 year old child from the collapsed debris – who had to listen to her child burn alive, unable to free her from the wreckage.
There are thousands of stories that never get told in the wake of such disaster. Even still, The Reaper would not be finished with survivors. In The Divide, Michael Biehn was deadly adamant about not going outside the taped door and letting the nuclear ash in.
He had good reason.
RADIATION POISONING – LINGERING DEATH
In the weeks after the nuclear bombs were dropped in Japan, large numbers of people died from radiation burns and sickness. “Lucky” survivors clinging to life suffered from chronic weakness, bloody diarrhea, vomiting, open sores, and dehydration. Low white blood cell count and almost complete absence of the platelets necessary to prevent bleeding. Radiation and its after-effects claimed the most lives – victims flesh swiss-cheesing with ulcers, hair and teeth falling from their roots, anemia – for even years after – bone marrow syndromes and babies being still born.
RECOMMENDED FILMS:
THE DAY AFTER: When I was in high school, this film came out and played on TV. Its basically an example of what would have happened had the Cuban Missle Crisis not been averted. Scares the hell out of me to this day – because it can happen, and probably will one day.
DAMNATION ALLEY: A bit cheesy and throwback on the FX, its still a cool 70’s style, no holds barred look at nuclear war and its post/apocalyptic world.
TERMINATOR II: Although not really a horror film, and more a post-apocalyptic tale than an straight-up nuclear war film, it served up one of the most frightening sequences of my lifetime when we saw what it would look like to be nuked out of LA
Other films circa the topic (nuclear waste horror) that should not be missed: C.H.U.D., CLASS OF NUKE EM HIGH, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, and worthy mention WARGAMES – it isnt exactly horror, but the threat of a computer launching the world’s nuclear arsenal and starting World War III isnt far from it.
Documentaries:
HIROSHIMA (1945) – Nuclear Bombing of Japan Ends WWII
CUBAN MISSLE CRISIS (1962) – USA and USSR Nearly Unleash Their Nuclear Arsenals
Fact: The largest atomic bomb ever detonated by the United States is around 15 megatons. The largest nuke ever exploded was 57 megatons – nicknamed Tsar Bomba – and set off by Russia. The explosion was so immense that people got third degree burns 65 miles away.
Remember in Escape From New York when Snake Plisskin went “walkin around down there” after Cabbie told him not to – under the theater where they were singing New York, New York. A woman was being raped and beaten by a couple of degenerates? The Divide plays out like a long look into that five-second sequence. The devolution of humanity once all hell breaks loose, and the horror of being trapped in a closed area with them.
While its implied that the lucky ones burn up in the blast, and that the real Hell would be having to survive amidst such vermin, the real draw to The Divide is equal to that which is the actual horror that the budget couldn’t focus on – Manhattan’s blast damage outside that shelter door. Its a horror you can’t help but try to imagine and dwell on fictionally, because of the level of carnage and Hades-on-Earth-like factors. As you watch the news tonight and go about your lives from here, always remember that which we so easily forget – that the reality of this gun’s barrel is actually pointed at our heads at every given moment.
~ John Marrone – Closer to Death
We’re now officially in the back half of 2026 now that July is here, but what a year it’s been for horror so far. The sequels and reboots are still holding strong at the box office with films like Scream 7 and Scary Movie, but it’s also been a year where new voices are shattering records in unexpected ways.
Markiplier eschewed conventional production and distribution channels with his feature adaptation of Iron Lung, for example. We’re also still in the midst of Backrooms and Obsession-mania, with the former back in theaters with bonus footage and the latter extending its box office reign. Liminal horror has exploded, and low-budget indie horror is seeing just as much, and sometimes even more, success as big studio-backed fare.
All of which to say that 2026 has been a hell of a year so far for the genre, and it’s only getting warmed up. Still on the way are Evil Dead Burn, Insidious: Out of the Further, Resident Evil, Clayface, Whalefall, and Werwulf, just to name a few.
Also catch up with the Best Horror Books and Best Horror Games of the year so far.
Here are the ten best horror movies of the year (so far).
10) Chime
Horror master Kiyoshi Kurosawa is back with one of his most haunting yet, though one that’d likely be higher on this list if it were more accessible. The 45-minute feature was initially produced and distributed as an NFT before receiving a theatrical run earlier this year, with no plans to distribute digitally or on home media. It spins a somewhat cryptic tale, introducing a culinary teacher, Takuji Matsuoka (Mutsuo Yoshioka, Never After Dark), whose classroom becomes disrupted by a strange sound that leads to violence. It’s a quiet but haunting unraveling, one that leaves no aspect of Matsuoka’s life untouched, in true Kiyoshi Kurosawa style. That it defies any easy explanation also ensures Chime embeds itself under your skin.
9) Send Help
Sam Raimi’s splatstick return to form is a delightfully deranged two-hander that doubles as infectious catharsis for anyone who’s ever had a bad boss. Rachel McAdams (Doctor Strange) and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) face off when their characters are shipwrecked on an island, prompting a bid for survival in more ways than one. While O’Brien often matches her, It’s McAdams who shines as she deftly handles everything that Raimi, working from a script by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason), throws at her. Send Help is full of vibrant personality, packed with all of Raimi’s signatures, making for one of the most entertaining films of the year.
8) Mārama
New Zealand filmmaker Taratoa Stappard’s gothic tale begins in familiar fashion, with Mary Stevens (Ariāna Osborne) arriving in Yorkshire upon invitation to learn more about her parents, only to find the remote manor haunted. Just when Stappard’s period horror story feels doomed to succumb to familiar gothic trappings and jump scares, though, its true horror emerges. The more Mary uncovers about her heritage and her Māori culture, the clearer it becomes that this grim home is built on violence and exploitation. Stappard’s vision comes into its own when it leaves behind its gothic influences and embraces its Māori identity; few scenes are as powerful as when Osborne’s Mary performs a haka in response to her vile oppressors, heralding in a righteous bloodbath.
7) Touch Me
Writer/Director Addison Heimann draws from retro Japanese horror, exploitation cinema, and perhaps even hentai for his campy, psychosexual sophomore feature. A toxic friendship plagued by trauma, codependency, and addiction gets tested to the extreme when Brian (Lou Taylor Pucci), a hip-hop-loving, tracksuit-sporting alien, gets between them. Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris have an easy rapport and play off each other well as directionless, depressed Millennial besties prone to ignoring their problems until they become insurmountable. But it’s Pucci’s inspired, childlike take on the chicken nugget-loving extraterrestrial with tentacled secrets of his own that steals the show. Heimann has a lot on his mind with his sophomore feature and neatly condenses it all into a quirky, eccentric psychosexual camp odyssey that leans heavily into humor.
6) Backrooms
Director Kane Parsons translates the vast liminal labyrinth of his web series to the big screen in his feature debut, one that instills existential dread with its atmospheric horror and narrative. The ‘ 90s-set horror movie introduces a protagonist with a serious chip on his shoulder over life’s many disappointments, who then discovers his furniture store harbors a hidden door that leads to an endless labyrinth. It’s not just the incredible production design that instills a disorienting sense of doom and terror, but the lead characters’ palpable and profound sense of loneliness and isolation. Parsons exudes impressive confidence and control as he methodically entrusts his quiet worldbuilding and talented leads to carry the dramatic weight. While Backrooms does deflate by the film’s cryptic, cliffhanger-y end, it’s arguably the most effective and scariest yet at capturing the uncanny valley of generative AI.
5) Leviticus
Writer/Director Adrian Chiarella uses an It Follows-like supernatural entity that relentlessly stalks its prey as a launchpad to immerse audiences in the horror of constantly living in fear for simply existing. A conversion therapy ritual among a deeply conservative community plunges a pair of erstwhile lovers into a nightmarish bid for survival when it summons a force that takes the shape of those whom the afflicted desires most. Chiarella refines the horror mechanics and metaphor with much sharper precision, ensuring that the scares and emotional gravity of the young couple’s terrifying predicament reach their intended impact. It’s the central layered performances by Joe Bird (Talk to Me) and Stacy Clausen (Thrash) that clinch emotional investment in their heartbreaking plight, ensuring that the social horror cuts deep.
4) Redux Redux
The McManus Brothers, writer/director duo Matthew and Kevin McManus (The Block Island Sound), dials up the intensity of a classic revenge story by setting it within a multiverse, where Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) seeks to snuff out every single iteration of her daughter’s murderer, Neville (Jeremy Holm). The more she stalks and slays every world’s Neville, the more she risks losing her humanity entirely. Through a narrative foil in Mia (Stella Marcus), Redux Redux smartly bypasses repetition as it explores the moral complexities and vulnerabilities of Irene’s extremely violent quest. Holm becomes utterly terrifying in the climax, ensuring that no matter whether Irene loses herself to vengeance for good or not, it’s justified if it means ridding the world of this sick maniac.
3) 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
Director Nia DaCosta takes the reins in the second entry in writer Alex Garland and original director Danny Boyle’s trilogy, picking up from the previous conclusion that saw Spike (Alfie Williams) fleeing from the infected straight into the welcoming arms of Sir Jimmy Crystal (Sinners’ Jack O’Connell). From here, DaCosta presents a stark contrast between humanity’s best and worst. The former sees the tender studies of Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) make poignant strides toward humankind’s future, while the latter unleashes more pain and bloodshed courtesy of the Jimmies. The dual paths of light and dark collide in one epic conclusion, an inspired confrontation between good and evil on a stunning set piece of heavy metal insanity. Yet it’s DaCosta’s handling of both extremes that impresses most, teeing up one epic conclusion to this trilogy.
2) Obsession
Sketch comedian turned horror filmmaker Curry Barker (Milk & Serial) wrings blood-curdling terror from a classic Monkey’s Paw wish fulfillment scenario in a way that no one could have ever anticipated. To say that it’s taken the box office by storm would be a massive understatement; Obsession is the top horror movie of the year in terms of gross. It’s not hard to see why, either. While Monkey’s Paw scenarios often yield predictable outcomes, and this outcome is practically telegraphed from the start, Barker manages to surprise with the journey itself. And it’s one insane journey paved with blood-soaked violence and no shortage of nightmare fuel. What truly sets it apart, though, is leads Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette as the central pair undone by one vicious wish. Expect to see a lot more from breakout Navarette.
1) Hokum
A surly, traumatized writer must break free from his self-imposed shackles of guilt when confronted by a wicked witch haunting a quaint Irish inn in the latest by writer/director Damian McCarthy (Oddity). Adam Scott’s Ohm makes for an atypical but rewarding protagonist, and his complicated emotional journey gives way to a deeply moving story of a man so thoroughly broken by personal trauma that he constantly dwells in darkness. In true McCarthy style, expect the creepy as hell witch to dole out some supernatural retribution for crimes committed, but never in the way you’d expect. The filmmaker has a way of making whimsy pure nightmare fuel; Hokum distorts a kids’ show into eerie, uncanny valley-induced terror in its torment of Ohm. Channeling Stephen King, this creeper plays like a traditional campfire tale in mood and style, infusing genuine scares with a sense of magic and heart.
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