Having been able to attend both the SXSW Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival this year, there have been many films to qualify as true-blue surprises in the eyes of this writer. Be it the brilliance of Aki Kaurismaki’s Le Havre or the terror-induced by Insidious, it has been a relatively eventful year. However, one of the biggest surprises came from one of the film world’s most maligned genre experts.

I got the chance to see Xavier Gens’ (Hitman) latest film, The Divide at SXSW this year, and it quickly became one of my favorite genre pieces this year. And now, the world, thanks to Anchor Bay, will not only get to see this shockingly great, if intensely brooding, bit of apocalyptic filmmaking, but see in its original state.