'The Office' meets Deliverance" is the pitch - a sure sign that Severance is not your average fright film, but an off-the-wall mash-up of humour and horror. Midnight Madness alumnus Christopher Smith, director of 2004's Creep, bounces back with an even bloodier chunk of celluloid, winking at the audience with his tongue poking through his cheek.
After slugging away in the trenches of the trade, the sales division of international arms company Palisade Defence is "rewarded" with a corporate retreat at a chalet in forests of Hungary. Morale sinks when the accommodation turns out to be far beneath the five-star luxury they were promised, but enthusiastic team leader Richard (Tim McInnerny) and brown-nosing yes-man Gordon (Andy Nyman) forge ahead with office-bonding exercises for their motley crew.
As night falls, spooky stories about the origin of the cobwebbed resort come out, ranging from tales of an asylum taken over by inmates to a gruesome massacre by a group of shell-shocked mercenaries. IT specialist Steve (a hysterical performance by Danny Dyer) scoffs at the stories, but that might be due to the mix of magic mushrooms and ganja that causes him to think the trees in the forest are insulting him. The next day, during a game of paintball, the team is horrified to discover the agenda has changed: they have become the prey of unseen assailants lurking in the booby-trapped woods. Their corporate motto and mantra quickly becomes "Kill or Be Killed."
Collaborating on the sharp script, Smith and James Moran transcend convention, going beyond formulaic hack-and-slash by presenting truly sympathetic characters - a rarity in this genre. This compassion bears out in the snappy performances of a fine ensemble, including Dyer and Canadian actor Laura Harris as Maggie, the ambivalent office drone turned two-fisted femme fighter.
A team-building exercise goes horribly wrong in this horror comedy, where HOSTEL meets OFFICE SPACE. A group of Brits (and a single, sexy American blonde played by Laura Harris of DEAD LIKE ME) travels through the forests of Hungary to a remote lodge in order to mix business with pleasure. Led by their manager, Richard (Tim McInnerny, BLACKADDER), the co-workers soon realize that their trip is less about trust falls and rope courses than it is about death and destruction. Someone has targeted the team, and begins to take down the cubemates one by one.
SEVERANCE is savvy and sly, but it never lets the comedy override the onscreen horror. Humor may temper the disturbing visuals, but this British comedy isn’t SHAUN OF THE DEAD. It’s far less flashy and a good deal darker, but it all works to great effect. This film is more in the spirit of DOG SOLDIERS, a movie with bleak gallows humor amid its blood and gore. In addition to its smart satire of office culture, SEVERANCE features stomach-churning scenes that rival the violence in films from the SAW trilogy. This film doesn’t rely on A-list stars, with McInnerny vying with Harris and Toby Stephens (DIE ANOTHER DAY) for the position of most recognizable actor. But regardless of its lack of marquee talent, SEVERANCE ably mixes guts and giggles to create an entertaining and gruesome film.
(29 votes)
3.
An arms dealer rewards his staff by taking them on a European vacation in the comedy SEVERANCE. Unfortunately when they arrive the team finds themselves under attack from a group of rogue soldiers, leading to a desperate struggle to stay alive.
(22 votes)
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