On Film: Severance

Directed By: Christopher Smith

Starring: Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley, Babou Ceesay, Tim McInnerny

My first thought about the movie Severance is that I couldn’t decide if they were trying to make a straight horror film or a horror/comedy. Christopher Smith failed to clearly make one or the other. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The Movie

The movie starts with a group of people on their way to go camping in the spooky old woods. In America, this gimmick has been used so often that we can’t even parody it anymore. However, British writer/director Christopher Smith and writer James Moran found a fresh approach for this tired cliché. These aren’t friends. These are co-workers. This troupe of eventual victims work for Palisade Defense (or Defense for you Yanks), an arms manufacturer who provides the world’s greatest nations with quality guns, mines, flamethrowers and various other toys. Instead of a weekend of R&R at Lake Blood, they’re expecting a series of team-building activities in the mountains of Eastern Europe. Here the main goal isn’t to get laid or stoned, except for Steve (played wonderfully by Danny Dyer who is also the voice of Kent Paul on two of the Grand Theft Auto games), but to either impress or patronize their bumbling and ineffective boss Richard (played by Tim McInnerny who displayed similar subtle comic brilliance in several seasons of Black Adder).

Is this straight horror film? Well, it is and it isn’t.

There are several clever gags through the first half worth a chuckle, such as Steve’s hallucinations after eating Magic Mushrooms, Richard’s argument with a bus driver that didn’t speak English or the Nosferatu-ish film that is shown while the legend of their company’s involvement in atrocities during World War I is told by Harris (played by Toby Stephens, steps on of Rocky Horror’s Patricia Quinn). Even the hysterically inappropriate music playing during the first killing before the credits gives the impression this will be a horror-drenched  laughfest similar to, but not quite as hilarious as, Shaun of the Dead or the underappreciated Idle Hands.

Is this a horror/comedy? Well, it is and it isn’t.

As the terrors increase, the number of jokes decreases until we have a completely different film as people are too busy running for their lives to be clever. While paramilitary murderers come out of the woods to wipe them out, our escapees from The Office fight back as best they can. No one jumps out to become The Hero in this flick, but everyone gets a chance to show what they’re made of and sometimes that’s enough. Ironically, what starts as a disastrous experiment in Corporate Team-Building has turned into an opportunity for these characters to work towards one common goal: staying alive.

The strength in this film is in the characters, even though they’re clearly being led to the slaughter like so many other horror films before. The group dynamic is far more realistic than any gaggle of teenager victims I ever saw in any 80Æs slasher flick. These are people, not stereotypes, and although we may not see them long enough to really care about them, you at least feel you could know them. Additional excellent performances were given by Claude Blakley as Jill (who is more well known for her role in Gosford Park), Andy Nyman as the anxious-to-please Gordon and Laura Harris as machine gun-toting Maggie (and who is no stranger to genre roles, having appeared in Stargate Atlantis, Dead Like Me, The Outer Limits and The Dead Zone). Some sort of special award should go to Babou Ceesay as Billy for his final scene in the film.

Is this film worth seeing? Well, it is and . . . it is.

Don’t bother with this movie if all you want are jokes. Don’t waste your money if you’re only looking for stupid people waiting to be hacked. If you want a well-balanced menu of blood, action and fun, however, this film may be for you.

To learn more about this fine corporation, go to

http://palisadedefence.com/.

7.5/10

-Fred Grimm