Macabre...ish Horror Review: Severance

 

 

Severance, 2006/ 96 min.

 

This is a British horror comedy about coworkers from an international weapons manufacturer going, by bus, on a team building vacation that goes awry before they can even get to the location. Made more interesting by a coworker consuming a massive amount of shrooms.

 

The employees are left stranded, in the middle of nowhere by the bus driver and they decide to walk the rest of the way to their destination. With no signal, no transportation, they walk and hope to find their lodge.

 

They find a house but it seems...wrong. More like a seasonal hunting cabin than a vacation spot. This outing only continues to get worse when, among other things, they attempt to eat something they find in the kitchen and discover human teeth in the found pie.

 

Totally freaked out, they decide to leave but when their bus is found abandoned with blood splatter inside and the driver’s bloody corpse next to a nearby stream. They finally realize they are in danger.

 

The group’s being hunted, for real, and this is no team building exercise.

This movie is filled with dark comedy, hijinks and brutality as our coworkers are picked off one by one. Taken out by bear traps and land mines.

 

Some of the kills as well as the people are crazy to the point ridiculousness but it’s like a joke being played straight. Except, people are actually dying. One of the character’s wondered earlier if you’re aware after decapitation and he gets to find out for himself.

 

They realize way too late that they made a huge mistake but it’s too late to do anything other than survive.

 

Expect plenty of torture, blood, amputations, decapitations and gore also expect it all to be graphic. Every kind of weapon is used to kill is here...flame throwers, booby traps, guns, land mines, bear trap land mines etc. All the while the coworkers desperately fight for survival and help.

 

I enjoyed the story and the characters, (stars Danny Dyer, Laura Harris and Toby Stephens) the kills and gore. The effects were great and brutal. The brutality and dark comedy was mixed very well. There were moments where I almost felt bad for laughing. Fun flick!

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