Reviewed by Neil Davey
Stars Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley, Andy Nyman, Babou Ceesay, Tim McInnerny, Laura Harris, Danny Dyer, David Gilliam,
Juli Drajkó, Judit Viktor
Written by James Moran & Christopher Smith
Certification UK 15 | US R
Runtime 96 minutes
Directed by Christopher Smith
Four Weddings and a Funeral was meant to revive the fortunes of the British film industry. Instead, it just launched an apparently endless series of second rate rom-coms. Who would have thought though that the British film industry - such as it is - would then be revived by a zombie movie?
Shaun of the Dead took a long-established genre, injected some very British comedy - lovely cup of tea, anyone? - and gave both horror movies and the UK’s filmmakers a kick up the jacksie. Now along comes Severance to prove that Shaun of the Dead wasn’t just a blip on the horror radar. The title is a pun on the idea of redundancy and, of course, what slashers do in slasher movies regarding necks and heads. And there’s a lot more of the latter, frankly.
A group of employees from arms manufacturer Palisade Defence, have been sent across Europe for a mad few weeks of conferences and meetings. Now that the work is done, it’s time for R&R, and the group are sent to a luxury lodge somewhere in the mountains of Eastern Europe. However, the “luxury” lodge turns out to be anything but. In fact, it’s the sort of place where Eastern European governments locked up their psychopathic soldiers; you know, the ones who enjoyed killing that little bit too much. Which might explain why someone in the forest seems determined to pick off the Palisades staff one by one. It’s a standard horror set-up - the psycho in the woods - but it’s given a fresh and very funny spin via Smith’s story and direction. The characters might be out of office comedy central - prissy boss (McInnerny), outspoken hotshot (Stephens), yes man (Nyman), pretty blonde (Harris) etc - but Smith plays around with the conventions to good effect. It also helps that he’s got Steve (Dyer) as the film’s substance-abusing, pervy anti-hero.
There is, of course, a danger that Severance will be rapidly labeled as a "cult" thing and disappear quickly from the nation’s screens. Please don’t let that happen because a) it’s too good for such a fate and b) how satisfying would it be to have a British hit that doesn’t owe its box office revenues to Hugh Grant stuttering with repressed Englishness?