Severance (2006)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Director:

Christopher Smith

Writers:

James Moran (screenplay) and
Christopher Smith (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

25 August 2006 (Ireland)

Genre:

Comedy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

Another bloody office outing.

Plot:

A team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for the sales division...

Plot Keywords:

Team Building | Eastern Europe | Pie | Bitten In The Neck | Lodge

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Toby Stephens	...	Harris
Claudie Blakley	...	Jill
Andy Nyman	...	Gordon
Babou Ceesay	...	Billy
Tim McInnerny	...	Richard
Laura Harris	...	Maggie
Danny Dyer	...	Steve
David Gilliam	...	George
Juli Drajkó	...	Olga
Judit Viktor	...	Nadia
Sándor Boros	...	Coach Driver
Levente Törköly	...	Lodge Killer
János Oláh	...	Flamethrower Killer
Attila Ferencz	...	Head-squish Killer
Bela Kasi	...	Headbutt Killer

Also Known As:

P45 (UK) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong bloody violence, language, drug content and some sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

96 min | Canada:90 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

UK | Germany

Language:

English | Hungarian | Russian

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:18 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Singapore:NC-16 | Germany:18 | France:-12 | Malaysia:(Banned) | USA:R | Finland:K-18 | Argentina:18 | Norway:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Italy:VM18 | South Korea:18 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | New Zealand:R16 | Netherlands:16 | Italy:VM14 (DVD)

Filming Locations:

Hungary

Company:

Dan Films

Trivia:

A second reference to Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) is the ending song, "We'll Meet Again," played at the end of both films. The version played in "Severance" is a hard rock version, however.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Russian troops in the flashback are wearing currently issued German Flecktarn camouflage.

Quotes:

Gordon: [Steve is eating magic mushrooms, the coach sharply stops] Anyone need first aid?
Steve: I might do in about 20 minutes...

Movie Connections:

References Psycho (1960)

Soundtrack:

We'll Meet Again

Entertaining mix of comedy and gore

I went into this film expecting a zombie movie for some reason, but actually Severance is more like a British version of Eli Roth's successful 'Hostel', albeit with a bit more humour. There have been a few good British horror movies over the past few years, including most notably the likes of Dog Soldiers, Shaun of the Dead, Wilderness and The Descent. I wouldn't say this one really lives up to the best of them; but Severance is good comedic and bloodthirsty fun, and there's certainly enough about it to ensure that the film stands tall as another feather in the cap of modern British horror. The film starts off in a truly nightmarish fashion; we are introduced to a bunch of office workers going on a 'team building' trip in the middle of nowhere. The prospect of this alone is enough to make me not want to sleep tonight, but it gets (arguably) worse for these guys it when it turns out that they're not the only ones in the middle of nowhere - a bunch of bloodthirsty maniacs turn out to be doing a bit of team building too!

The film is pretty slow to start, with the first half of the film merely seeing us being introduced to the cast of snivelling office workers. However, once the violence starts, the film really hots up as we get treated to a whole load of grisly sequences that see things such as decapitations and limbs being lopped off. The location is put to good use as our cast of characters finds themselves in the middle of an Eastern European country and director Christopher Smith does an excellent job of ensuring the tone of the film is always hopeless. The cast isn't anything to write home about, although Danny Dyer, who you might remember from the very decent British gangster flick The Business, does a good job of holding the film together. The humour doesn't blend as well with the horror as the director obviously thought it would, and this is where the film falls down for me. Severance would have been a better movie if the director could have made his mind up about exactly where he wanted to take it. As it happens, Severance is an entertaining mix of gore and laughs; but it's not at the cutting edge of modern horror.