rating:
(out of
4 stars)United Kingdom, Germany; 2006
Directed by Christopher Smith; produced by Jason Newmark; screenplay by James Moran, Christoper Smith
Starring Danny Deyer, Laura Harris, Toby Stephens, Claudie Blakley, Andy Nyman, Tim McInnerny
'Severance' never reaches the brilliance of the great horror-comedies like 'The Evil Dead' and its sequels, Peter Jackson's 'Braindead', or the more recent 'Shaun of the Dead', but from time to time it gets close. This British horror-comedy, knows how to create laughs in the first half and how to be pretty scary in the second. The main flaw is not that the story itself is cliché, but that it is not used in its advantage, like we saw 'Shaun of the Dead'.
With the purpose of team building some co-workers from a weapons multi-national called Palisade Defense are staying in a lodge in Western-Europe. Of course this lodge is in the middle of the woods and trouble starts when the bus driver does not want to take a needed detour, leaving the eight (two women, six men) on their own to find the lodge. One of them is under the influence of quite some drugs. Once in the lodge, a very disappointing one, the story really starts when one of the women sees a man before her window, even though she is on the second floor. The scene itself gives us an impression of director Christopher Smith's ability to play his audience.
Most of the time the comedy is a result of this. Showing unexpected things, especially when they are completely out of place, may seem an easy trick but it occasionally it works, so why complain? Especially the unfitting music, or something as simple as a burp are able to break the tension on the most exiting moments with a laugh. The characters all have their own quirky little things and logically the less interesting characters are killed off first, leaving us with the right people for the finale.
The finale, which brings more suspense than one might expect, gives us the biggest laugh before it falls flat. By then it does not really matter anymore. 'Severance' is entertainment on multiple levels. Although it could have been smarter I liked it on the level it wants to play. Most of the time the suspense is there and the jokes work. There really is no reason to complain too much.